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!

Week 2 Review

Many apologies for not getting this up yesterday, but it was a horrid mental day and a whole bunch of shit happened to make it even worse, so I was basically useless. Still feeling bad now, so stuff is short and I don't feel like linking to the polish pages. Anyway, time to go over how my pretty manicure from last week held up!

To review how I had my nails done:

Thumb: China Glaze White on White as the base, Rainbow Honey Stellar Treat on top
Pointer finger: China Glaze Polarized
Middle finger: Julep Stefani
Ring finger: China Glaze White on White as the base, Rainbow Honey Stellar Treat on top
Pinkie finger: China Glaze Polarized

White on White:

How did it wear? Well, it went on very thick, to say the least. It took me three coats to get it opaque like I needed it to be (funny how it's both thick and thin, huh?) and even then, I felt the weight of all that polish on my nail the way I don't normally. My hands were itching in their skin to get this off!

Will I wear it again? Probably. I only have this and Julep Nicolette for pure white polishes and there's always a need for white. I'll just have to get used to how it goes on or figure out a way to make it work better for me.

Will I keep it? I guess so, but I'll be seeing other whites to try and find one that goes on less thin/thick and works better as a white base for my manicures.

Polarized:

How did it wear? Quite well! There was a teensy bit more tip wear than I would have liked, but I had to work a lot with my hands over the last week, so I don't mind.

Will I wear it again? Definitely! I can think of more than a few occasions where I could use a swanky-looking polish like this.

Will I keep it? I'm not just keeping it; I'm already plotting a trip to go get the other polishes in its line! They were all so pretty, but I picked out Polarized because it reminded me of one of my favorite Julep polishes. It's not like that polish at all, but it's so prettyyyyyyyyy and I love it.

Stefani:

How did it wear? Nicely. Slightly more tip wear than I usually see, but none of it chipped off or did anything to annoy me. At the same time, it didn't really impress me as a polish. Just meh.

Will I wear it again? Maybe? A steel-colored polish like this isn't to my taste at all, but I could see it being a good base for a top coat like Stellar Treat that's really bright. The dark will make it stick out and all that. However, most of my top coats look awful on dark colors

Will I keep it? I guess so. I won't take it back to college with me and will use its space in my nail polish caddy for something I know I'll wear again, but I don't want to throw it out either.

Stellar Treat:

How did it wear?Wonderfully! It was sparkly and gorgeous and everything I wanted from it. The only problem was me; when putting it on, I put too much on some nails and it didn't look as good as I wanted it to. Also, I made the mistake of putting it on my toenails too. I forgot I never put chunky topcoats like that on my toenails.

Will I wear it again? Oh yeah! Difficulty of removal aside, it's a gorgeous topcoat and I wish I hadn't overused it like I did and made it look less pretty. I went with two coats because one looked too thin and it looked bad with two where it looked just thin with one. I'll have to find a middle ground somehow.

Will I keep it? Definitely! I'll have to be mindful of how much I'm using and never put it on my toenails again because whoo, that was hard to get off, but I love it.

In Summary:

• All four are varying degrees of keepers (Stefani is a reluctant one and White on White will be gone if I find a better white)
• Good God, no more chunky top coat glitters on my toenails THE STRUGGLE
• Pretty manicure that acted like a painted declaration of who I crackship in Fairy Tail but unremarkable in how it wore

Week 2: Stars and Steel

(An alternate title is "Black Steel... Can't Finish Due to Fangirling." Your hint at what the hell I'm talking about is somewhere in this post.)

Polishes used (all polishes I've never used before):

• China Glaze in White on White
• China Glaze in Polarized
• Rainbow Honey in Stellar Treat (new polish!)
• Julep in Stefani

Tools used:

 None!

