Julep Azure Duo

I just got the Azure duo from Julep with the colors Annie & Shenae.  I loved them so much I had to try them out together, so I did this quick triangle manicure.

I started by painting two coats of Shenae and added a quick drying top coat.  Once that was dry, I taped off the triangles (I used striping tape, but you can easily use any kind of tape) and painted on the triangles using Annie.  Then I applied a final top coat, and voila!  (I probably should've waited a little longer for the triangles to dry-- you can tell on my ring finger that the top coat caused the blue to streak a little.)

Pictures in the sunshine:

Striping Tape Multicolored Nails

Arden: Hey everyone!  Today's prompt in the 33 Day Challenge is "tape manicure."  I originally was going to do a manicure that involved regular Scotch tape, but then I saw this design on Pinterest and just had to try it out!

I started with one coat of L'Oreal All in One Base coat, and then painted two coats of Sally Hansen White Out.  I added a coat of Essie Good to Go to help my nails dry faster, and then applied striping tape in a random, vaguely spiderweb-like pattern.  I think I used 4-5 pieces of striping tape per nail.

I then cut up a makeup sponge into a bunch of little pieces (one for every color I would be using).  I took the first color I was going to use, dabbed a bit on a piece of junk mail (wax paper or aluminum foil also work well), dipped a piece of sponge in it, and sponged a tiny amount on each nail.  I repeated the process for each color.  When I was done, I removed the tape with tweezers and followed up with a top coat.

Colors used:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Pink Blink
CoverGirl Boundless Color Fuchsia Girl
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening
Essie Mint Candy Apple
Color Club London Calling
Essie Butler Please
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac

I think these turned out AMAZING.  I freaking love them, they might be my most favorite nails I've ever done (I know I say that kind of a lot).  I just loved the sponged nature of the rainbow colors, and how crisp the tape lines look in comparison to the smudginess of the colors.

This was also not that difficult to do-- sponging on colors was great because if I messed up, I could just sponge something else on top of it and no one could tell.  The most time-consuming part of this manicure was applying all of the striping tape (as it always is with striping tape manicures).  The rest was super user-friendly!

What do you guys think of this manicure?  Let me know in the comments!

If you haven't entered our giveaway yet, you should do it!  You can see all the rules and prizes here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also, be sure to check out all of the other people who are participating in the 33DC below!

33DC My Most Used Color Polish + 100th Post Giveaway!

Hey y'all! It's Lisl!  So it's the second day of the 33 Day Challenge that Arden introduced on Monday. Today's theme was "Your Most Used Color Polish," which was a bit of a toughie for me because I don't actually know which one that is.   So, instead I went with two colors that I am pretty sure I use very very often:  Butter London Blagger (my favorite blue polish evar) and China Glaze Make an Entrance.

Plus, Blagger seemed very appropriate because our 100th post giveaway is going live today and we're giving away Butter London Blagger, as well as Julep Bunny and Julep's Oxygen Nail Treatment!  Jump through to the rest of the post to find out more about the giveaway and enter!

Tri-Polish Challenge + Bonus Color Club Wanderlust Swatch

Lisl: Hey y'all!  So I missed the first two days of the Tri-Polish Challenge this month since I was away and spacey, but I am trying very hard to catch up!  Everything you need to know about the Tri-Polish Challenge is here in case you're curious!

Here are the official three colors:
Zoya - Liberty 
Nicole by OPI - Khloe Had a Little Lam Lam (best name for a polish ever)
Color Club - London Calling

London Calling is part of Color Club's Wanderlust Collection which is available exclusively at Birchbox.  I got it in my monthly box and thought I'd add a swatch into the mix today!

London Calling is a neon-y pastel.  It goes on smoothly with really good coverage.  And it's really neon-y! I'm showing it here with two coats.  I kind of love it.  I am a bit of a sucker for minty greens and this is an excellent addition to the our collection.  

Star Trek Nails

Arden: I just discovered these pictures on my computer and can't believe I never blogged them!  To celebrate going to see Star Trek Into Darkness at midnight the night it opened last month, I did a Star Trek-inspired manicure.  These nails are meant to evoke the uniforms worn by Starfleet officers.

I started by painting my nails Essie Red Label, Butter London Blagger, and Sally Hansen Butterscotch.  (I bought Butterscotch because I had a coupon at CVS, and also because I had never seen a mustard yellow polish before.  It really is a unique shade of yellow.)

As Seen on Pinterest: Nautical Nails

Arden: We haven't done one of these in a while!  I guess I've been getting my nail inspiration from places other than Pinterest.  Today I recreated this design, which I pinned many moons ago:

from http://thebeautydepartment.com/2012/01/mani-monday/

I didn't have any of those straight across manicure strips to make the white lines with, so I decided to just use regular Scotch tape.  This did NOT work as well as I thought.  It was a major struggle to cut the tape narrow enough to fit a couple of white stripes on my nails without it being too narrow or crooked.

I started my painting my nails with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  After it dried, I applied the tape and painted on a thick coat of Chanel Blue Satin.  (In retrospect, I should've chosen a different navy blue-- that one looked practically black, even over the white.)  And then I finished up by drawing on tiny hearts with our Color Club red striper polish.

This manicure really wasn't executed well.  The navy polish bled onto the white really badly (you can tell on my ring finger where I had to cover it up with white polish) and in these close up pictures it's pretty obvious none of the stripes are straight.

Oh well, you live, you learn.  Chalk this one up as a "manicure I'll never do again and would advise you not to try either!"

NOTD: Diagonal Stripes and Dots!

Arden here: I've got a quick Nail of the Day for you!  With this design, I wanted to experiment with both solid color blocks and dots.  While it probably isn't my best-executed nail design, I think in the future something similar would look really cool!

I started by painting my nails Essie Maximillian Strasse Her.  This is part of the Essie 2013 spring collection, and when I first got it in the store, I thought it was a greyish light green (especially compared to the other colors in the collection).  But on my nails, it looks MUCH more bluish gray (maybe with a little bit of a greenish hue?).  Something to know if you're considering getting it!

I then taped off my nails and painted a triangle section Essie Peach Daiquiri.  (My pointer finger is not painted because even though I had painted my nails Maximillian Strasse Her THE NIGHT BEFORE, I still ended up pulling up some of the paint w/ my tape and had to repaint that one.)

As Seen on Pinterest: Half Stripes

Arden: I pinned this a few weeks ago, and finally just got the chance to try it!

Pic from http://loveit.com/loves/P0BKYawjC2B_9LwDXfvH7T- As always, if you know its original creator, please let me know!

I REALLY liked the original color combination, but A) I didn't want to directly copy this design, and B) I paint my nails white A LOT for various nail art designs so I wanted to do something different!

Instead of white and light blue, I decided to move everything down a shade and do light blue and dark blue.  For my light blue, I used my new Essie Bikini So Teeny. 

Not sure how I didn't notice that hair on my nails when I took all these pictures....

Nail Art Nail-Off: Tape Manicures

Arden here:  This week, we're tackling tape manicures!

For mine, I decided to use tape to mark off three triangular regions on my nails.  I started with a base coat, and then two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  (Apparently I use this polish a lot!)