ARTSY WEDNESDAY: Metallic nails

This barely qualifies as metallic, but I really wanted to do this gradient and I figured...silver counts as metal, right? ;)

The base is Essie Chincilly and the glitter is Julep Paris. Sorry, my skin looks strange in this picture, I have no idea why. 

Check out the other girl's manicures:

Lab Muffin - Unnaked Nails - Nail & Polish - An Accent Nail - Valiantly Varnished - MASPOOASE - Makeup and Masala - Every Little Polish

Guest Post: Nail of the Day - Ombre and Stripes

I'm super excited today for two reasons: first, I'm halfway to my goal of 30 followers!!! Remember to enter my Stila Lip Glaze giveaway; I'll pick a winner once this blog reaches 30 followers on Bloglovin or GFC. Second, I have a GREAT guest post today from Steph of Fun Sized Beauty:

I know Anna is a huge fan of nail polish and nail art, so I thought I'd try my hand at something interesting! This nail look is a combination of a rainbow ombre and striping tape. 

Products Used: 

• Maybelline - Porcelain Party 
• Born Pretty Store -Striping Tape
• Quo - Makeup Sponges
• Julep - Renee
• Forever 21 - Baby Blue
• Cheeky Monkey - Tramp Stamp

How to get the look:

1. Use a 2 coats of your favourite white polish. Make sure to let it dry completely before moving on to the next step.
2. Place striping tape randomly criss-crossing over the nails.
3. Paint one stripe of each Blue, Pink, and Purple over the sponge and pat the sponge over the nail. Apply more polish as needed and do the same patting motion on the other nails. For more detailed instruction on the ombre sponging see here.
4. Quickly remove the striping tape with a pair of tweezers. Removing the striping tape will reveal crisp white lines underneath. 

Ta-da! Your striped ombre pastel nails are complete! 

Will you try out this nail look?

Aren't these great?! Thank you so much Steph for doing a guest post!! This is a great tutorial!!

SWATCH & REVIEW: Rimmel Mintilicious + Similar Colors

A couple of weeks ago, I visited my sister and fell in love with Julep Dianna while going through her nail polish. I HAD to have a similar minty-blue color, and so I got Rimmel 60-Second Nail Polish in Mintilicious:

This color is slightly bluer than Julep's Dianna. (I had issues getting the color in the picture to match the actual polish; this swatch is the closest match I've seen.)

I did 2 coats here. This polish did, indeed, dry very quickly, which was nice. The polish was a little bit thick, and when I applied it, brush marks would show easily. NYC's top coat evened out the color and covered any bumps, though.The other downside was that the brush is a little fatter than I would have liked, and it made it hard to paint neatly. However, this polish was just $1.69, and so I'm still really happy with the polish.

Make sure you use a base coat with this! I used my PVC peelable base coat, and Mintilicious stained my nails a little bit. :(

Have you tried out any minty-blue polishes?  I have also seen minty-blue polishes by Essie (Turquoise & Caicos), Sally Hansen (Jaded; it's a bit greener than the others), and Revlon (Eclectic). If anyone has these, I'd love to know how their formulas compare to Minitilicious and Dianna!

SWATCH & REVIEW: Julep Taylor and Julep Meryl

I have a quick post today. I just wanted to share swatches of two more Julep colors that I borrowed from Haylee. I don't think I've ever seen a Julep color that I didn't like. The formula on both of these was great, too. They both were completely opaque in 2 coats.

First is Julep Taylor:

I used this one as the base for the flower manicure I did as a guest post for Fun Size Beauty. It's such a nice, bright blue--I love using colors like this on my toes.

Next is Meryl:

Meryl is a pretty standard grey creme polish, but I really love this polish because of its great formula.

What are your favorite Julep colors? Haylee went on a spending spree and bought a bunch of Julep polishes, so I'm looking forward to playing with those when I go visit her next week!

Paint it Blue: Swatch and Review: Sally Hansen Mermaid's Tale Nail Polish

April is Autism Awareness Month and to show my support I decided to paint my nails blue.

I have helped put on my college's version of the Special Olympics the past 3 years, and so this is something that is dear to my heart. The children who come, which include autistic kids, and their friends and families go through so much, and so I always loved the day of the Special Olympics when I watched how much the children enjoyed the activities we planned for them as well as heard from parents and families who told us how much our event means to them. There's still a lot that we don't know about Autism, and awareness about Autism is the first step to learning more about this disorder.

I thought this would be a perfect time to try out Sally Hansen's Mermaid's Tale. OH MY GOODENSS. IT'S SOOO PRETTY. I fell in love with it immediately!

Mermaid's Tale is a dupe of Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe. This polish has blue and green hexagonal glitter in a blue jelly base. Because of the base, it would take probably around 3 or 4 coats by itself, and so here, I did one coat of it over one coat of Julep Donna, which is a dark teal/blue-green that is similar to Nicole by OPI's Khloe had a Little Lam-lam. Mermaid's Tale was really easy to use: there's a LOT of glitter in it, and the brush made it easy to get a lot of glitter onto your nail. It only took me one swipe to get the amount of glitter and color I wanted; I didn't have to try and place the glitter like you have to for some polishes.

Because it has a jelly base, it did take a while to dry, so try using it before you watch a movie or do something where you won't be moving. I used it before my boyfriend and I went out since I knew we'd be stuck in traffic for an hour, which was plenty of time for it to dry. :)

I really hope you guys like this color, because I am IN LOVE with it!!! I haven't been this excited about a polish in a LONG time!!! I definitely recommend getting it!

Hope you guys are having a great week!

xoxo,

Swatch & Review: Rose Gold Nails: Color Club Put A Pin In It

I wanted to do a quick review on a polish Haylee Ann got a while back: Color Club Put a Pin in It:

The color is very foil-y, and so it was tough to get a good picture of it!! I really like the color. It was a nice neutral color. Put a Pin in It dried pretty quickly. I did have some issues with the formula: the color was not opaque at all, and so I used 3 coats. I also had issues with my brush strokes showing up. Last, you can probably see the bubbling on my pinky. :(.

Also, I'm so excited we passed the 50 follower mark!! The 50 Follower Beauty Giveaway ends in 11 days, so make sure to enter!! The prize includes a Julep nail polish, Julep Nail Revitalizing Growth Serum, and Smashbox's Try It Kit. Don't miss out :)

xoxo,

Anna

Rainbow Glitter Sandwich Nails + A Reminder About Our Stila Giveaway!

Hello dear readers!!

I got a multi-colored glitter, Milani Gems, as a gift last year and haven't used it much because there are only a few colors that I really like it over. However, a few weekends ago, I thought I would try using it in a sandwich. I think it looks pretty cool; it ended up looking like confetti. 

I did one coat of Julep Kelly, one coat of Milani Gems, and another coat of Kelly. Milani Gems is similar to OPI Rainbow Connection and Nicole by OPI Rainbow in the S-Kylie.

Just a reminder that our Post Holiday/New Year's Giveaway ends in 10 days!!! We're giving away Stila's "Under the Mistletoe" palette and 3 of their holiday lip glazes (Left to right): Jingle, Joy, and Holly. The palette is an $85 value and Stila lip glazes sell for $22 each, so the entire package is valued at over $120! Stila lip glazes are WONDERFUL and so you don't want to miss this!!