Combinations on each nail:

Thumb: White on White (3 coats) for the base and Stellar Treat on top (2 coats)
Pointer finger: Polarized (3 coats)
Middle finger: Stefani (2 coats)
Ring finger: White on White (3 coats) for the base and Stellar Treat on top (2 coats)
Pinkie finger: Polarized (3 coats)

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

Originally, it was all going to be metal-looking colors for a steely manicure, but then my Rainbow Honey mystery bags arrived and I fell in love with Stellar Treat. Also, I knew one of the polishes I wanted to use originally would not come off easily and after struggling to scrub Rosa off for twenty minutes, I knew the planned polish needed to be used another week. That made me pick up White on White and Stellar Treat to fill the gap the other polish would have gone in.

Only while waiting on my manicure to dry did I see that hey, this is totally declaring my loyalty to a ship I know is never going to happen but still ship anyway. I'm not always into romance in fiction, but when I am, it crawls into things like my manicures.

My conclusions:

Jesus Christ, are all whites this hard to work with? One layer was spotty, two still didn't make it opaque, and three was too much to the point of making it goopy. This isn't the only white polish I've had this problem with either. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with how the colors went on. My worries are now on how they will wear and how they'll come off. I'm hoping the thumb and ring fingers keep on because after SEVEN EFFING COATS (3 of white, 1 top coat on those, 2 glittery stars, 1 final top coat), I might just destroy something if they chip too easily.

Also, if I decide to jump ship from Julep's Maven program (I originally typed "problem," which says a lot), Rainbow Honey is where I should go. Too bad they don't take my credit card; I had to use my debit card to order the polish and I'm not draining my debit card full of savings money/emergency money for nail polish. Even I know where to stop. (But seriously, I need me a full-size bottle of Stellar Treat because I used up half my 5 mL bottle painting my nails.)

Also on that Rainbow Honey train of thought, I really should have been more precise when putting it on because it looks especially messy on other nails not in this picture and it would have saved me some to use in the future had I done it better. Amateur painter is still very amateur.

Week 1 Review

I've had my polish on for six days now and done some good camping in the meantime. Time to look back and see how the polish held up! I can say just after putting it on that something is a keeper, but it takes the time spent wearing the polish that really determines it.

To review how I had my nails done:

Thumb: Julep Rosa
Pointer finger: Julep Billie Jean as the base, Julep Maggie for the music note
Middle finger: Julep Paulette
Ring finger: Julep Maggie for the base, Julep Paulette for the music note
Pinkie finger: Julep Billie Jean

Rosa:

How did it wear? Whoo, this one did not turn out so well. It's a lovely polish, true, but clean-up was a pain in the ass. You may be able to see it in the photo, but a good bit of the polish ended up creeping over my cuticle. This is normally something I do on purpose because I'm a messy painter anyway and overdoing it a bit lets me perfect it during clean-up, but Rosa was not a polish that wanted to be cleaned up and trying to do so caused me problems.

So yesterday, I decided to use a cleanup tool to try and get rid of some of that excess. It's nothing abnormal; with the average polish, I can do it within the same day to remove excess polish from the sides of my nails and the cuticle line and make it all look more polished (excuse the pun). Five days in and when I tried to get rid of everything of Rosa that was on my cuticles, the entire three layers of polish came off instead in one semi-solid chip. Noooooo. This happened on both my thumb nails.

Also, the site lies about Rosa being holographic glitter. UTTER LIES, which is especially egregious since holographic polishes are my favorites. So very disappointed.

Will I wear it again? Almost certainly not. I don't like to fight with my nail polish to get it cleaned up post-manicure and Rosa wanted to fight like it meant winning the championship match against her heavily-favored opponent. This presents a problem because I have two other polishes from the same line (not just brand, but line because Julep is releasing one birthstone polish per month) that are made the same way as Rosa but are in different colors (Betty and Priscilla). Betty gave me a similar problem but wasn't so bad that the entire polish chip just came off my nail like with Rosa.

Will I keep it? Yes. It sounds stupid, but c'mon, it's part of Julep's special birthstone collection. I know I'm not going to own all of them because the presence of diamond dust in their April polish Coretta bothers me too much for me to buy it (problems within the diamond industry and all), but I'd like to own most of them. Time will tell if I change my mind and throw it out anyway.

