The Nail Artista Extraordinaire: September 2011

Julep Maven Check This OUT!

The doorbell rang this morning and to my delight I found something much better than a visitor. It was a big black box filled with goodies, you know, the manicure type. Very cool.

Last week for only 20 bucks, I joined the Julep Maven Program. It's this super neat-o thing where they send you a Monthly Beauty Editor Sneak Peak Box. This means that they send you a great box of stuff like new colors and skin treatments EVERY MONTH. This is what came in my box this month:

Okay, so first out of the box came a full sized Glycolic Hand Scrub. Now, lemme tell you that this is 3 oz. of Heaven in a little squeeze tube! My hands feel a lot smoother and I've only used it once!

Then, came 3 bottles of nail polish, all neatly wrapped up in pink tissue paper. It's really neat how they choose the colors to send you, when you sign up to join their Maven program, you take a fun little quiz. They ask you a couple of questions then, BAM, they magically know what colors to send you. And the polish is the best polish I have EVER put on. One coat gives wonderful, smooth coverage. No polish I've ever tried compares!

I got Samantha, which is a hot pink.

The other color was Zoe (a new unrealeased Fall color) which is a cool copper.

They also gave me nail therapy. You put it on your nails to create flexablity and strength.

Next out of the box came to single use packets, one a glycolic hand scrub and the other SPF 30 hand cream.

Also included in the box was a nice letter from the CEO and founder of Julep. It was even signed, which I thought was really sweet. <3 There was also a little card which listed all the things that came in the box and the retail value. This month's was worth $76.00...and I only payed $19.99!!! It's insanity! In a good way of course!

It all came in a nice little bag, which was tied up with a pink ribbon, just like a present. This is handy if you forget a friends birthday, you can have your monthly box shipped to her house and just blame the slow mail system.

I already can't wait until next month! I'll give you guys the link so that you can check it out. I really do recommend it, I mean, it's just so cool, and every month you get the thrill of a box filled with goodies arriving on your doorstep. So look into it. It's a totally Nail Artista recommended thing!
http://www.julep.com/maven.htm
(scroll down under the video, and to the far right there is a pink 'take quiz' button. Press it and you are on your way!)

Simple Marbling Technique

I'm going to show you a really super neat-o technique called marbling. Now, there are ways to marble your nails using water and a tooth pick, but this version is much simpler, and all you need is a paintbrush.

Choose 3 or 4 colors that you want to marble with. You then give yourself a basic manicure with one of the colors you have chosen. (just to give it a colored base coat)

I used the primary colors (showed up on yellow the best).
The colors I used were OPI *OFF WITH HER RED*,
S.H. Xtreme Wear *MELLOW YELLOW*,
and
Sinful Colors *FLY AWAY*

2. The second step is to drip several drops of each color onto your nail. If they overlap, I find that it makes the swirl look even better.

3. Then, you take a small paintbrush, or a toothpick and drag it through the drops of color. Swirl the paintbrush through it very carefully, making sure not to mix the colors or you will end up with a mucky-yucky brown.

4. There is going to be a lot of polish on your nail, so it will take a little longer to dry that a usual mani. After it is dry, you just clean up the sides with a Q-Tip and top coat it. That's it.

Now, wasn't that easy? And it was kinda fun at the same time. So try it out, play around with it, and lemme know what you think.

Disco/70's Inspired Nail Art

Are you suffering from Night Fever? Feel the need to be Stayin' Alive? Then get on down to Funky Town, it's the only way to beat the groove. Go over to the Brick House, next to the Carwash and have a Celebration. If that doesn't cure you...well...I guess it's just to late, and you'll just have to give in to the beat and get down and funky with the rest of the groovy dudes and chicks around.

This is a pretty simple nail art tutorial. It uses a type of marbleizing technique that looks really rockin'. To start pick a couple of disco-y colors. I started by giving myself a simple manicure with one of the each of the colors I planned to use. (I alternated hot and cold colors, but you could do all pinks or all blues or all whatever.)

The second step is to place dots of coordinating colors on your nails. You want the dots to be droplets on your nails. You need to have enough polish to swirl around to cover your nail.

This is one of those times that you've gotta work kinda quick. You take a toothpick or a dotter tool (see above picture) or even an stiff paint brush. You begin to pull the droplets of polish around, swirling them together but, DO NOT MIX THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Continue to do this until your entire nail is covered with the swirl. It may be that you have to add a few more drops of polish here and there to be able to cover the entire nail. Just be sure to use enough variety of colors to make the nails look swirled.

It may take a few more minutes to dry entirely depending on how much polish you applied. After it drys, take a Q-Tip and some remover and clean up the edges (chances are the you'll make a mess of your fingers, but that's oke-doke).

The next step is to apply a glitter top coat to it. I'm showing you what it looks like with a softer, subtler glitter, but it looks good with larger glitter too.

After your glitter has dried you can leave the design as is or...you can continue to funk it up. I used some far-out stickers for scrapbooking to continue adding to the glam-ness. All I did was add a drop of regular top coat where I wanted the sticker and then I placed the sticker on the nail and waited for it to dry.