My first swatch-a-palooza with Julep!

Hi everyone! So today I have my first real set of swatches. Twelve of them! I will do them in 2 parts.  Swatching is much more difficult than I had thought it would be, but honestly, it was also much more fun than I thought too. The pictures leave a LOT to be desired I know, and my cuticles look like hell in most of the pics, but I really tried to get as accurate as possible color of all the polishes and I feel like I did that. With a few exceptions. I think I will be doing a lot more swatches because while I love nail art, sometimes a polish is really art itself. The polishes I'm showing you today are Julep from the February Maven box. It's inspired by iconic actresses and I think they really hit the nail on the head with these. There is something for everyone, and all of them are a little bit unique. Good job Julep, you have REALLY stepped up your game lately! Anyway, on with the massive amounts of pics, shall we? Lets start with the cremes.
This is Claudette.

Claudette is described by Julep as: Smoky Brick Red Creme. I agree with this and while the photo is pretty close, there is a touch more brick in it than in the picture.

The second pic is pretty much right on the money. This was 2 coats and surprisingly for a red, it didn't stain my fingers during removal. Yay!

Next up is Ingrid.

Julep describes this one as: Burnt Orange Creme. Again, I would completely agree.  I love this color!  I think it's unusual and a little edgy but VERY wearable.

This is 3 coats. Ingrid is one of those creme/jelly polishes and is super duper shiny!

Next up, Sally.

Julep describes this as Antique Ivory Creme. I have to disagree on this one. I also had a hard time capturing the true color of Sally. I would describe it as Barbie flesh. Really. It looks like the plastic "Barbies" you get at the dollar store, you know what ones I'm talking about? Yeah. I REALLY wanted this to be ivory, as I don't have an ivory colored polish and thought it would be fabulous. But expectations aside, it's a very interesting color.  One of those ugly pretty colors, which I love. Maybe not so much on this one though.

This pic is awful and blurry but a little bit more accurate. I think if you have a deeper skin tone this would look pretty damn cool on you! Three coats for this one.

Next we have Laura.

 Julep describes Laura as: Olive Khaki Creme. Yep, it is and I love it! Great formula on this one too. These kinds of greens are my favorite, but I know they aren't for everyone. But I think this one is really chic and wearable.

This was two coats.

Next, Julianne.

Julep describes this one as: Smoky Gray Blue Creme. I agree. This color reminds me of the blue that people loved to decorate there house in the late 90's. Do you remember that blue? Seems everyone had at least one room painted this color. And geese. There was always geese with it. I don't know why.

This was 3 coats.  Good formula.

Next, Helen.

Helen is described as Smoky Pastel Lavender Creme. It is, but there is also a lot more of a taupe-y color to it.  It's a very nice neutral color and I think it would look great year round.

This was three thin coats. You could probably be able to do two if you applied slightly thicker coats.  With the exception of Claudette and Laura all of them needed 3 coats. If you are a master of the three stroke application and do not overwork the polish at all, then these are 2 coaters.  The rest of us will probably need to do 3.  I have six more polishes from this set which I will post tomorrow, because I'm exhausted. LOL!  I will also post my 31 day Challenge manis, there are two that I haven't blogged yet, today or tonight. Whew! Ya know this nail stuff is a lot of work! But I love it! ;)
What so you guys think of the polishes? How about my swatches? I am very open to constructive criticism, so feel free to let me know what I flubbed or what I did right. See you all soon! :)

Edited to add that I bought these polishes myself and they are my honest opinions. I was not paid or given these for review.

Laid Back 31 Day Challenge- Purple

Hello again my polish loving friends! Just a quick post today. Here is my mani for Day 5 of the 31 Day Challenge- Purple. I started with a base of Spoiled Are Mermaids Real and then did the cloud design made famous by Nailside.  I didn't do such a good job on it, but it's my first time so I'm going to give myself a break.

So there ya have it! Lets see what everyone else did for the Purple Challenge!

Laid Back 31 Day Challenge-Pink!

Hi there! So we are already 4 days into the challenge and I'm just now doing a post.  Good thing it's called the Laid Back challenge!  I have been doing all the days, I just have been posting on Facebook.  You do know to look for me there right?  Just click here.  One of these days I will figure out how to put it on the side of the blog. Maybe.

Anyhoo, back to the nails! Today is pink, and while I had no intention whatsoever of doing a Valentine's Day mani, I decided to do one because pink + hearts = opportunity to go crazy girly.

                                Hearts and flowers and heart shaped flowers!

