Week 3 Review

Time to go over how my pretty manicure from last week held up!

To review how I had my nails done:

Thumb: Julep Jennine
Pointer finger: Rainbow Honey Waves
Middle finger: Rainboy Honey Waves as the base coat, Julep Paris on top
Ring finger: Julep Something Blue as the base coat, Julep Tania on top
Pinkie finger: Julep Jennine

Jennine:

How did it wear?: Badly. Because my last experience with Julep's sea salt and stardust polishes (the two have literally the same finish but different names based on the look) saw all my nails chipping very quickly when I forewent a top coat in order to keep the texture, I did a test this time. On my hands, I gave Jennine a top coat that took away the texture; on my toes, Jennine got no top coat. I do a lot of things with my hands (things like reading books and doing a LOT of typing on the computer) but generally keep my toes safe and in good condition, so this seemed fair enough.

What happened? Jennine chipped really badly on my toes and was perfectly fine on my hands. About what I expected. The first chip on one of my toenails came just two days after I put the polish on and I wasn't exactly running around trying to make it chip. It happened and then more chips followed and I had to trim down the toenail because I didn't have the time and patience to redo it. Bleh. Very disappointing, Julep, especially since almost all of your polishes I own are really strong on both my top-coat-covered fingernails and no-top-coat-or-base-coat toenails.

Will I wear it again?: Not without a top coat to keep it from chipping, I won't. It's a good thing I have very reliable top coats everywhere.

Will I keep it?: Yes, but I'm sad I can't wear it sans protective top coat like I should be able to. Julep's formula for polishes with sea salt/stardust textures is simply too weak to be able to withstand my days.

Waves:

How did it wear?: Pretty well! There was some bunching around the sides and cuticles of my nails I had to spend all week resisting the urge to pick at, but it could have been worse.

Will I wear it again?: Yes, but I'll be careful with how I use it because it's such a little bottle and 3 coats on four nails and four toes = lots of polish lost.

Will I keep it?: Definitely! But Rainbow Honey and American Express really need to work something out.

Paris:

How did it wear?: It wore just fine! I know it's going to be a pain in the ass to remove when the time comes because I have a lot of experience using this polish, but it looked lovely and it didn't give me any problems while I wore it.

Will I wear it again?: Definitely! I haven't used it for months before now because it was one of my first Julep polishes and my older ones got neglected as I acquired more, but I've kept it as long as I have for a good reason.

Will I keep it?: Yep! I've got half a bottle left and I probably won't buy another one when this one runs out or dries up beyond repair, but I'll use it for all it's worth while I still have it.

Something Blue:

How did it wear?: Fine, but it has felt thick on my nails the entire week. Tania being on top of it tapers that feeling down some on my fingernails, but it bothers me a lot on my toes.

Will I wear it again?: Sure, why not? I have a similar blue, but that blue is more of a pastel compared to the sky-blue of this polish. If the thick feeling bothers me, I have a bunch of nail polish remover for that.

Will I keep it?:Yep!

Tania:

How did it wear?: Just fine! I wish I'd used it on something it stood out more against like a pink (when testing how Tania wore on different color types, I put it on this cotton-candy pink and it was GORGEOUS), but I got the mermaid tail effect I was going for.

Will I wear it again?: Yep, but I'll remember to keep it to brights like Something Blue and use something that contrasts with it more. I tested it out a couple of months ago and Tania goes opaque when you put it over a dark color. Good to know for those who want Tania opaque without having to use six coats and all, but that's not what I use her for.

Will I keep it?: Yep!

In Summary:

• Yay! Everything is a keeper!
• Stardust/sea salt polishes from Julep are so fragile; I don't have these issues with my OPI liquid sand polishes and they're basically the same thing.

Week 3: Sweetheart Sea Witch

Whoops, I forgot things again. I've been sick and otherwise occupied these last two weeks between going camping (my Memorial Day weekend manicure got ruined by bug spray, so no post for that) and going to New York to cover a trade show (that kept me busy, so no pics once again).

Polishes used:

• Julep in Jennine
• Julep in Tania
• Julep in Something Blue
• Julep in Paris
• Rainbow Honey in Waves

 Tools used:

• Julep Plie Wand

Combinations on each finger:

• Thumb: Jennine (2 coats)
• Pointer finger: Waves (3 coats)
• Middle finger: Waves (3 coats) as the base, Paris (1 coat) on top
• Ring finger: Something Blue (2 coats) as the base, Tania (1 coat) on top
• Pinkie finger: Jennine (2 coats)

What did I have in mind when I started this manicure?

When my Julep Maven box for June came in (polish upgrade, woot woot!), I was thinking "sea-themed" for no particular reason. It's not sea-themed at all, but I knew I wanted to use Jennine first and she reminded me of the ocean floor, so I built the rest of my manicure around her.

Waves was a shoo-in for the name and color, obviously. It's the ocean itself to Jennine's ocean floor. Tania's mermaid scale-like teal flakes made it a must too, so I needed a good light blue to go underneath it. I only own two light blues and didn't feel like using the other, so Something Blue it was to create a mermaid tail effect. I had this combination on my nails for two days before I decided my middle finger looked bare. At that point, I brought out Paris, put a single coat of her on both middle fingers, and finally felt satisfied.

So in all, Jennine is the ocean floor and its natural beauty, Waves is the ocean itself, Tania and Something Blue are the tail of the mermaid you thought you saw swim by out of the corner of your eye, and Paris is all the shiny things people lose in the ocean, like coins or sunglasses douchebag older brothers toss overboard on a boat because you cockblocked him. Ahem. 

My conclusions:

All the colors went on beautifully and after two days, they've all worn really well on both my hands and my feet. Because I had a bad experience with Julep's last textured polishes, I'm doing a bit of an experiment with Jennine. My fingernails have top coat on them to make them last, but I didn't bother with any on my toes. I'll see later if it chips too badly on my toenails and shows me Julep's textured polishes really need a topcoat. I hope they don't since my textures from other nail polish brands like OPI never need it.

Also, Rainbow Honey needs to start taking my credit card. Their polish styles are so unique and unlike anything I see in other brands like Julep, but I can't drain my debit card for them!

Also also, Julep needs to get on top of shipping notices for Maven boxes. I never got mine, so it showed up out of nowhere with my mystery box. I like to know where things are!