Sunday, September 22, 2013

Shark's Cove chevrons

Hello lovelies!  Awhile back - too far back, I'm ashamed to admit - a dear, sweet blogger buddy sent me a total surprise package with not only one of the Julie G Gumdrops polishes I'd been desperately wanting, but also Julie G Shark's Cove! :O  I could NOT believe it!!!  Melissa (a la Lacquer Reverie) is seriously amazing - and so incredibly thoughtful! :D

Ever since I received that sneaky surprise package, I'd been wanting to use both polishes as they're seriously beautiful, but you know how it goes...we addicts are constantly getting nail mail and sometimes without an inspiration to use a certain polish, it gets lost in the stash!  Well, I finally had some sort of epiphany last night, because I decided how to use both Julie G's AND Julep Nan which I just got off eBay.


Ta daaaa!! :D  It'd been awhile since I did some legit nail art, so it felt really good to do this.  And I really love this combo, if I may say so myself.  I did two coats of OPI Nail Envy (the original stuff?) that was a gift from another friend who no longer uses it, two coats of Shark's Cove, a thin coat of Seche Vite, and then I used scotch tape to make the "main chevron," and finally, freehanded the tiny bottom and side triangles.  Thanks to Liesl, I seem to have a thing for double accent nails, so I showed the chevrons some lovin' with hearts using Julep Nan & a bobby pin. L♥ve 'em!! ;)


The bottle didn't really catch the light in this pic (shoulda paid more attention, Emily, tsk tsk), but Shark's Cove minty green base is positively packed with silver microflakie shimmer!  Yummm.  The first coat was quite sheer and had a tendancy to get bald patches (at least it did over the Nail Envy base), but a second coat covered everything quite nicely.  I really can't speak about the dry time, because the humidity here is still  making every mani take a million years.  For real.  It's a good thing today was Sunday & I had no plans, because I did this at a snail's pace.  -_-
No offense, teensy tiny nail snail!

Julie G Gumdrops Blueberry Fizz is positively amazing in my book!  I like it much better than any of the other blue texture polishes I've seen, and I really love that it has so much silver sparkle and even small silver hexes in it.  The name is quite perfect, I think. :)  Like most texture polishes, it dried within about 5 mins, which was a nice change from waiting and waiting and waiting for SC. (Shark's Cove, that is...not Santa Clause)
And I actually managed to get a good bottle shot in the sun to showcase all of that happy sparkle! ;D


I did put another thin coat of Seche Vite over the pinkie and ring fingers, but opted (for now) to leave Blueberry Fizz in all its textured glory.  I might decide to SV it in a couple days because I've never done that before, but have seen many swatches that show them both ways, and they're sometimes more amazing with a top coat.

I really need to start doing tutorials for my nail art...then again, there are SO many already out there!  I actually used this one, not because I had no clue how, but because I usually do better with a visual aid as a reference.


Ohhh Julie G (by Jesse's Girl Cosmetics), how I wish you were available in drugstores near me!  :(  I live in NW Minnesota, and apparently this brand is moreso in SE and NW United States regions/drugstore chains like Rite Aids and such.  Ahh well...that's what our amazing fellow bloggers are for, right?!  I think we'd all go to great lengths to help eachother get polishes we're not able to get ourselves. :)  I know I would be willing to help a girl out!

As you can probably tell, this is in the shade. ;)

And finally, we have Julep Nan.  I don't know exactly why, but this Nantucket brickey terracotta orange-toned red just spoke to me from the moment I laid eyes on it here.  Reds are usually something I shy away from because of their horrible tendency to stain and simply because they don't do much for me.  It's like, oh, a red...meh. ;)  But I REALLY like this one!  I'm SO glad I found it on eBay with the make an offer option, because I got it still sealed for half the price, shipping & all.  My momma taught me to be a bargain shopper whenever possible! ;)
At the moment, I can't say much about the application nor the dry time of Nan because I just dabbed & spread it on with a bobby pin.  I assure you, I will be wearing it as more of a full fall mani very  soon!   


