American Apparel Poppy

Tonight's polish is another I've worn recently-- American Apparel Poppy. This was one that I picked up when I first bought on my nail polish buying spree. It's been sitting in a drawer forever, waiting to loved. Since I'm in the middle of a no-buy, it's actually been really nice to go back through polishes I bought ages ago and have since neglected. It's been fun discovering some old polishes I have overlooked.

Poppy is one of those colors that's hard to capture on camera. There's no official color description, so I would call this a poppy red-orange. Indoors it looks more red-orange (I originally thought it was more orange, but it's definitely not) while outside it takes on a more coral aspect. The formula was very good-- Poppy is nicely pigmented and goes on smoothly. I did use three coats because you can still see a hint of visible nail line with two, but that's just a personal preference.

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I'm experimenting with some new angles, bear with me. I don't necessarily show my swatches in chronological order (just depends on how I'm feeling), so don't be surprised if we go back and forth until I find something I like.

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Poppy was a lot of fun to wear and falls into that category of polishes that would be great for a summer mani or pedi, in addition to giving your wardrobe a bit of color during the long dark winter months. At $6 a bottle, it's got a great formula and is a great staple to have in your polish "wardrobe."

May Maven Box Review

And now for the round-up of my Maven box. Aside from polish, the May Maven box also included a foot file and a foot care product call The Best Pedi Prep Ever.
 

Now the polishes! I got Ellie and Kylie as part of my box and then added Ashley and Sarah as extras.

Ellie:

Kylie:

Ashley:

Sarah:

Overall, I was kind of meh on May's Maven box. I really like the pedicure stuff-- I usually do my own pedicures these days (so I have more money for polish) but it's nice to have some good stuff to take care of my feet with! So that's a plus. The polishes, on the other hand, were kind of just ok. I wasn't thrilled with Ellie, though I plan on experimenting with it, so maybe I'll end up liking it more. Kylie was ok; I also need to play around with it some more. I really do like Ashley and Sarah, though. I know I haven't made it a normal thing to review my Maven boxes, so I think this box was just ok, but I've been more impressed with other boxes.

Julep Sarah

The last polish I have from my May Maven box is Julep Sarah. Julep describes Sarah as a "sheer pink coral with iridescent glitter." For these pictures I decided to layer Sarah over Ashley, since I had just swatched that. Maybe not the most perfect combo in the world, but it works. The base seemed pretty opaque to me, actually, but I didn't try Sarah by herself. Here I have two coats of Sarah layered over Ashley.

There is iridescent glitter scattered throughout the polish and it shows up nicely as a top coat. I kind of wish there was more glitter, actually, but this is really pretty as is.

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I would like to try Sarah over a pinker polish to make it look more like it does in the bottle. I think this could be a fun way to jazz up a coral summer pedicure.

Julep Ashley

Julep Ashley was a polish I added on to my May Maven box. I'll be honest, when I got Ashley  I was a little disappointed and not thrilled about the way it looked in the bottle-- it seemed to have a greenish tinge to it and I was uphappy. Luckily, once it was on the nail I liked it a lot more. Ashley is a "sunset orange with a metallic micro-shimmer."

As I said, I had extreme reservations looking at this polish in the bottle, but once I got it on my nails I loved it. It applied really nicely, and while you do have to be careful of leaving brushstroke marks, I felt it was easy to work with. I have had issues with other Julep metallics, but either Ashley just has a better formula or I have gotten better at working with them. This was a little sheer with the first coat, but surprisingly gave pretty good coverage with two coats. In my pictures I have used three coats and no top coat. My biggest issue, actually, was the fact that the brush that came with this polish was super wonky-- seriously terrible. I should have taken a picture of it. The bristles were just splayed out in every direction. I was happily surprised that I managed not to get it all over my fingers while trying to apply it. But a bunch of people brought this to Julep's attention and they sent replacement brushes in the June Maven boxes. Nice!

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I love how this polish glows! And I'm really glad that despite my initial trepidation, I ended up really liking this polish.

Julep Kylie

The next polish from my May Maven box is Kylie, a magnetic polish from Julep! Mangetic polish is big right now and so Julep has thrown their hat into the ring. Julep describes Kylie as a "sultry violet magnetic polish. It's gorgeous without the magnetic effect, or use the included magnet to create dark accent stripes in whatever direction you choose."

To be honest, this was my first experience with magnetic polish. It's not a new thing, but is currently enjoying a resurgence and just about every brand has some magnetic polishes out right now. I haven't actively sought out any magnetic polishes, but was happy to receive one as part of my box. The theory behind magnetic polish is simple-- you apply the polish, then one at time use the magnet to create a design on your nail while the polish is still wet (so the iron particles can move).

The formula on Kylie was decent-- I used two coats in my photos below. I applied one coat and it went on nicely and was basically opaque, and then I added a second coat one by one and used the magnet. I didn't use a top coat in these pictures below, though with magnets you do want to wait for the polish dry so you don't smudge the design.

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Here's the magnet that came with the polish:

I think it photographed beautifully!

There's no lip on the magnetic which means you need to be careful about placing it too close to your nail, otherwise you could wind up denting your manicure. I afraid of this but manage to avoid it. I did close enough to create a design, but I wonder if I had gotten closer if the lines would have been better. I also got the feeling that the magnetic lines started to to fuzz out after I'd had this on for a little while, but I didn't wear it very long because I was swatching. I was also a little disappointed that I only got two lines on my nails... I would have liked to see more!

Overall, I don't know how to feel about this. It's cool, and I like it but I'm not completely sold. It does take time to do, though I love the way it looks. Nail art for dummies! I probably need to play with this some more before making a final decision.