Olympic Fever!

I don't know about you guys, but I have been totally obsessed with the Summer Olympics the past few days.  I love watching swimming and  gymnastics and I have been so happy to see so many talented American athletes take home metals.  It is so excited to watch someones dreams come true right before your eyes! Seeing the America girls gymnastics team take home gold the other night inspired my manicure today.

For this manicure I decided to focus on themes of the Olympics not just the USA.  I painted my pointer, middle and ring finger on each hand with gold, silver and bronze to represent the Olympic metals and on my thumb and pinky I painted the 5 Olympic rings using large and small dotting tools on a white base.

For the gold, silver and bronze fingers I used Julep Oscar, Zoya Trixie, and OPI Take The Stage; and for the rings I used Wet n' Wild French White Creme, Essence Walking on Air, Wet n' Wild Black Creme, China Glaze Poinsettia, China Glaze Solar Power, China Glaze Holly-Day.

To create the ring design I used the large side of a dotting tool to make 5 dots, one of each color featured in the ring design then I used the smallest size dotting tool that I had to add white dots inside the color dots to create the illusion that they are rings.

I am really excited with how this design came out and I have been getting complements on it all week! I also love how simple it was to get the olympic ring look.  Also on a side note this is probably the most bottles of nail polish I have used in one manicure!

What are you wearing for your Olympic mani?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

Tutorial: Reverse Gold Glitter Gradient

From the first time I saw Julep Oscar I knew it would be the perfect gold glitter for a glitter gradient! So that is what I have for you all today.  I created what I call a reverse glitter gradient with Julep Oscar, Essie Cosmo's PSS Shimmer, and Saint Germain Sea Green. I have included a tutorial for the glitter gradients again because I get a lot of requests on how to recreate my other glitter gradients and they are so easy and beautiful.

Step One:

Paint your nails with you base color of choice.  I used three coats of Saint Germain Sea Green.

Step Two:

I used one very thin coat of Essie Cosmo's PSS Shimmer do add some different sized glitters to the gradient.  I started painting it at the base of my nail and went 3/4 of the way to the top and left a space of just the base polish.  I also tried to stagger how high the glitter went up.  You don't want it to just look like it stopped at a specific line, you want it to look like it just happened.

Step Three:

Next I added a thin coat of Julep Oscar on top of that, bringing it to around the same area on the nail and staggering where the glitter stops.

Step Four:

I then added more Oscar, but this time adding a thicker coat stopping half way up the nail.

Step Five:

Next I repeated step four but only adding Oscar to the bottom 1/4 of my nail.  This makes the glitter dense at the base of the nail, and leaves the tips of the nails looking like the glitter is floating off of it.

Indoors

Sunlight

Sunlight

I think the combination of Saint Germain Sea Green and Julep Oscar look stunning together.  Also the addition of Essie Cosmo's PSS Shimmer adds some different color and textured glitters to the look.  I looks so sparkly and sophisticated! This is a beautiful fresh look for summer and it is so easy to replicate for yourself.

Have you tried glitter gradients?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

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Manicure of the Day: Opalescent French Tip

I wanted to do some more playing around with Julep Melissa (click here for some swatches) so I decided it would be cool to do an opalescent French Tip  over Julep Charlotte.  I really loved the combo of these two together so I figured this might end up really cool.

The first two pictures are with a camera flash.  It was interesting when I took the picture with a flash I lost some of the opalescent French Tip  some of the nails just looked purple.  By the way I really love the color of Charlotte it is such a beautiful creme lavender color.

The last two pictures are taken with out the flash and you can see the opalescent French Tip a lot better.  I really like this design.  It is subtle but when it catches your eye it is really beautiful.

What do you think? Leave a comment here or on Facebook! I love to hear what my readers think!

Julep Melissa Swatches

When I saw the color Melissa in mu Julep Maven box I could not wait to try it out!  Julep says that Melissa is an opalescent top coat do I decided to try it out over the two other Julep polishes that I received this month and also on its own.

The top finger is one coat of Melissa on its own.  It is very sheer.  After two coats of the polish its was still very translucent, but I can only assume that it is because Melissa is meant to be a top coat.  Next I put it over Julep Charlotte.  This combination happens to be my favorite!  I love this blue green color that it brings out in Charlotte.  And last but not least I swatched it over Julep Jodie.  This was not my favorite combination.  It dulled the things about Jodie that I liked the most, like the shimmer and it gave the polish a very frosty look.  I cannot wait to do some more experimenting with this opalescent polish and see what other colors it works well with.

Do any of you have Julep Melissa? What other colors do you think it goes with? Leave a comment here or on Facebook.

Julep Jodie Swatches

The first polish I decided to try from my Julep Maven box was Jodie.  Jodie is a rose color with a golden shimmer.  I think that it is a beautiful color and it looks even better on my nails than it does in the bottle.

I think the polish looks best after two coats and then I topped it with a Seche Vite top coat which really made the color pop!

What do you guys think? Leave a comment here or on Facebook!

Julep Maven March It Girl Box!

Hello Everyone!  I just got my very first Julep Maven Box and I am already in love with it!  I was suprised that it arrived so fast. I only ordered it on the 1st of March.

First of all I have to say that I loved the packaging inside the box when I opened it.  It came with an emory board and the polish was wraped in purple paper with a bow! So cute!

The March "It Girl" box came with three polish colors.  Charlotte which is a lavender creme color, Jodie wich is a rose color with a gold shimmer, and Melissa which is an opalescent shimmer.  I am so excited to swatch these colors and I will definately have pictures of them up shortly.  

If your interested in becoming a Julep Maven you can check it out here!

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