Tri-Polish Challenge Day one

Hello again!  Today I have a mani that I did for the Tri-Polish challenge that is being hosted at The Crumpets Nail Tarts.  What the hell is a Tri- Polish challenge you ask?  Well, it's a rather brilliant and fun challenge. What the idea is, is you're given three colors, this month it's coral, green, and purple.  And you have to pick three polishes of those colors and use them in a mani.  There will be four manicures done with these colors and you must use at least 2 of the assigned colors in all of the manis and one mani needs to include all three. You may also use white, black, gold, silver and glitter toppers.  But the three polishes that you chose cannot change. A little complicated to explain, but I hope you get the idea.  I must admit I was a little skeptical about this at first, but I love the concept now! It really forces you to be creative and do things you may not have thought of before. So on to the pics! For the first day I chose to do a plaid, and incorporated all three colors plus white to break things up a little bit.  The three polishes that I'm stuck with for the next 4 manis (I say stuck with, because it's so easy to say oh, this purple would be better than the other one I chose, but nope! You must stick with the ones you chose! Hard!) anyway, the three I chose are China Glaze Surreal Appeal for the coral color, Pop beauty in Row for the green, and Color Club Disco Dress for the purple.

I like how this came out! I used my new Orly striping brush and a cheap-y striping brush for the lines, and you can tell which lines were made with the cheap one! So in the future I will only be using my Orly brush, but other than that I'm happy with it! :)  Lets see what the other did with the challenge! 

Until next time! 

Julep Feb. Box Part 2 - Finally!

Hello all! Sorry for the incredibly late post for these swatches!  I am so used to doing all my posting on Facebook now, that I forget to come over here.  But, I plan to do a lot more swatching and I think it's good to have them in both places, so keep watching out for posts! Also, the Tri-Colored Challenge has started on The Crumpets Nail Tarts and I will post them here as well as on Facebook. I will explain what the hell a tri-colored challenge is in my post ;) It's really a brilliant and fun challenge! Anyway, on with the polish!

First up is one of the holos. This is Ginger, Which Julep describes as a sand holographic. It was really hard to photograph the holos in this box.  The holo isn't a strong linear one, but not quite scattered either.  It's a beautiful color, and the soft holo makes it look kind of fuzzy. In a good way. I will definitely wear this again.

One more pic of this beauty!

Such a pretty neutral with a little kick!

Next up is Rebel. The other holo from the box. Wow, 2 holos from Julep! Way to go Julep! Now if you could get the holo just a wee bit stronger...

Rebel is a silver holo with the same very soft and fuzzy holo that Ginger has. The formula on this one was a little chalky but not too bad.  It was workable.

Again, this was very difficult to photograph and I'm sorry for the crappy pics :/

Next let's take a look at Joan.

Isn't she gorgeous?  Julep describes Joan as raspberry plum with rose gold shimmer. It's definitely a deep raspberry but on the nail, it looks like there is both brighter pink and gold shimmer.

Again, crappy pic but beautiful polish. Formula was great too.

Along the lines of Joan we have Marion, which Julep describes as smoky blue with silver shimmer. Smoky blue? Huh? Ok, I don't know what they were smoking but I would describe this as a vivid, saturated teal with a bit of dustiness from the shimmer. It looks more teal in person than in the photo here.

Good formula on this one too.
Next up is Ellie.

Julep describes this one as opalescent seashell pink with holographic shimmer. Umm, yeah. No. On it's own this is definitely seashell pink, a frosty pearly seashell pink.  This was 4 coats. The holographic shimmer they were talking about? I didn't see any of that. Perhaps they are referring to the opalescent pearly finish.  I knew this would be better layered so I tried it over some of the cremes.

Thumb is Ellie over Laura, index is over Claudette, middle is over Julianne and I have completely forgot what the other two are! LOL! I'm sorry!  But I think it looks very pretty over Julianne (the middle) and just might wear it again that way. Maybe.
Lastly is Oscar.

Julep describes Oscar as an ultra chic multi-dimensional gold glitter.  Yep, it's gold glitter and it's quite nice too. This is two coats over Laura except on the index finger which is one coat. If it looks like it's patchy it really isn't.  It lights up and dies down in when you move your hand. Almost the way a duochrome does, if that makes any sense.  I'm by no means a glitter expert, so I'm not sure if there are a lot of glitters that do this, but this is new to me and a really neat effect.

Well, that'd be all for today! Whew! I know these pics are really quite crappy, and I really do apologize for that.  I have a new camera now and hopefully I will be putting out better pics!  Until next time polish lovin' friends! :)