Newish

• I received this strawberry lip balm in my Julep Maven March box. It's not vegan though so if anyone wants it, let me know! Just make me an offer.
• My cat loves to lay in the new (from a friend who moved) tomato plant. As long as he isn't using it as a litterbox, I don't mind!
• Bath time for my pup. He always look soo sad in the  bath. haha
• Tasty snack! The ginger flavour is quite strong but I like them.
• I'd had my eye on these at Target and then they were on clearance for $10! They fit a bit loose but will be great in hot weather.
• Makeup I wore to a potluck on the weekend. 

Spring Polishes

Remember when I did this jelly manicure? Well, I found myself wishing I had a nude jelly to make a sandwich with. Then I stumbled across this post and thought, perfect! So I picked up Wet n Wild "2% Milk" (gross name) at Walgreens where it was $1 off.  For the glitters I used a Forever 21 polish as well as Sparkles by Julie "Trick or Treat" (no longer available).  I was very happy with the results! "2% milk" applied well, not streaky, but very very sheer. I actually did three coats on both the bottom and top. haha They were thin though, so it worked.

The next two manicures feature new polishes from the Julep Maven March box. I had meant to skip the month but forgot. Well, I'm glad I did because I reeally love these shades! They are all ones I've been wanting to get for Spring, actually.  A gorgeous coral and two pretty pastel shades with subtle shimmer.

Simone, Teri and Shenae. 

I played around with different lines  here using a striping brush. Far from perfect but overall I liked it. Isn't "Simone" such a pretty shade? It actually arrived totally broken but I decanted it into an empty Julep bottle I have.  Still, Julep is sending me a new one so I will probably franken with this one... perhaps add some glitter and clear? Oh and I'm holding "Shenae" in the pictures.

Here I used "Shenae" for the base. I adore mint shades but they always look more blue than green on me! The design is created with "Teri".  To make it, I added 4-5 drops of the polish into some room temperature filtered water then sprayed it with perfume (any alcohols spray should work) which created "holes". Then I proceeded like you would with water marbling. Downside, I didn't get all of the fingers to look similar. Upside? I reeeally love both looks.  On my left hand, the first few came out so delicate! It reminded me of coral but I bet if it were black it would look similar to lace! Then on my right hand some look more like bubbles (which is normally the affect you get).  What do you think? I will definitely try this again, maybe with hairspray. Perfume was smelly- my nails are still scented two days later!

Noms and Nails

Started out the day by running some errands (typical Saturday right now since it's my husband's only day home we have to get some stuff done!) and then had a delicious lunch at Hill St Cafe. Definitely my favourite restaurant since becoming vegan. Today we shared the guacamole and then I had an espresso hot chocolate and vegan chili. So freakin' good.

Then we picked up groceries at Trader Joes.  Stuff for Christmas breakfast and dinner, lunch tomorrow, fruit, nuts/pretzels/chocolate for some gifts I'm making, soy milk, beer etc. Tonight we're hoping to catch the Strikeforce fight (Cyborg is fighting) and maybe watch a movie.

Christmas nails!

Sorry about the chips! I did a lot of cleaning and that caused the mani to chip right away.  Originally I had this cute reindeer but he seemed kind of random.

Also,  Julep Maven is offering the first 1000 people who sign up their first box for only a penny! Yep, 1 cent. Just sign up here, take the quiz and at checkout use code SHAREON. :) You can cancel after the first month if you don't want to pay the $19.99/month to keep receiving boxes or if you get two people to sign up using your referral link, you get your next month for free!  You can read my first post on Julep Maven here or see my October box here. Search Julep in my search bar to see all the manicures I've done with their wonderful  polishes!

Day 4: Green

31 Day Nail Challenge

I keep a box (a Birchbox box actually) on my table with my untried polishes in it, that way I can go through them first more easily.  So here is another set of untrieds!  This is Julep "Diane", a very dark Forest green, and Kleancolor "Holiday Jingle".

