connect the... diagonal neons?

Afternoon everyone!
Here's the mani I mentioned in yesterday's post about Lynnderella's Connect The Dots - a fun neon mani with CtD on top!

Tada!
I think CtD is best over a neon color... And even better over two of them!

This mani started out with two coats of Julep - Hayden, one of the few Julep colors I love.
I then painted half my nail with Color Club - Poptastic, which I had to do 2 coats of to make it even.
I added 2 coats of Lynnderella - Connect The Dots on top.
And this fun neon mani was born!

I got a ton of compliments on this mani just because it is so eye catching!
Several people were really confused as to how I "did" the black and white - they don't believe it's just glitter.

What do you guys think of neons + black and white glitter? I basically can't get enough.

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the sun isn't shining but my gradient is!

Here in Newfoundland, we don't get a whole bunch of sunny days. Maybe in July and August... A week or two... But it's not too hot usually.
I've gotta keep my nails sunny, even if the sky isn't!

Woohoo! Summery gradient!
Me and some friends all decided to do gradients on this lovely Friday, and here's what I came up with.

My color combo was inspired by one of my "nail crushes" - Ivana Thinks Pink. There's nothing she does that I don't like! Seriously. Ivana, quit being so awesome!
She did this mani using China Glaze Peachy Keen and Orly Fancy Fuchsia. Hot damn, I need Fancy Fuchsia. Why don't I have it?! Jeez. I NEED IT! Her nails were glowing. Amazing.

I used the same peach - China Glaze Peachy Keen.
I tried to substitute Zoya Lo for the pink but it just doesn't look quite so hot.
It's still pretty though!
But one day I will redo the mani... Whenever I find myself Fancy Freakin' Fuchsia.

To do this gradient, I tried the new gradient tutorial that is sweeping the blog world, from The Nailasaurus.
But, I couldn't get that to work... At all. It just was not showing up with these colors.
So I went in and did it the way I'm used to, which you can see in my older tutorial here.
But I still wanted the flawless blended look you can get from the newer way, so I ended up doing that on TOP of the gradient that I did my way. And that turned out magical! It blended the colors seamlessly.

After that, I stamped the floral pattern from Konad plate m65. It's almost like a Hawaiian shirt! Haha, I love it.

I'm was going to submit this in Kayla Shevonne's Nail Art Contest but then I realized you can't stamp for her contest. Damn!
If you haven't checked out her contest already, hurry! There's just less than 12 hours left to enter.

I hope you guys enjoy this mani! I'm going to be doing lots of gradients again because I just love them and it's been too long since I've done them! I think I might even do another one later today. Woohoo!

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Julep review and swatch spam!

By now, you've probably heard of the polish company Julep.
They've got this pretty cool thing called Maven where you subscribe and pay $20 a month to receive a box that has polish and other stuff in it like hand creams or cuticle oil. I really like the idea. But the execution... not so good.

There have been several long blog posts about people's issues with Julep before and my experience was no different. Their customer service leaves so much to be desired, and makes it difficult to want to ever support them.

I joined Julep Maven a few months ago during one of their sales where you can get your first box for just one cent. After that I paid for one box (because I wanted the cuticle oil in it and the colors seemed nice) and then I got a free box for referring two people. Since then the boxes have just been boring and I'll probably never pay for another one.

I don't like Julep but I sure like that photo I took of them! Hahaha.

Okay, here goes the review on the actual polish. I'm going to make some general complaints before showing the swatches.
1) The bottle is just horrible. I have no idea who thought it was a good idea to put nail polish into such a tall, skinny bottle. It has no stability and is so easy to knock over.
2) Because of the long and skinny bottle, the brush suffers. It has to be longer to reach the bottom of the awkward bottle. Because of this, it is way harder to paint your nails because the brush is further from the handle. Imagine trying to write your name with a pen, but holding it way further away than you're used to. It's just messy.
3) You know how sometimes, you're painting your nails, and suddenly a big drop of polish drips down the brush and onto your nail? That happens pretty much every time with these. Again, it's due to the bottle. More of the brush handle is dunked into polish in the long bottle. So more polish stays on the brush handle waiting to drip down and flood your cuticles. It annoyed me so much as I was swatching that if I had to put the brush down for some reason, I laid it on the table instead of putting it into the bottle so it wouldn't get coated in polish again.
4) The brush itself... Ugh. It's too thick and hard and won't conform to the nail. I've got a photo illustrating that after the first swatch.
5) The price. These retail for $14. Good lord, I hope no one actually buys these for $14 a piece. So so so so so so not worth it.

