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 Days "Vintage"

So this was kind of accidental, but I LOVE participating in the Polly Polish Polish Days mass posts every month. BUT I always forget to do it ahead of time. WELL, this month the theme is Vintage, and while this isn't DIRECTLY vintage looking, something about it says vintage to me.

Today we have China Glaze For Audrey with a coat of Revlon Heavenly over it. For Audrey is definitely the vintage part of this, it's a CLASSIC China Glaze color of a beautiful Tiffany blue, done as a tribute to Audrey Hepburn and Tiffany and Co., what's not wonderfully vintage about that?

Revlon Heavenly is a newer Revlon polish that I almost passed on. It's got iridescent hex glitter and opalescent square glitter in an almost cloudy base, not very attractive in the bottle...but AMAZING on the nail! It almost applies like a flakie polish, and the color shifts in the glitter is beautiful! The color shift would be much more prominent over a darker color, but considering For Audrey is made for a classic line of jewelry, a little sparkle can't hurt :-)

And here we are!

So what do you think? I'd highly suggest Heavenly, and if you don't own China Glaze For Audrey, it's available pretty much anywhere China Glaze is (most salon shops, Ulta, Sally Beauty, Trans Design, head2toe, ect), it's part of the core line.

ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY! China Glaze Glitz 'n Pieces...and other surprises!

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, long time no see! I'm RIDICULOUSLY sorry to be posting so late, and so infrequently. I just simply run out of time to post amongst everything else going on with internship and the time I'm away from home (I leave my house at 6:30 in the morning and often don't get home until 7 at night or later...).

BUT I have some fantastic things for you all tonight! First of all, tomorrow, March 1, 2013 (or today depending on when you're reading this!) is my ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY! I can't believe I've been blogging for a whole year already! I remember clearly my first post (which is really funny to go back to) was done when I had a snow day at the school I work at, and I tried a water marble for the first time.

Since that first post, my polish collection has doubled, or possibly tripled. I'm close to the 300 mark on polishes, which may not seem like a lot but probably more than anyone I know has. (Except maybe one of my friends, she knows who she is!) I feel like I'm getting a good routine down with my pictures, I'm getting bolder in my polish purchases, and overall learning much more about formula, color combinations, polishing technique, brands/types of polishes, and even certain nail art techniques (though nail art is still not a strength of mine).

And NONE of that would have happened if I didn't have sweet readers like YOU GUYS, who have followed my Facebook page and read my blog posts over time. While my numbers are still small, that is my own doing: I am not active enough for my readers, my pictures always seemed mediocre, and my nail care was never amazing. But those that have still followed what I post: THANK YOU SO MUCH, YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!!! Also, following other bloggers has helped me hone in on what I should be doing. For example, The Polish-Aholic did a post on taking and editing pics, and it helped tremendously!

This evening is probably some of my best pictures I've done, but this polish is probably one of my new favorites. Being that I'm Sparkle and Shine, this polish certainly fits the bill! I have China Glaze Glitz 'n Pieces over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (perfect barely-off-white for layering!). Glitz 'n Pieces is from the new Glitz Bitz 'n Pieces collection (I'm not 100% sure I have that name right), which are 6 similar glitters. This one has small and medium silver hex glitter, medium and large black hex glitter, and black bar glitter (which doesn't come across hairy at all in this combination). The other colors in the collection have the same black "pieces" with different colors of glitters or "Glitz" I know putting this one over a white wasn't the most creative combination, but it's neutral enough for matching outfits at work, and I've gotten TONS of compliments from co-workers and my high school students! 

You'll have to pardon the rough cuticles and booboo on the ring finger, it's been a rough winter, but I found a six-pack of OPI Avojuice lotions on clearance at Ulta the other day, so I'm trying to stay lotioned as much as possible!

Sooooooo,do you like Glitz ' Pieces? Want your own bottle? Wellllllll, for my one-year blogiversary, I'm going to give one lucky winner three of the colors from the Glitz 'n Pieces collection that they want! From a blog called Sparkle and Shine Nails, it was only necessary! Just a few ground rules:

1.) Please follow the Rafflecoptor instructions for entry (they aren't very demanding :-D) Giveaway runs until March 17, 2013 at midnight EST (St. Patrick's Day!). Winner will be announced Monday evening on Facebook and e-mailed. They will then have 48 hours to respond, or a new winner will be chosen.
2.) Please only US Residents for this one :-( My goal was to have international shipping figured out by the time this came around, but alas I cannot (someday ladies!)
3.) Please remember this giveaway is IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH FACEBOOK.
4.) Have fun, thanks for supporting me for the past year, and good luck! Feel free to e-mail me with any questions at sparkleandshinenailz@gmail.com

Peace!
-Jessica (Sparkle and Shine Nails)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Haul Time! I don't even know where to begin!

