Sally Hansen Magnetic Electric Emerald

IMPULSE BUY!!!  I saw these a couple weeks ago at Walgreens and have been wanting to try a magnetic polish for a few weeks now.  But that $9.99 price tag was causing me some grief.  Well today I got off work early and I knew I had to go home and re-paint my nails because my fingers had taken up residence in Chip City and were looking really rough.

So I veered into the Walgreens parking lot at the speed of light and whipped out my credit card like it was payday...oh wait...it IS payday.  Ok nevermind it'll be fine.

I grabbed the green without a second thought and went for it.

I did one coat, per the instructions and let that dry.  It was pretty outside and I have TERRIBLE lighting in my house, so I went outside and took a picture of one coat, not magnetized, and with no topcoat.  Also, ignore my raggedy cuticles, I promise I will moisturize once I'm all done polishing.  The color is actually really pretty on it's own, without the magnetic effect.

When I got married and moved to Nebraska, I was complaining about the weather and someone said to me,  "Well if you don't like it...just give it a minute."  By the time I painted the second coat, magnetized all my digits, painted on my top coat (Seche Vite), and moisturized with my new Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream...the sun had apparently decided it was done...and hid behind some big fat clouds.

It actually looks pretty cool.  The effect looks better on my right hand for some reason.  I think because I was much more careful since I'm right handed and my right hand usually looks crummy because I'm terrible as a lefty.  Also, the effect is more visible than the pictures give it credit for.  I took 4,693 and a half pictures before I got sick of it and decided to go with this one.  I think I wore out the auto zoom on my stupid camera trying to get this in the perfect light and actually do it justice.

Oh and speaking of Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream...YUMM this crap smells and feels nice. I am on a hunt for an actual CREAM for my cuticles that's not oily or runny.  This is more of a salve, I don't consider it a cream at all.  And it's pretty oily, but not nearly as oily as my actual oil I have been using.  It will be perfect to keep in my purse and I can use it more readily at work.  Currently if I think I have a minute to moisturize and I lube my fingers all up and then someone calls me...I just slide all over my desk trying to answer the phone.  This should help with that because I can put it on and just let it sit on there and soak in.

Julep Helena

Meet Julep Helena.  The second of my three IT Girl Intro Polishes for their Maven program.  Julep describes this color as "magenta with a splash of pomegranate".  As with Julep Mandy (this post) the color depends so much on the lighting.  Sometimes it looks super purple-y, sometimes more pink.  I am resolving myself to the fact that I might not be able to color match my Julep polishes to my outfits because they keep changing colors on me!!  I'm not complaining though...it's like every time I look at my hands it's a happy little surprise!  :)

Again, that's China Glaze Fairy Dust on my ring finger because I'm trying to see how it looks on different kinds of colors.  Only one coat this time though because layering so much polish on my weak, bendy nails in my Julep Mandy manicure caused my ring fingers to chip and peel really fast.

Julep Mandy and my new 3DS!!!

My Julep "It Girl" Intro box came with Mandy, Heather, and Helena.  Here's Mandy!  It's a bright and pretty coral-y orange that Julep describes as "Fresh, bright, deep coral-pink."  I think calling it pink is a far reach.  To me it looks quite orange-y.  I'm hoping to be able to swatch the other two Julep polishes this week.

 I must say so far I really like the Julep polishes.  They go on quite smooth, and they self level pretty well.  This is three coats.  Two is ALMOST ok, but I don't like to be able to see my white line under the polish, and when I wore this one with two coats, I could see it in the bright light.  So if you don't mind the white of your nail showing through a little, or if you are only wearing it in lower light, then two is fine...but honestly this color doesn't truly shine until you get it outside in the sun, where it is just beautiful.  Oh, and that's China Glaze Fairy Dust in two coats over Mandy on my ring finger.

NOW LOOK AT MY NEW TOY!!!  I was in Gamestop midweek last week and I saw the box and signs for the new 3DS color that Nintendo scheduled for release on Sunday.  I haven't yet bought the 3DS because there aren't any games out for it that I HAVE to have (Pokemon, Animal Crossing, etc) and also because every time I settle on a color for a Nintendo handheld, they release something I would have rather had less than a month after I finally bite the bullet.  Not this time.  I was determined not to settle, at least not before there was a game I had to have on it.