Ok lets list the polishes used in this, are you ready?
Base: Ulta Encore Pink with one coat of Essie No Pre-Nup. The Essie is a warm pink jelly and I used it over the Ulta because I didn't have the right pink I was looking for.
The big hearts: China Glaze Surreal Appeal
Hearts/flowers: OPI Elephatastic Pink, Zoya Kimber and Julep Joan.
Dots: Julep Joan.
I am really happy with this mani because I took my time doing it and I think it paid off.  I tend to rush things and then wonder why it looks like crap, lol. I also love how over the top happy and cutesy it is.  It reminds me of spring. What do you think? Too much? Not enough? Hate pink and you're skipping this post entirely? ;)
Oh! I forgot to add that I have a winner for the Giveaway!  It was sooo fun doing that, and I will definitely be doing another one!
I forgot to add the others doing the challenge! Ok, lets see if I can get this to work.

Cotton ball holder thingy

I have been meaning to post about this for about 6 months, and finally remembered it today. Do any of you have this neat little contraption from Sally's?

It's a cotton ball holder.  What they hell do I need a cotton ball holder for you may ask? Well, have you ever done a manicure and then messed up a nail and need to redo it, but you don't want to mess up your other nails trying to take the polish off of just one or two?

With this you just push the end and these little claw things come out.  Pick up a cotton ball with the claws, put your remover on the cotton and voila!

You can remove your polish without messing up your other nails and without trying to hold the acetone soaked cotton ball in the palm of your hand without it touching your fingers.  Do you know what else this thing is GREAT for? Cleaning your stamping plates and stamper!  Seriously, I love this thing so much I have 2 of them, in case I can't find one.  I don't know what I would do without it.

You can get them at Sally's Beauty Supply online and in stores.  Here's a link:

Manicure Saver!

That's all for today, but I'm doing the Lazy 31 Day Challenge (that started yesterday) and I might be posting them to my blog.  Remember if you don't see me here you can find me on my FB page. 

-EJ

Giveaway!

Hi!!! Long time no see? I hope you all have come over to my Facebook page.  I currently doing The Crumpets 31 Day Challenge and I try to post news and any sort of interesting (or not) bits much more regularly. Anyway, seeing as the title of this post is giveaway, I bet your not even reading this LOL!  So on to the good stuff!

My first giveaway, and I'm joining forces with the lovely and very talented Bibian of Manifix.   Bibian is giving away a Zoya Gilty Gift Box!

And I am giving away butter London in Jack The Lad, Sinful Colors in Nova a cute little nail care kit with toe separators, a file, buffing block and nail brush, and a green apple lip balm.

I will be putting the giveaway on my Facebook page as well. As soon as I figure out how to do it...

The giveaway will run through to the end of the month, there will be 2 winners and the giveaway is only open to U.S. addresses only.  If all goes well with this one, I will do an international one next month.  Please be sure to enter a current and valid email address so that we can contact you if you win! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm moving! But, all my friends live here!

Don't worry, you can come with me :)  As you can see, I rarely post.  I have good intentions, but, they never come to fruition. So I was thinking about it, why don't I post here? What's holding me back?  I decided that it's kinda lonely. I like the back and forth that a conversation has.  I don't just want to share my polish and nail art, I want to talk about it with people. So in comes Facebook.  Everyone has a Facebook account (well most everyone) and I'm on there way too much as it is, so the answer was clear.  I shall "blog" on Facebook!  Please come and follow me at www.facebook.com/CoatOfManiColors  I still may come by here now and then when I want to do a long post, and if I do I will let ya know on my FB page.  I look forward to many more posts and actually being able to talk to you guys. Hope to see you there and tell your friends ;)

I stole your crayons!

Hiya! So, recently I have been having a major creativity block. I couldn't think of anything to do with my nails and when I thought of something I was just blah about it. Now, you all know that my momma lives with me right? Yeah, so she can be pretty awesome sometimes and during one of her manic episodes she wrote out a list of ideas and one of them was crayons. I love crayons and coloring.  I still color sometimes as a way to de-stress and clear my head. And who doesn't love crayons? They're colorful, they smell good, they bring you back to your childhood and OH the endless creative possibilities crayons have! So yeah, crayons are good.

I used a mix of polish and acrylic paint for this.  The base yellow is Nina Pro- Like Butta topped with Julep Daisy because Like Butta was a tad too mustard-y looking. The dark green for the crayon box details is Finger Paints-Tough Art to Follow. The rest is acrylics, because I thought polish would be too thick for the little crayons but, now I think if you thinned it out a little it would work and using polish would have better color crayon possibilities :)

I also didn't want to make the mani "too perfect" I wanted it to look cute and whimsical and sort of sketched in, which is a good thing because I can't do "perfect" so this is a fun one to do if you feel like you can't do nail art.

So that's about it.  My mom did a cool thing and I'm feeling more inspired. Good stuff Maynard!
'till next time!
-EJ