OMGOODNESS, it's been a great week in polish purchasing! So, I was afraid that starting my internship I would A.) have no money (which I don't really, but somehow saved well enough), and B.) have no places to purchase nail polish.

WELL, I WAS WRONG! I found the Ulta 20 minutes away from the school I'm interning at (found a Sally's too that sucked!), found a great BOGO deal at Overall Beauty, and even hit up some local drugstores! So, without further ado...

L-R: Sally Hansen Glass Slippers, Essie Penny Talk, Revlon Popular, Girly, Scandalous, Nicole by OPI Inner Sparkle and Selena. (These were found at random drugstores or Wal-Mart)

L-R: Revlon Midnight Affair and Blue Lagoon, OPI The Living Daylights, Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, and The World is Not Enough (The OPI polishes at a local drugstore were $4.00, and the Revlon ones were $1.00!)

L-R: Piggy Polish Lightmare, China Glaze Glistening Snow, Essie Love & Acceptance, Zoya Aurora and Jolene (Clearance at Ulta with a 20% off coupon!)

L-R: Sea Lore Arctic Otter and Snowy Seal, piCture pOlish Mallard (*die*), Nostalgic Nail Lacquers Way Harsh and Rollin' With the Homies (*die again*). (These were part of a BOGO deal at Overall Beauty. Except Mallard, that was necessary).

 

Is this not amazing?!?!?!? So now I don't know what to do with myself, what do I use first, what do I pair together...I did use a couple of these since posting, but really only one or two...which is good because at this rate I may need to do a no-buy for March on necessity! BUT, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now...

Peace!
-Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)

Holy Bright!! LA Colors Flicker with OPI Black Shatter

Okay, okay, okay, I know you're first going to say "ERMAHGERD NO MORE CRACKLE/SHATTER/FRACTURED/SHREDDED!!!!!!" But! This is to amazing to pass up, even though its probably coming off tonight because its a little much for a school counseling office, lol. (I wanted to save it for a party Friday night, but I'm supposed to wear red on Friday...)

I took the brightest polish I own and crackled on it, but what is the brightest, you may ask?  Well, here you will find LA Colors in Flicker. This is the essence of highlighter neon yellow, and its generally only $1-2, I got it for $1 at Dollar General! Now, the formula is kind of thin and sheer, so I did one thick coat over Sally Hansen White On to make it POP, but it looked amazing. I then was hoping the shatter would dull it down a little, but it really just made it very edgy and bold (*cough*80's!*cough*).

Like I said, this would be fantastic for a party, just a LITTLE much for a school setting. What do you think?

Peace!
-Jessica

PS. The pictures are captionless at the end because I'm using my phone app to write this post.

Pokemon Nail Art Challenge: Week 2 Fire Type

Good evening! I know this is coming later at night (well, 10:00 p.m.-ish EST), but I'm very excited to share these tonight! So you all know I'm part of a Pokemon Nail Art Challenge (more details found in this post). Last week was grass, and this week is fire!!

Now, I thought I was going to do Charmander or Charizard for this one, becaus Charmander's so fricken cute! I also thought I might do Vulpix, because Brock has a pretty sweet one, and she's very pretty with her tails.  HOWEVER, looking at some of my fire options, I remembered Eevee's evolution options, and how pretty Flareon is. So I figured I could try freehanding a Flareon, some flames, and the Fire Pokemon symbol!

Polishes used include:
Orly Sparked (yellow)
China Glaze Roguish red (orange)
Sinful Color black shimmery nail art polish
Fingerpaints gold/holographic glitter nail art polish

I hope you enjoy his adorableness, and if you do, check out the other fabulous bloggers!

Peace!
-Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)

Pokemon Nail Art Challenge: Week 1 Grass Type

Sooooooooo I've been going a little crazy lately getting my school counseling internship started, but I found something fun to do on the weekends! Adventures of the Nail Friends and The Blahg are hosting a Pokemon Nail Art Challenge using the original 151 Pokemon!

Didn't know I had that much nerd in me? I totally do, and I think I did my nerd self proud this time around. Now, the introduction to the challenge was just pokeballs, and then the first week is Grass type. Each week is a different type of Pokemon (there is a picture at AofNF's blog that outlines it), but I ended up combining my grass type with the introductory post to get things started :-).

So, without further ado..

Bellsprout!

Blurry closeup.

I used lots of different polishes for this one. The pokeballs are OPI Alpine Snow and Big Apple Red, with a Sinful Colors black striping polish. Bellsprout is a yellow Sinful Colors striping polish for the head, Zoya Angelina for the stem-like body, Wet 'n Wild Sage in the City for the leaves, and OPI Pink Friday for the mouth.

Here's the links to everyone else's posts!


Peace!
Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)