So now, a little over a year after it's initial release, Nintendo released a color that really gave me pause.  I mean really...the pictures on the signage and the box looked stunning.  I hemmed and hawed for a few days and on Friday, I went and preordered it, to pick up on Sunday.  I didn't really NEED to reserve, but I figured it would just be my luck that the store wouldn't get any extras, and they wouldn't have one to sell me, so I did.

So on Sunday morning me and the hubby hopped in the car and went to pick up my new toy.

Now let me pause here to tell you something you don't know about me.  I LOVE gadgets.  Also, I'm very impatient.  It wasn't so hard to wait a year to get a 3DS, because I didn't really want one...but once I decided I wanted it, that wait from Friday to Sunday was PAINFUL!!!

Anyway, we pull up to the store, and there's no front window anymore.  Um...what?  The night before someone cut their power and drove through the front window to rob the store.  SERIOUSLY????  I threw a royal temper tantrum.  I asked the gal there if I could pick up my 3DS at a different store and she said yes...but...I would have to pay for it and then come back when this store reopens to get my deposit refunded.  Ok fine...problem is, I paid for the whole thing when I preordered.

My saint of a husband told me to just go buy it, again, so I could have it right away, and then go back later and get the full refund.  It's a lot of extra money, but it will probably only be a few days.  So we load back up and head over to one of the other stores in town.

We pull into the parking lot, and the store is gone...REALLY????  I threw another temper tantrum.  Ok, so I know of one other store in town.  I started heading there and put my husband in charge of calling them to make sure that they have one available.  They do.  So we got all the way there (we are so far away from home by now that I'm thinking we might have to get a hotel!!!) and I decided to make 100% sure that I had my receipt from the preorder, so that before I pay for a second 3DS, I have what I need to get my refund for one of them.  So I pull my billfold out of my purse...oh wait, no I don't...BECAUSE I FORGOT IT AT HOME ON THE COUCH!!!!

So I took my husband's credit card inside and my luck was better from then on.  They had mercy on me and let me pay with his card without making him come inside, they had the 3DS for me, and they had a used DS lite case with Pokemon Platinum on it that was only $3.

Julep Maven - June 2012

I joined Julep Maven last month and got my intro box (which I loved, and hopefully will be swatching this week).  So this is my first actual monthly box from Julep.  I got the email this morning and it took me a long time to decide what to do.

I am an "It Girl" and I decided to stick with my box, but there isn't one single color in this month's choices that I hated.  So here's what I'm getting below, and I added on Courtney and Lauren.  Click here for Julep's swatches of all of the June Maven colors!!!

China Glaze Strawberry Fields

So I decided to paint this one last night just so I could swatch it for the blog today.  Problem is, the pictures don't do it justice.  I have no good lighting in my life.  My house has horrible lighting, my work has painfully intense fluorescent lighting, and I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to the outside.  I think what I need is a really good lamp.

Anyway, this is my favorite color polish that I own.  Now that I have really started doing more with my nails, I know what I wish was different about it, so I can eventually find a new favorite.

It's such a beautiful and girly color.  It's bright and shimmery, but also has a lot of depth.  The only thing I don't like about it are the gold undertones.  I would rather it be a little darker and more pink-ish.

All that said, it's still my go-to pink.  Love it!

For the longest time, I didn't know what the color was.  The sticker on the bottom fell off long ago and the swatches on China Glaze's website are absolutely no help.  I found some swatches and I was about 80% sure it is Strawberry Fields, but it's very close to a couple other China Glaze colors so I wasn't sure...that is until I was in Sally Beauty the other night and I saw Strawberry Fields on the rack...now I know for sure.

And just because I had it at work today while my camera was out, I took a pic of my cuticle oil that I have been using.  It is the Gelish Nourish Cuticle Oil that came with my Gelish Basix Kit.  I love it because it smells so good.  I'm sure it's not the best cuticle oil out there, but it's fine with me.  Plus when I bought my Gelish curing lamp at Sally Beauty, they gave me another little bottle of it for free! So now I have one for work and one for home!  Yay!