"Diane" applies super patchy and looks watery the first coat but the second coat evens it out and makes it completely opaque so overall the application is actually perfect in two coats. A lot of Julep polishes are one coaters though.  I think they have amazing polishes as far as quality goes! If you aren't a Julep Maven yet, become one! You can still get a box for only $5, just google "Julep Maven coupon".

"Holiday Jingle" is so pretty! A green glitter in a green jelly base may not sound like much but I love how this polish looks like it's glowing vs sparkling. Love it. I did just the tips because I didn't want to lose the colour of "Diane" which I love. Greens like to photograph more blue and "Diane" is no exception here so just know that it is 100% green not at all blue.

I knew this would look great matte so I tried out a coat of Essie "Matte About You" over a couple fingers. Love! I love how "Diane" goes super matte but the glitter in "Holiday Jingle" still shines.

Sorry about the picture quality. It's actually pouring down rain today! A rarity here. I couldn't use my camera flash and it's never great without the flash.

Friday Foodie post to come!

October Julep Maven

My October Julep Maven box was free, complimentary of Julep. :) I switched from American Beauty to Boho Glam. They now allow you to see what each "group" gets as far as polish colours which is awesome! I have now paused my subscription though. I have plenty of hand stuff and while I love their polish, $20 a box is too much for me. You can still get your first box for only $5 though!! Use code FB. Sign up here (I get a $15 just for you signing up. You can sign up and then cancel if you want, you won't be charged until the 25th of the month so just do so before then.). 

the box

the bag inside

What I got! I love that you get the new products before they are up for sale on the website.

wrapped up

The lotion. It's a hand brightening lotion. It smells nice, kind of citrus-y. I sampled it and liked it. For now though, it is back in its box in case I decide to give it to someone at Christmas. I think taking care of hands are smart because they quickly show signs of aging! So even at only 24 I'm sure it's not a bad idea for me to use it but...for now I think I'll stick with the SPF lotion.

Here are Malin and Gayle. Love! Indoor lighting is pretty accurate.

Malin is a super pale pink with some shimmer. Gayle is a very dark plum purple...it goes on darker than what you see here.

 Swatches

Gorgeous colours and they apply pretty wonderfully! That's a few coats of Malin but only one of Gayle.

Julep Maven Video

I wasn't going to post this video because I'm kind of a spaz in it but I want to talk about Julep so I thought I'd share it. It's a follow up review of my August box along with a look at my September box as part of the Julep Maven program.

This is kind of long.

I recently read some complaints about this program on other blogs so I wanted to give my two cents.  The complaints are about their referral program. See, there were some problems with it and Julep realized that it did not work so anyone who got someone to sign up using their referral code, didn't have the $15 credit they were supposed to have.  This only applied to people who signed up before Aug 24th (like me). I had heard it wasn't working so I contacted them through their website and they were quick to reply. They apologized and asked me for the names of anyone who used my link. I only knew of one for sure, so I gave them that name and they credited my account with $15 (which I used to get a free polish!!).  So I was very satisfied.

Today I received a mass email from Julep apologizing for their referral program problems, explaining what happened and that it was fixed etc.   They also said that everyone who signed up before Aug 24, is getting the October box for FREE!  Now, some of the complaints I heard were about Julep's customer service regarding this issue...that is why I wanted to share my opinion because I think they have WONDERFUL customer service! Many companies would have apologized and just moved on but Julep not only fixed the mistake by giving people credit where they could but by also giving them one month free. I think that's very kind of them. It makes me wonder if the people who thought Julep had poor customer service, were rude when addressing them the first time.  Maybe they were being negative and so they saw it all in that light.  I don't know but my experience has been great. I still highly recommend the Julep Maven program a well as their products (I'm very in love with everything so far).  So you can listen to those who are complaining, myself or try it out and choose for yourself but I just wanted to share my opinion. I don't know anyone from Julep personally but they have been kind, helpful and personable towards me and I don't see why they would have acted differently towards anyone else which is why I have a hard time believing they are in the wrong here. Yes, they had a technical issue with their program but that is common with new programs and at least they were humble, apologetic and fixed it!