Well, since I can't seem to get snails off my mind, I give you the requisite parting humor photo:


BAHAHAHA! :P  Hopefully you'll be thinking of this guy while getting up for work tomorrow & he'll make your Monday much more tolerable. ;)

~ ♥ Em



17 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you soooo much!! :D And thanks for stopping by! ;)

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  2. Hi Emily, awww Melissa is too sweet and this indeed is the best sort of nailmail out there!!! I love how you combined colors and patterns - great job and those hearts are just too sweet. The mini snail is my favorite though ;- P!!! So much perfection at this miniature size!!! Have a wonderful day <3

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    1. Hi Christine!! :D Yes, it was sooo sweet of her to get those for me! I love surprises!
      Thank you, thank you! I really wasn't sure how it would all turn out, but I could not stop marveling at the finished effect. ;) Haha isn't he just the cutest?! :D I hope you have a wonderful day too! ♥

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  3. Okay...I love this. It's adorable. I'm so glad you love the Julie G stuff too! <3 I had a drying time issue with Shark's Cove as well, but it's SO WORTH IT! Oh, and I finally just un-followed you and followed you back in hopes that will fix the issue! :)

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    1. Oh I absolutely do!!! Like I said, I sure wish it was sold around here! THANK YOU AGAIN for getting them for me!!!! :D ♥
      Hmm well I know you guys have horrendous humidity too, so I really think that's to blame for the dry time issues we're having. I almost can't wait for winter simply because the humidity with drop tremendously! :P (I can't believe I just said I can't wait for winter. UGH.)
      Thank you so much for trying that! Isn't the process tedious and a tad confusing?! Well, probably not for you, Mrs. Certified Genius!!

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  4. I love how cute this mani is and your chevrons rock! I never would have though to do a textured polish in a chevron mani so you may be on to something here Emily!! Shark's Cove is so pretty and I can't get over that shimmer, I might have to look for it regardless of a drying time issue. Oh and that snail pic at the end? BAHAHAHAHAA! I want strawberries now!

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    1. Awww thank you! I've never done chevrons before (which is strange because I really like 'em) so I was quite pleased to check off another mani "first." ;) ..and of course, have it turn out to my liking!
      I used Zoya Vespa for roses once too, and the effect was pretty cool. If you wanna see 'em, they're in my "Marvelous Minty Mani" or something like that...it was a few months ago. :) Speaking of minty, Shark's Cove is SUCH a great minty green, and the shimmer is the proverbial icing on the cake, so I would highly recommend it. Like I said in my reply to Melissa, I'm pretty sure the dry time crap is because of the humidity. I've never been so attuned to the humidity % as I am now! LOL
      Hehehehe! I'm SO GLAD someone got a kick outta my weird snail pic. :P I hope you were able to satisfy your strawberry craving. :)

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  5. Your art looks so good! What an awesome Melissa person :) It is funny how easily distracted our kind is. I have Nail Prisms I've been sitting on for months. Your nail snail is adorable. Your colors are all gorgie. I love that you did a double accent <3 Imma go to sleep meow.

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    1. I keep meaning to reply to your comment, and then I get distracted by a blog, or a FB chat or SOMEthing! :P LOLOL!
      Thank you so much for your ever so kind assessment of my art! :D That means a lot to a newbie like me!! Hehe, yeah, who the heck is this awesome Melissa person?! :P
      Great example of ADD by your choppy sentences. ;) Although to set the record straight, that is not my nail snail...it's a random Google image. ;) Thank you for introducing me to the fab double accent! I canNOT believe you did a <3 instead of ♥! :O
      P.S. I think I should be concerned that your cats are rubbing off on you a bit too much...? :-/

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    2. It's because my phone won't let me make a real heart. And I'm not sure what you're talking about meow. Ever seen Super Troopers? If so, a quick refresher on the plot should make everything clear. If not...don't bother meow.

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    3. Ahhhh! That would explain it! Silly phone! Uhh no I can't say that I have seen Super Troopers. :-/ But "don't bother meow" - BAHAHAHAHA!!! :P Ohhh I'm dying!

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  6. Wow! This is soooo cool! I am in love with Chevron right now. I have all of these colors thanks to a blogger friend of mine who sent me the JulieG's :) Annoying that they aren't in Minnesota:( I really liked Nan too! I wore Blueberry Fizz a few times and thought it was such a cool textured polish. It's one of my favorites too. Right up there with Zoya PixieDusts! Have a great day!

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    1. Oh, and thanks for the link to my blog ;)

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    2. I do recall you saying you're diggin' the chevron. :) Yeah, it's so frustrating how so many brands are only in certain regions. :( But I guess since we bloggers have formed so many awesome friends all over the world, that's hardly a problem...except for some of the pesky international shipping restrictions.
      Blueberry Fizz is the only one I really wanted, so when Melissa sent it to me out of the blue, I was BEYOND excited!
      Lol, uhh yeah, I was debating if I should put that in there, but I wanted people to be able to see more of Nan than just my tiny hearts. ;)

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    3. Oh no problem. The blog is still up and getting about the same amount of traffic, so it's still doing its job :)

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    4. Wow, that's pretty awesome...your "inactive" blog probably gets more traffic than my "active" one! :P LOL See, if you do decide to come back, all your followers will still be there! Heck, you'll probably have continued to gain new ones. ;)

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