Julep Color Inspiration

Hi guys, long time no see! So I've been MIA in the blogging world for a few months now, I'll give a quick recap on why: finished graduate school, now a certified school counselor, new job started in the school I interned with, and there is a baby on the way due in July! We don't know boy or girl, but so far it is VERY healthy.

 Now I wanted to do a polish-related reveal of my pregnancy, but fatigue and time have limited the nail art I can do. HOWEVER, I did get some inspiration to think about polish and colors. I recently received an e-mail from a representative from Julep, looking for bloggers to give color inspirations. This could in in the form of stories, pictures, or whatever inspiration I could find!

Naturally my inspiration is coming from my most recent and exciting life change, the coming birth of my first child. We do not know if it will be a boy or a girl, and chose to do it that way (though it wouldn't let us see even if we wanted to know!). But we do have names picked out, and the girl name is Juliet. Since Julep polishes are often real names of people, I thought that would be an appropriate start :-)

Now, the finish. I went to the Julep nail color page to get some ideas of what they do and what I liked. When you run a blog called "Sparkle and Shine Nails," chances are you want a glittery finish. One of my favorite glitter finishes are the micro glitters, that can be opaque on their own with two or three coats, or a nice finish over a pretty creme. Julep has a very pretty holographic micro glitter topper called Joelle that you can find here, that I thought would be an EXCELLENT addition to the finish of my polish.

I also found inspiration in some of the birthstone polishes Julep is coming out with. I am in LOVE with Pricilla, the May emerald polish. My birth month is May, and the polish is a fantastic full-coverage glitter.  Mix this full coverage glitter with some holographic micro glitter, and you have a sparkly, shiny bombshell!

Finally, I need some color inspiration. This is the hardest, because there are many options I could go with. My first though is a bright red, because my baby will be born in July. But there is always the slightest chance things happen where my baby is born in late June. Then I thought of the themes I'm looking for with baby. I LOVE owls, they are my favorite as most of you may know (and yes, this does have to do with Harry Potter!). This is one of the crib sets I put on my baby registry:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Child-of-Mine-by-Carter-s-Treetop-Friends-3-Piece-Crib-Bedding-Set/24246743?qty_0=1&registry_id=86161294108&selected_variation_0=24246743&shopFor=true&upc=0002226610833

Isn't that combo of yellow, gray, and brown really cute, and gender non-specific? But for what I'm looking for, I'm going to focus on one color, and that would be probably be the brown (the yellow and gray would end up gold or silver in glitter form). Both adorable and majestic, wise owls all seem to be brown, and it also has the woodsy feeling I've grown up with and intend on my children to grow up in as well.

So there you have it! I'm looking at a polish named Juliet, a full coverage chocolate brown glitter bomb scattered with holographic micro glitter.

By the way, Julep is also giving away a chance to get to NYFW (OMG THAT WOULD BE FANTASTIC), you can sign up here!

Polish Haul! I've been on a roll...

So while school and work have been incredibly overwhelming, I have had polish to keep me sane :-). I haven't kept the best track of my mani's thus far, but I HAVE picked up quite a few polishes in the past couple of weeks! I'm hoping to be able to show some of this off in the near future, depending on how much I want to procrastinate on graduate work, lol.

So I'll start with my little haul from approximately two weeks ago. This is from three places: Sally Beauty, Beauty PLUS, and Hot Topic.

From left to right: Finger Paints Easel-y Entertained and Where Art Renoir?, China Glaze Desert Sun and Jungle Queen, OPI Super Bass Shatter, China Glaze Hello Gorgeous, Color Club Worth the Risque (holo version!)  and Wink Wink Twinkle, and a Hot Topic Blue glow-in-the-dark skull polish

And here was one mani I did after getting this haul:

One coat of Finger Paints Where Art Renoir? with a coat of China Glaze Hello Gorgeous. Check that holographic sparkle!!!

 Then yesterday, I had the day from HELL at work. So I hit up Sally Beauty again, who is having a 50% off all clearance items sale...so I got the following:

China Glaze Halloween pack with Roughish Red, Glitter Goblin, Bizarre Blurple, and Ghoulish Glow. Orly Flash Glam FX Mermaid Tale and Sashay My Way, Finger Paints Fall of Surprises, and China Glaze Swanky Silk

And then today I had some amazing nail mail! I had ordered a grab bag from Jen over at Jen's Nail Files. She guaranteed ten polishes and at least one full size indie. WELL, she definitely gave what she promises and more!

Julep Boris and Nicole, OPI Didgeridoo Your Nails, Color Club Hot Like Lava, China Glaze Skyscraper, Confetti Pink Confetti, and Tip Top Rocky Road Glitter

Claire's Flamingo Feather, F4 Hawaiian Punch mini, Darling Diva Antares, Creative King's Ransom, Monster Mixers and Elixers Stratosphere mini, Spoiled Use Protection, and Avon Stunning Cobalt

WOW! I ended up with one full size indie, two mini indies, and a total of 11 full size and two mini bottles of polish. *Billy Mays style* BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Halloween Candy!

Bag of goodies including dolphin nail file, witch eraser, two mini vials of glitters, a notepad, and four magic grow beans.

Like, I'm looking at this influx of new polishes dreaming of the different combinations possible! Do I put the Hawaiian punch over the Flamingo Feather? Stratosphere over Stunning Cobalt? Rocky Road Glitter over Hot Topic glow in the dark? Ghoulish Glow under Super Bass Shatter?

What do you guys think I should do with some of this? I did show one combo, because it was GORGEOUS and I had it on for like, four days without chipping! Anything else?

Good night!
-Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)