DIY Textured Polish

You know the ones. Call them sugar, dust, flake, crystal, or salt, they're all the same thing: A gritty textured polish in varying shades of awesome. Some have glitter, some have none, but all are on our lemming lists forever to remain until they fall out of style and become much more affordable. 

Right? 

Maybe not!! And, maybe just maybe, you have the tools RIGHT NOW to make your own, in ANY shade you want!!

Ayup. A failed form of Ombre brought me to the realization that I, in fact, have waited all these weeks for these textured babies to come to me, while I had the suckers right here. 

Tools I used:

Base polish colour

Satin/shimmer colour

Glitter colour

1 Makeup Sponge

1 Plastic tray for mixing

1 Dotting tool for mixing

That's it! And it doesn't even have to be that fancy. It's just what I had with me.

And the best part is? TOP COAT CAN BE APPLIED.

Warning: May cause annoying glitter pieces left around the nail and/or "tinting" if you miss anything during cleanup. 

Step One: Apply base colour

I chose SinfulColors 'Sugar Sugar' because it's almost perfect with one coat, meaning the overall mani takes less time. 

Step Two: Mix two [+] remaining colours

Here I chose a shimmer and a glitter, it may or may not be necessary to achieve the textured effect. If you try other colours and nothing happens, please let me know! My two colours for this were again SinfulColors, in 'Dancing Nails' and 'Pinky Glitter'

Step Three: Apply to makeup sponge

My sponge is a very light, airy sponge with almost no visible holes, so make sure yours is similar. Press down firmly to pick up the "new colour", then press onto the nail and pull up quickly.  Pat with sponge until it feels dry, or begins to stick to the sponge. WARNING! If you pat too much or too long, your polish WILL stick to the sponge and begin to pull up. See my middle finger towards the center, for evidence.

Step Four: [OPTIONAL] 

If you have a glitter used, you will likely see glitter flakes left behind on your plastic tray. Roll the sponge over these, then lightly and quickly roll or dab onto your nails. This will transfer those flakes, if you want them applied. Apply a top coat if you so wish, and once you clean up, VOILA! A beautiful, individual, textured polish. 

      

Above L-R: Freshly done, Middle finger with matte coat and ring finger with gloss coat, All fingers with gloss coat applied. 

Ultimately, I found little difference between the two top coats, and that the gloss coat did nothing more than bring out the base colour more! :]



Comment below and share how YOU'VE used this tip!! Or, follow me on facebook and see your pictures shared on the page!!

Welcome to another day in the life of a blog!

Due to the surprising popularity of the posts I had made in the oft-mentioned Facebook group, "Julep Swap", I've decided to post the comparison pictures of the two [known] Julep glow-in-the-dark polishes: Sofia, and Casper. 

Sofia, now or soon to be discontinued, was originally released in March of 2012 as a St. Patrick's day polish. It's light translucent green with multi-dimensional blue-green glitter. 

Casper, just released this month as a Halloween 2013 add-on, is a sheer/mildly white pigmented polish with silver/white glitter heavily throughout. Unlike Sofia, it's much more capable as a top-coat polish, and only takes 1-2 coats to really cover the nail should you choose to use it alone. Sofia, after 4 coats, is still not completely covered and looks somewhat sickly alone. 

[Note: It's recommended you use a white base colour of polish underneath Sofia to make it look "true"]

Sofia shown on the left, Casper shown on the right

I must also apologize, in the following pictures the order is backwards from how it is shown in this image. I flipped them around on accident!!

Casper is now on the left, and Sofia is now on the right.
This picture has been digitally altered to remove shadows, to bring the glow to the forefront. 

Casper is on the left, Sofia is on the right

This nail was swatched with 4 moderate coats of each polish, for fairness

No top coat, and no base coat, were used; This is bare polish on bare nail

And once more:
Casper is on the left, Sofia is on the right

Nail was held 1 inch from a daylight compact fluorescent lightbulb, surrounded by 3 other bulbs of the same type; And remained in that fixed position for 30 full seconds.

This image has been digitally altered to remove shadows, to bring the glow to the forefront.

As you can see, Sofia appears, even sans white base coat, to glow slightly brighter than Casper. At the very least, I would call Sofia a more "Fright Green" glow, and Casper more of a "Gentle Ghost" glow.