Okay. Do you even want to see the polishes after that? Haha!

Julep - Chloe
A black jelly with lots of magenta glitter. This polish has probably one of the worst formulas I've ever used. It was like glue. Black, glittery glue. Just awful. 2 thick coats.

Here's the photo showing how the brush does not conform to the nail:

See that empty spot along the sidewall? Good luck getting the brush to fan enough to get down there. Especially when you're working with glue.
So annoying. So bad.

Julep - Hayden
This polish I like. The formula is good, and the color is really different. It's like a neon peach. No complaints about this one, besides all the general bottle/brush complaints.

Julep - Oscar
Oscar is a gold glitter that was inspired by The Oscars.  This is just one coat over Hayden. You could probably get full coverage with this glitter. As far as glitter goes, this is nice, but not original.

Julep - Kim
Kim is a streaky, awful mess. This is three frosty coats, and each one dragged the other. It was a nightmare to apply. No bueno. Yuck.

Julep - Megan
This one is an alright color, not unique, but again the formula just sucks. Frosty and streaky and draggy. 3 coats.

Julep - Helena
Nice color, alright formula... But you can get the same color from Sinful Colors for $2. Sometimes $1. (The color is Dream On.)

Julep - Marisa
Nice color, decent formula, nothing special.

Julep - Leah
I love this color. Great formula, too. 2 coats. Really nice shimmer. Thank the lord I actually got two polishes I like.

Between my three boxes I also ended up with a bottle of their topcoat which is really sucky.
I also got a bottle of Nail Therapy which I haven't tried but I'm sure it's nothing to write home about.

Now I'll show you the one thing that made my $20 spent on Julep worth it:

The cuticle oil.
I just love it. Not necessarily the oil itself but the delivery method.

It's a roll on! How smart. Man, I love it. Just roll it onto your cuticles. No mess, no fuss.
The oil smells really good, it smells like fruity cereal! Seriously! It doesn't absorb as good as OPI's AvoPlex oil (which is my favorite) but it is better than some other brands I've tried.
So the oil is decent but the bottle is awesome.
When I use it up I'll be refilling it with AvoPlex! Good job on this one, Julep.

One last little complaint before I go:

Why are the labels all in different places?!

Ooooooooh, Julep.
I hope this post has been informative... heh.

I wish there was China Glaze Maven. OPI Maven. Color Club Maven. Essence Maven. Those things I'd pay for!

More about → Julep review and swatch spam!

Nicole by OPI Kardashian Kolor CVS Exclusives

Hello all! Today I have more Kardashian Kolor's to share with you guys. These are CVS exclusives. Yes I know we are all sick and tired of hearing Kardashians all over the place, but what can we do? Seems like the star news are obsessed with them. But, since this is nail polish, I'll give them a break lol

Smile for the Glam-era is a dark plum with gold shimmers. 2 coats

Back to Reality...TV is a gorgeous medium purple with flashes of pink. 2 coats

One Big Happy Fame-ily is a light purple with silver flecks. 2 coats

Our Fuchsia's Lookin' Bright is a fuchsia creme. 2 coats

Ladies in the Limelight is a bright yellow creme. 2 coats. Probably my favorite of the bunch.

Paparazzi Don't Preach is a peach creme. 2 coats

Strike a Pose is a super bright red orange creme. 2 coats.

Not many unique colors from this collection, but my favorite is Ladies in the Limelight and One Big Happy Fame-ily. Those two happens to be the most unique of the bunch. Other than decent colors, the formula for these were excellent. It wasn't streaky, especially the light colors. It all applied very smoothly and mostly needed 2 coats for opacity.

These should be available at most CVS stores. I haven't seen it around yet, but I'm sure it was sold out by the time I actually went to look. What do you guys think of this collection?

(These were sent to me for review)

More about → Nicole by OPI Kardashian Kolor CVS Exclusives

Three Polishes from Essie Navigate Her Collection

Today I have three polishes from the Essie Navigate Her Spring collection to share with you guys. Essie came out with 6 shades perfect for the Spring, but only three attracted my eyes. (Still on a budget!) Now I know in my past posts you can see that my middle nail is all crooked, and now in this post it's suddenly all straight. My nail didn't magically grow (although I wished it did). I swatched these before my nail broke but never got to post it!


Essie Navigate Her is a pale green creme. 2 coats. How unique is this green? It's not like the typical mint greens we see that's for Spring.


A Crewed Interest is a pastel peach creme. 3 coats. Very spring like color.


