Born Pretty Review

Another Born Pretty review for you guys! This is my favorite type of nail art product from their site; their stamping plates. I have yet to be disappointed with one and this one is no exception.

*I received this product in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

Julep Maven Skittles

I have been a Julep maven for about a year and a half now. If you aren't familiar, it's a monthly beauty box subscription containing nail polishes and other beauty products/tools specially chosen for you based on your style profile. I, personally, am in it for the nail polish. The other products I have received from them have only made me love Julep more but the polishes are where my heart lies. They create a new color collection every month and the colors are almost always stunning.

This month's collection may well be my favorite so far. It's called Wanderlust and the colors are to die for. There was no way I could choose which colors I liked best so I asked hubby to make the choice for me. He couldn't decide, either, so he told me to just upgrade and get the whole collection. That's nine colors! Ten if you include the limited edition glitter celebrating Julep's third birthday. My box came in the mail yesterday and I had to do a mani with them today. 

31DC2013 Day 17 - Glitter

I actually DID do these nails yesterday. I just didn't get to post them until today.

I was excited for this day of the challenge because I LOVE glitter! I have a decently large glitter collection from the craft store so I thought I'd use a bunch of them to do a sparkly skittles mani!

Lisa Frank!?

I've been a bad bad blogger. I've been on vacation (tomorrow is my first day back to work) and blogging has been kinda put on the back-burner. I've been doing nail stuff, I just haven't been posting it. Sorry.

Friday, Hubby and I went to the Zoo! It was so much fun and the weather was almost perfect; just a little humid. Before we went, I wanted to do a zoo themed manicure. I bought a t-shirt just for the trip that inspired me. It's a zebra wearing shades with neon rainbow hair. (I meant to take a picture of the shirt, but totally forgot.) Here's the manicure that it inspired!

 I used a base of NYC French White Tip on all nails to make the neons pop. From thumb to pinky I used Funky Fingers Atomic Poppy, Art Club Neon Green, Funky Fingers Riot, Funky Fingers Highlighter, and Funky Fingers Aloha. Believe me, these colors are WAY brighter in person and obnoxious in direct sunlight. The stamping is all done in Art Club Black. The snake print (which is absurdly crooked) is from BM-215, the alligator print is from BM-224, the cow print is from BM-222, the leopard print is from BM-221, and the zebra print is from BM-223.

The neons with animal print reminded me so much of the Lisa Frank school supplies that all of us girls loved so much when I was in elementary/middle school! All it needed was some sparkle, so I loaded it up. I used a coat of Nubar 2010 and then China Glaze Fairy Dust. Both of these glitters are fairly subtle until you take them into natural lighting, so they were perfect for the zoo!

I love skittles!

I wanted to do something with rainbow colors and decided to water marble. Instead of marbling all of the colors together, though, I chose to skittle them.

I used a total of six colors. My pinky is Julep Claudette and OPI A Roll in the Hague. My ring finger is A Roll in the Hague and Julep Charlie. My middle finger is Charlie and Essie Mojito Madness. My index finger is Mojito Madness and Sally Hansen Blue Me Away. Finally, my thumg is Blue Me Away and Julep Charlotte.

Movies and Manicures

It had been a few weeks since the girls could both come over for movies and manicures. Schedule clashes, ya know? We would usually get together on last night but Hubby and I got tickets to a baseball game. So, the ladies came over today, instead! 

Trisha wanted polka dots and I was more than happy to oblige. I do love my dotting tools! I also suggested a few accent flowers and she was totally on board. This was the end result!

She chose Wet n Wild Private Viewing as the base color with NYC Highline Green for the dots. The flowers are done in NYC French White Tip and Art Club Purple Rain. Pretty springy dots!

Heather was very specific; she wanted a pink and blue gradient. I was ready, sponge in hand!

We used Essie Bikini So Teeny and ORLY Fancy Fuchsia. Don't her nails match the sky nicely?

I went the pastel route, as well. I started with a pastel skittles manicure, and then I jazzed it up a bit. :)

Adorable, right? I used (from pinky to thumb) Wet n Wild Candy-licious, Essie Bikini So Teeny, Julep Blake, ORLY Jealous, Much?, and Butter London Trout Pout. I topped all of them with Julep Camille and then added cute, goofy little monster faces with Art Club Black and White. I love these sparkly, pastel monsters!!!