My November Julep Maven box just arrived!!!

That's it guys, I've opened my contest!

The theme has been published HERE,

as well as details on the prize!

Lightening post.

It's 3am on a Thursday night here, I just got back from my very best buddy's place, hadn't seen him in forever. When I got home there was a package for me in the mailbox... Yay! I've been getting packages for like 3 days straight, it's not even funny anymore. Nope, funny isn't the word. More like "flabbergastastic". Yep, that's the word I'm looking for...

It's so awesome to get home to such a carefully, lovingly packaged bundle of joy! I couldn't resist... I opened it and photographed it to share with you guys.

I'm so stoked! I can't wait to try them on. I even have yet another polish coming in the mail! I got that last one for free - I used the reward points I got from 1- signing up, and 2- accepting my November box. So, basically, nothing I wouldn't have done in the first place! So I have a lovely plum forest green colour somewhere between Seattle and Montreal as I'm typing this... how exciting!

Wanna know what's in the box? You'll have to wait and unwrap it with me to find out...

Just to think that someone took the time to wrap up these little bottles just for me, even tied a cute ribbon around them and everything... I don't know, maybe it's cheesy, but it just makes me happy. I love the care Julep put into this.

In my box there are two "Suede finish" (a fancy name for matte) polishes, called Hailee (a kind of silver/graphite colour) and Nora (a more plum/dark lilac colour). I can't wait to swatch these for you guys. I also got a matte top coat, and a surprise of three "One-step polish remover pads". They look like little wipes - I wonder how much polish I can get off with them. Like, is a single wipe enough for a full mani? I guess I'll find out soon enough!

That's it! Just wanted to share the joy!

Oh, I almost forgot - if you're wondering about the Julep Maven program, have a look on my left sidebar, or read this post. I actually got my first box for as little as a penny, and this promotion is still going on as far as I know! Three polishes for $0.01... If that doesn't put some sunlight in your grey November days, I don't know what will.

Lite-Brite nails

I just released the details on the fantastic nail art prize
I'll be giving away in my upcoming contest!

Check it out!

So, I got these rhinestones in the mail two days ago. When they got here, along with my first real dotting tools (I've been using bobby pins up to now), I told my boyfriend I might just start crying (but in a good way!). Well in the end I didn't cry, but I think something snapped inside my brain because OHMYGODLOOKWHATHAPPENED.

It didn't help that this weeks's theme in the 52 week challenge I'm participating in was "inspired by a game". To be honest, "inspired" wasn't a very accurate description of what I was. It's been more like "struggling". I had a few misadventures trying to come up with and execute ideas for this week, until it struck me. Lite-Brite.

When I was a kid, I used to play with that thing constantly! I loved it, and I remember being equally inspired and frustrated by its weird hexagonal disposition. Also, I was just in love with the pink coloured pegs. All of the pegs in fact looked like precious gems to me. I just adored playing with this game.

So I recreated it on my nails. Over the top? Maybe. True to the original? I like to think so.

I even painted small black dots on a greyer background to give the illusion of tiny holes in which the pegs must be inserted. Here, have a look at the original machine. This is exactly what mine looked like. I understand that the Lite-Brite looks much spiffier these days, and has even been converted into a mobile app. Meh, I say. This big chunky thing was way more exciting than any app version will ever be.

This picture is property of leahlariccia and was found through this webpage.

And here, you can see the original pegs that had to be pushed through the sheet of black paper in order to be illuminated. I actually only used rhinestones in the colours of the original set of Lite-Brite pegs. These pictures have been taken from this blog post. They do not belong to me.

I like how big and bulgey the rhinestones look because that's pretty much how the Lite Brite itself looked - like an image made of big pieces of plastic that stick out. Here's one last image, this one taken from this blog post.

EDIT: Someone pointed out that the "bumpiness" of the rhinestones is really what makes it ressemble the real Lite-Brite game, so I decided to take some pics that REALLY show just how clunky these things are! Hope you enjoy :)

  

 

There you go! I'm really happy in the end because I think this is a pretty original idea, and after struggling so hard to find something to do with this week's challenge, I think I did alright!

Did you have a Lite-Brite when you were younger?

Swatch: Essence - Chic Reloaded. Rich, dark multichrome goodness... with a bow on top.

I've announced the prize to my upcoming
nail art contest... Check it out HERE!

This is a very simple little mani but I had to share it because this must be my polish discovery of the year!!! I designed these nails to match a dress I was wearing to a wedding. This colour is so hot and sexy I just want to wear it all the time, especially with winter coming and dark shades being back in style.

Just look at that shimmer! Despite its dark, lavish base colour, when observed under different lights this polish just glows either green, or pink. And here's the awesome news: it's probably the most inexpensive polish I've ever bought (except for my Julep deal, of course, ha). It only cost me 2 dollars!

Ladies (and gents), I present to you: Essence's Chic Reloaded.

I just want to keep posting more and more pics because oh my god isn't it delicious? I'm just crazy about it.

I added a simple bow stamp to my thumb and ring fingers because I was wearing this luscious woolen dress with a faux-fur neck piece and lovely satin bows on its sleeves. I wish I had a better pic but it was really hard to capture the texture, these dark images will have to do for today!

And now, do me a favour and stare at this bottle. Just stare at it. Concentrate on the superb shine of its oil-stain-like colours. I promise all your problems will melt away, even just for a minute.

That is all!

Clouds at sunset

Good news everyone...

I have announced the prize for my nail art contest!

Check it out HERE!

It's been so grey here in Montreal lately... Ever since hurricane Sandy swept through the continent (my thoughts go out to all the people who were affected), it's been either raining, uber freezing, depressingly grey, or a combination of all those things. I had to do something lest I should drown in a weather-induced pit of misery.

So I imagined for a minute that the sky was illuminated with all the colours of the rainbow. And this is what happened...

Here are some closeups of my thumbs, where all the fiery action is going down. I especially wanted to show the faint glitter in the grey clouds. I LOVE this polish! It's a very inexpensive one by Essence, a lovely grey with pink/orange glitter. I thought it was appropriate since clouds appear at once dark and grey, and also shiny and pink and orange when in in front of the setting sun.

I really like how this mani looks when I look at my open hand. Little fluffy clouds on my fingertips! :3

Pastel lasers... or something.

Before we begin...

Info about my nail art contest!

I'm a bit tired today so there won't be much blabber. However, picture spam, yay!

In the natural light:

And now in artificial light:

Basically I just stood in front of my nail polish rack and picked out a few colours that I thought would look interesting together. Then this design came to mind and I just knew I had to give you guys my take on the "laser" manicure.

EDIT: Feeling a bit more chatty now so I thought I'd add a few comments. I really love this mani! I'm super happy with the colour combo. The only thing is I find the tape stripes to be a bit wide, but that's because my striping tape is still in the mail! :( Woe is me. I can't wait to have super thin tape so I can play around more with designs like this one. In the meantime I'm still super stoked about this, I think I'll be trying again with different colours!