Julep-Iona

This month, I received my third installment of the Julep Maven boxes. My style that I got from the quiz was "Classic With a Twist," but I was not feeling the plie wand (http://www.julep.com/pliewand) and got the box with three polish colors instead. One of these colors was Iona, an "It Girl" polish that is a darker blue leaning towards indigo/periwinkle. I love the color. It's pretty unique and I certainly do not have a dupe in my collection.
However, I am just not sure what to think about the formula. It is really, really thick. My other Juleps are this way too, and even though this was the thinnest one, I still kept managing to load up way too much polish on the brush and dripped a lot.
I took my white Sally Hansen nail striper and added some abstract designs to give it a little bit of a nautical vibe.

Wedding Nails

My friend just got married on Saturday (Congratulations Maggie)! and I got to be a bridesmaid. I did all of the nails and makeup for the bridal party that day. My color palette was pretty simple: we stuck with silver, blue and white. All of the girl's nails were those colors, but everyone's manicure was different from the pedicure and nobody had the same design. I'd say the nails that got the most complements were my silver and white glitter gradient nails. I used a very cheap white polish from Jordana that I still have in my little purple caboodle at my parent's house and I picked up Essie's "Set in Stones" for the occasion at Walgreens. 

The white Jordana polish actually really impressed me. Sure, it is streaky and a little uneven, but with a glitter top coat and a regular top coat (I used Sally Hansen tough as nails for this look), it all evens out and looks good. White even makes your skin tone look darker in contrast, which is nice at this stage in spring. 

Set in Stones is a really nice one in the Essie luxe effects collection. I like that there is a variety of glitter sizes, ranging from big hex glitters to very fine glitters less than a millimeter wide. It is perfect for the gradient look I was going for. 

To recreate this look, paint your nails one solid color (like white) and then once that dries, do one coat of glitter on the top 2/3 of the nail. Then go back and concentrate more glitter at the tip of the nail.

She-Rabbit nails

Oh dear! Have not published anything in over a month- this is because I can't find my SD card. I borrowed Boyfriend's today to get a picture of my nails.
First, my opinions on the while polish I used- this is "White On" from the Sally Hansen Xtreme wear line. A little thin, a little streaky, not great for painting nails plain white and leaving them that way, but a pretty great cheap nail art staple.
Anyways, I did the white stripes on the orange with some nail art striping tape, which is my new favorite nail art tool, and freehanded the bunny. I just drew a white bunny shape, filled in the ears with more orange (NYC's Times Square Tangerine) and drew the eyes with a black nail art pen. I guess a pastel would have been more appropriate, but who cares? Do what you want with your own nails.

Spoiled by Wet 'n' Wild- I Only Eat Salads

This is a bright, lime green (but not neon, don't want an unnatural salad) from Wed 'n' Wild's "Spoiled" collection. The price point is about a dollar more than their base "Wild Shine" line and is of slightly higher quality. This polish is smoother and more opaque than those, and also comes with a nicer, wider brush. That being said, this polish stains your nails like none other, so a base coat is an absolute must with this one.
On my accent nail, I laid down a base coat of "Zora" by Julep and the darker green color is "Naughty Nautical" by Essie. I was going to outline my triangle shapes with a black striper, but ultimately decided against it because it would have been too much contrast with my other nails.

Wet N' Wild- Sunny Side Up

This polish is from the Wet n' Wild Wild Shine line, which is the 99 cent core collection from this brand. That being said, I think these polishes are a fairly good value.They are a little translucent and streaky, taking about 3 or 4 coats to look opaque. This particular polish also has a tendency to stain the nail, so apply a basecoat.
However, the color is unique in my collection. It is the only light orange I have. The wear is not great, so I also recommend a topcoat. I added some glitter: Nicole by OPI's Be Awesome and Love Your Life for a chunky and a finer milled glitter.

Zoya- Dot

I guess I was a bit tardy to the "natural" nail polish party, but I'm back, and now actually have a Zoya polish. I've had my nails done with it in salons before, but I guess other brands always seem to catch my attention first. No longer! I saw this lovely color and thought maybe, just maybe I'd get a ynbb out of this that wasn't streaky, sheer and awful.
I love this formula. It's incredibly opaque, no streaks, and the thick polish hardens to a very glossy texture, kind of similar to Butter London's finishes.
Anyways, Dot is is a lovely color, and I did just that, created some dots on my nails that I turned into rosebuds- the flower kind, not the Citizen Kane variety. Somehow, black and white toboggan nails were never high on my nail art priority list.
The base coat is some random NYC polish I have and the little black bits are from my black Sally Hansen nail art pen. Stripers and dotting tools just weren't going to happen today.

Kleancolor- Neon Pink

This is the third Kleancolor neon polish of six in the neon collection. This is probably the most wearable of the six, the neon pink.
The color payoff of this polish is really excellent. The color is extremely bright, almost a day-glo type of color.
The formula is really thick, applying evenly in one coat. However, the dry time is fairly long.
One other bizarre feature of the polish is the strange smell.
The nail strips I'm wearing with the polish are Kiss brand in "Silk."