To Buy or Not To Buy is a pastel lavender creme. 3 coats. In the bottle you can see there's hints of aqua blue shimmer. But on the nail it's not quite visible. You have to have strong light and stare at it hard. The only reason I bought this one was because of the shimmer, so I was a bit disappointed that it didn't show well on the nail, since I have a lot of lavender polishes.

There were three other colors but I wasn't that interested in them. I really love Navigate Her, it's such a gorgeous green. The formula for these were pretty good. I only had troubles with A Crewed Interest. It seem to be thick and wouldn't go on smooth. It only look smoothed after a top coat. These are available wherever Essie polishes are sold for $8 a bottle. I got mine at Macys.

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HITS Powerpuff Girls

Today I have another HITS set of polishes to share with you guys, this time it's from their Powerpuff Girls collection. I couldn't help but LOVE the bottles for these. I used to be a huge Powerpuff Girls fan. Come on, I was like probably 13? Those huge eyes, and they save the townsville ALL the time! Bubbles used to be my favorite, until I realized Buttercup is more badass. The bottles were the reason I bought a few of these polishes in the first place. Let's have a look!

Doce de Leite is a pale peachy creme. 3 coats.


Lovely is a pastel yellow creme. 3 coats. This one gave me so much frustration because application was pretty tough. I'll discuss formula later on.


Docinho is a pastel mint green creme. 3 coats.


Powerful is a teal creme with a semi jelly finish. 2 coats.

OK, cute bottles aside. These got me quite frustrated because of the formula. It was super thick and gooey and super hard to apply, especially Lovely. It took a lot of patience for me to get it to look like that. On a positive note, these did dry pretty fast, being that they mostly needed three coats. It was a bit tough getting them to even out, but adding a top coat did smooth most of the things out. Colors are indeed not unique at all and easily dupeable. I was going to buy Element X but after trying the formula I decided against it and just save my money. However, I didn't have the same problem with Mari Moon Cool. Do I dare to try more polishes from this brand in the future? I'm not too sure, unless a color is like super awesome.

Well these are available at llarowe's for $8.00 a bottle.

What do you guys think of these?

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OPI Holland Collection Swatches & Review

Today I have OPI's Holland Collection swatches and review. I was really excited for this collection when I saw the promo. I saw a few colors that are appropriate for Spring colors and some out of the ordinary colors, but that's totally fine with me, I love a twist! Bottle pictures First!

Gouda Gouda Two Shoes is a rosey peach with subtle hints of gold shimmer in it. 2 coats.


I Don't Give A Rotterdam! is a slate blue with gold and silver shimmers. 2 coats. I don't know if my eyes were playing games with me, but I also see a few black or dark blue speckles in it as well.


I Have A Herring Problem is a darker version of I Don't Give a Rotterdam! I wouldn't say darker, it's more dustier, but it also carries the same gold and silver shimmers. 2 coats.


A Roll in the Hague is a super bright orange creme. This was done in 2 coats. It's close enough to call it a neon orange, but it's not exactly neon. It's just super bright, and you need to see it in person to like this orange.


Do You 'Ear About Van Gogh? is a sandy beige creme. 2 coats


Dutch'ya Just Love OPI? is a purple base with pink and golden orange shimmers. 2 coats. Gorgeous color.


Thanks a Windmillion is a pale sea foam green creme. 2 coats.


Vampsterdam is a frosty purple with a hint of brown to it. 2 coats. This was a very interesting color to add to the collection!


Wooden Shoe Like to Know? is a brown base with golden pink/copper shimmers. 2 coats


Kiss Me On My Tulips is a bright hot pink creme. 2 coats. Now I know it doesn't look hot pink in my picture, but it's more hot pink in person. This one was very hard to capture on camera. I always have problems with neon like polishes.


Pedal Faster Suzi! is a pale pink with silver and white shimmers. 2 coats. Ignore the little balding spot on my ring finger! I should've done 3 coats for this one.


Red Lights Ahead...Where? is a bright red-orange creme. 2 coats. Super blinding.

The formula for these were pretty good. I didn't have any problems applying any of these. Majority of them were opaque under two coats, with a few exceptions that needed three. It wasn't thick or thin, just perfect.

As for the colors and favorites, I'd have to say I love Thanks a Windmillion, Dutch'ya Just Love OPI? and Wooden Shoe Like to Know. The rest are great colors for the Spring and I would definitely wear again. I like that they included some dark shades for this collection. Vampsterdam was a surprise to the collection. Awesome collection in my opinion.

What do you guys think of this collection?

(These were sent to me for review.)

More about → OPI Holland Collection Swatches & Review