All in all, both lasted about the same period of time, and were of similar brightness' in person. It's hard to turn a light off, position a camera, and take a picture of the glow before it fades though, that's how fast it happens. There is a gentle lingering effect for many minutes afterward, but it's much less vibrant. 

Hopefully, this will help you to choose the best Julep GITD polish for your Fright Night needs!

♥

Hello to all my pretties!!! 

After quite the wait, and worry, I finally opened my front door today to my little black box.  

I wasn't worried it wouldn't come, I was worried from all the feedback I had been seeing in one of the Swap groups I am in; Items missing here, items missing there, calls happening here, there, and everywhere; It was nerve wracking!! But, alas, all polishes were accounted for; Kajal and sharpener were accounted for; Box wasn't opened or tampered with; Candy Corn was perfectly preserved; And all in all I had a great box of awesome waiting for me. 

I breathed a sigh of relief!!

Until I opened the first polish for swatching [They've all got Swatch Me! stickers!! So excite!]. 

Being a huge fan of nude and neutral colours, especially this fall, Winona was my first pick to open. And, immediately, an issue arose. Not a big one, not one I'll stamp my feet and steam my ears over, but an issue. I removed the cap to swatch, and the inner cap almost fell off it was so loose. I was concerned, turned the bottle over, and voila! Cap was cracked. 

Now, don't get me wrong, it's a problem and yes I did e-mail Julep [Immediately after it happened, in fact] to let them know; But I didn't ask for a replacement, and I see no reason why I should. It's the inner cap after all. And other than swatching the sticker on top I have no use for exposing that inner cap. So long as it stays strong enough inside, and doesn't lose a piece/fall out/lose the seal, it's perfectly fine and will paint my nails to my heart's content. 

Which is all I care about. lol!

Like I phrased it to Julep, "I don't need perfect polish; I just need polish!"

And indeed, I will survive. Just adds character*! :D

Careful inspection of all other polishes revealed Winona was, in fact, alone in her defectiveness. [Dahlia was fairly tight, but nothing a lot of little wiggling couldn't solve.]

So without further ado, let's meet the crew!

[Teehee! See what I did there?]

First, the opened box [Minus the Candy Corn. I gave that to Alien, my Beau]. There was a cute little quote from Joan Jett included, as well as information on the candy corn. Hard to see, but pictured above the white boxes is the Kajal eye glider and its sharpener.

Annnd now the unboxed... boxes.... 

After removing the polishes from their boxes, and putting them back in the slip covers to prevent damage to them [They'll make GREAT shipping tools for swaps or moves!!]; I swatched all of the lids. [And e-mailed Julep, of course.]

In alphabetical order, here are the polishes that came in the Rebel Set Upgrade + Casper and Beatrix, the special add-ons for the month.

Anisa [Classic With a Twist]

 

Beatrix [Bombshell, Add On]

Casper [It Girl, Add On]

Ciara [It Girl]

Cleopatra [Bombshell]

Dahlia [Boho Glam]

Kendra [It Girl]

Missy [It Girl]

Stevie [Boho Glam]

Valerie [Bombshell]

Winona [Classic With A Twist]



Finally, now that you've put up with such a text and picture heavy post, I will leave you to have a WONDERFUL day with just a few more pictures; Of the Kajal sharpener! I was giddy with pleasure when I found out not only does it have a case to catch shavings, and that it opened easily; But that it came with a small plastic stick with which you can clean off the sharpener blade!! Have a great one guys!!

          

Welcome to October y'all!

For those who are unaware of awareness, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

And my beloved Julep has put out several sets for just this occasion!! 

This is the Hope Trio

The Hope Trio is my personal favourite, but Evie is a lemming of mine so that really is no surprise. The Hope Trio also comes with "Edith", pictured center; Edith is an exclusive colour created specifically for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and is only available in the Hope Trio.

Each set comes with a cute little bag with ribbon, and inside is an informative card on Breast Cancer facts. For example, did you know that 1 of every 8 women will be diagnosed with Breast Cancer?

To put that into perspective, look at your clock. In 2 minutes, another woman hears the words "It's cancer".

This is the Think Pink Trio

This is the Pink Ladies Trio

I'm also excited to inform you that if you'd like to get your hands on any of these sets [Or all of them!!], I have a promotional code you can use to save 43% on EACH set! [When purchased individually, at least. Unsure on multi-set purchases] Use code: GMA and you will pay just $18 for your set! Of course, if you've the heart to pay full price and see more of your money used for BCA, that's alright too! ;D