Billie Jean:

How did it wear? Billie Jean didn't do so well either. I put it on the pinkie toes as well as pinkie fingers and on one of the toes, half of it is just gone. That part of the toenail didn't chip. The polish didn't get rubbed off on accident when it was still wet because I would remember that. It's just gone like it faded off. On the fingers, it has an extraordinary amount of tip wear compared to the other polishes. I know I put my top coat of choice Seche Vite on later than I was supposed to and would have greater-than-normal tip wear because of it, but Billie Jean goes beyond what is on the other nails.

Will I wear it again? No. The matte look of it is nice and all even though the glossy top coat on my nails covered it up (the matte was perfectly visible on my toes, but you're never going to get a picture of my feet on this blog), but I have a near-dupe of it from the same brand (Flora) and I'm not going to re-wear something I have problems with.

Will I keep it? No. Like I said, I have a near-dupe of it and this one doesn't wear as well, so away it goes. It annoys me I'm getting rid of it after I just redid my color wheels so I have one wheel per color group and have Billie Jean smack dab in the middle of the purple wheel, but it's not like that problem hasn't happened before.

Paulette:

How did it wear? Paulette wore great. The golden shimmer I see in it whenever light flashed over my nails kept me entertained like I was ten again and peeling apart pieces of grass in a field. Hey, when you're stuck at your local YMCA for the summer and don't want to play soccer, you find something else to do. ANYWAY, minimal tip wear, lovely color, and smooth application make it a good one.

Will I wear it again? Yes! I've already got a few other ideas in mind for future manicures and Paulette is involved in at least two of them.

Will I keep it? Yes! I would sure hope this would be the answer since I just got it from being a Julep Maven, but it's good to actually put it on and see that yes, it's a good polish worth keeping.

Maggie:

How did it wear? Pretty well! It had tip wear made more obvious by the fact it's a dark color, but I didn't have any problems with it during clean-up or application. It's also one of three polishes that fondly remind me of space (the other two being Reece and Estelle). The contrast of Paulette against it made it darker and took away its galactic sparkle, but that's something easy to remedy in future uses.

Will I wear it again? Yes! I'll wear it on its own instead of using as the base when doing a nail design, but yeah, I'll happily wear Maggie again.

Will I keep it? Yes! I'd be sad if I didn't have my bottle of Maggie to pick up and stare at because of all the spaciness I see when the bottle is in the light.

In summary:

• Rosa is a keeper solely because it comes from a special collection and I won't wear it again
• Au revoir, Billie Jean
• Paulette and Maggie are awesome purples and awesome polishes

Week 1: Your Invitation to the Purple Hatter's Ball

Polishes used (all polishes I've never used before):

• Julep in Rosa (3 coats)
• Julep in Billie Jean (2 coats)
• Julep in Paulette (2 coats) (the new polish)
• Julep in Maggie (2 coats) 

Tools used:

• Julep Plie Wand and striping brush attachment

Combinations on each nail:

• Thumb: Rosa
• Pointer finger: Billie Jean for the base color, Maggie for the music note
• Middle finger: Paulette
• Ring finger: Maggie for the base color, Paulette for the music note
• Pinkie finger: Billie Jean

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

This manicure didn't take a whole lot of thought. I'm going to a music festival this weekend called The Purple Hatter's Ball (everyone should go to one of the music festivals held at this place at some point in their life because it's AMAZING, especially if you're going to Wanee and share the land with the 20,000-25,000 other attendees), so I wanted to go with an all-purple manicure. The music note was an added touch because it's a music festival, after all.

My conclusions:

This was my first time using Julep's much-hyped Plie Wand and while it did make painting my nails easier like it promised, I still had a lot of cleanup to do. A quick, clean nail-painter I am not. I wish I hadn't needed to use three coats of Rosa to get full coverage, but I'm pretty happy with the consistency of all the polishes and how they looked on my nails. It looks like they're all keepers!