dun dun dun...water marbling!

i see other bloggers post pictures of their beautiful water marbles all the time. after months and months, i decided i finally needed to take the plunge and do it. i watched a video and read a blog post by the fabulous cosmetic sanctuary and set to work. the colors i used are: niecy by julep, and yummy and tobey by zoya. my base color was "you just wait" by sinful colors.

i hesitate to call this bad, since it was my first time. i think the swirls are pretty rad! i feel my main mistake was using such a sheer color for the base. i feel if i had used something more substantial, it would have ended up popping more and looking a lot cooler. still, i only did my swatching hand and will take it off before easter lunch tomorrow.

for everyone thinking about marbling - i think you should do it! it's time consuming, yeah, but the results are worth it!

julep nail parlor's "niecy" ft. lacquistry's "a friggin circus".

i didn't take any pictures of niecy on it's own, but it is a very lovely bright pink that was perfectly opaque in two coats. julep succeeds, as always! but i decided to layer lacquistry's "a friggin circus" over it, since this batch of AFC has a light pink tint to the base.

two coats of AFC.

look at all the different colors of glitter! i don't think i can even name them all. orange, red, gold, purple, blue, silver...probably some more, too!

lacquistry polishes can be bought from her etsy shop, which is currently sold out but she restocks pretty frequently. julep polishes are available to maven members, if you're not one yet you can sign up by clicking this link, and if you use the code COLOR2012 it'll only cost ya a penny!

butter LONDON "jaffa" ft julep nail parlor "'alicia".

jaffa is my first butter london, i received it as part of my ariva order. it happened to perfectly match the shirt i was wearing that day!

when applying jaffa, i happened to look over at all my nail polishes and see that alicia looked like the perfect color for an accent nail - boy, was i right! they look lovely together.

jaffa is a lovely coral jelly. the perfect mix of orange and red!

this is three coats of jaffa. as you can see, i still have some VNL which is kind of poopy. i don't know if that could have been remedied with another coat or not. i'll definitely be doing some jelly sandwiches with this polish in the future! alicia, however, only needed one coat! how awesome is that?!

here's a shot in the sun, just for another perspective on the color.

butter LONDON is sold at ariva, sephora, and ulta, and retales for 14 dollars. alicia was from my march julep maven box, and can be purchased for 14 bucks if you're a julep maven. you can sign up for julep by using this link.

julep st. patrick's day mystery box!

it finally arrived! better late than never, right? :]. i'm so happy to have received it.

so nicely packaged [as usual!], plus some chocolates!

my products! below is a breakdown of what i received and what it cost.

julep "facial for hands" glycolic hand scrub, 1 fl oz: ~15 dollars? 3 oz sells for 32 dollars on the julep website...

julep "glow on" age defying hand brightener: ~15 dollars? same as above.

sofia nail color: 14 dollars.

january nail color: 14 dollars.

kelly nail color: 14 dollars.

base coat: 14 dollars.

crystal nail file: 6 dollars.

total retail value: 92 dollars.

considering i spent 20 dollars, i'm ecstatic! i definitely recommend getting a mystery box the next time they release one. if you aren't a julep maven yet, you can sign up here and get your first month for one penny using the code MARCHINTRO!

st. patrick's day manicure + my claddagh ring.

st. patrick's day is one of my mom's favorite holidays, because we are very irish [think red hair and freckles!]. so my mom did the whole nine yards: green foods, window clings on all the windows, green shirts, irish music, stepdancers, everything! so this mani was mostly 'cause we're hanging out tomorrow and i knew she'd like it :P.
it's my first attempt at nail art other than dots, and it's just "okay". too bad, but not very good either.

thumb - one coat of sally hansen "going green" topped with one coat of sinful colors "san fransisco". the black is wet 'n' wild "black creme", and the gold is a mix of julep nail parlor's "oscar" and china glaze "ultimate holiday"

pointer finer - one coat of "going green" topped with one coat of "san fransisco".

middle finger - confetti's "wedding white" THIS COLOR IS AWFUL DO NOT EVER BUY IT. took me four coats to get it opaque and even >.<

ring finger: two coats of "orange you glad" by spoiled/wet 'n' wild, topped with one coat of "tanzy" by zoya.

pinky - three coats of "oscar".

my claddagh ring is four years old. i bought it at an irish festival with my mom and haven't taken it off since!

do any of you have fun plans for st. patrick's day? whatever you do, be safe!