Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love

Aside from rolling my eyeballs out of their sockets over the stupid name of this polish, Kim-pletely in Love is a really gorgeous soft pink with a lovely blue opalescent shimmer throughout it. Similarly to It's All About the Glam, this is a slightly sheer and has a sort of creme/jelly texture to it.

Because of the sheerness, I would say that you need at least three coats of Kim-pletely in Love to make it opaque. I used four in my pictures below to get better coverage. It does build up nicely, though! If I remember correctly, this was a bit streaky but dries quickly. I love that the shimmer is subtle but definitely present.

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This is another really soft and delicate looking polish that's very feminine and the shimmer helps set it apart from just being a plain light pink polish. I wish it was a bit more opaque, but you could always layer it over a base color to achieve a more opaque look.

Nicole by OPI It's All About the Glam

Tonight I have a polish from a brand which I haven't share with you before, though I have several polishes from this line-- Nicole by OPI, which I guess is kind of like the teen version of OPI. Like OPI, they team up with celebrities to create polish lines and the polish I have tonight is from one of their most recent collaborations. This is All About the Glam from the Kardashian Kolor collection. Yes, those Kardashians. I know, right? I'm not a fan but they did create a cool collection of polishes, of which I had to buy several. And by several, I mean a lot. 

All About the Glam is a sheer soft white polish with silver shimmer. Like many white polishes, it is a little streaky but you can make it opaque. Here I used four (yes, four) thin to medium coats to obtain opacity and even everything out. Even with the number of coats, I like this polish a lot. It dries quickly and I didn't have any issues with bubbling despite how much polish I had to use. Using a light touch helped too.

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All About the Glam is pretty and soft. I have come around to the idea of wearing white polish, and I like this because it's not a stark white. The shimmer is pretty and strong.

If you like this polish, they generally retail for around $8 and you can find them at Ulta, Target and other drugstores. You can also probably easily find them on Amazon or eBay for comparable prices.

July American Beauty Maven Box

 It's time for my round-up of my July Julep Maven box!! The theme of this box was matching, specifically your nails and your lips. The box included a polish with a coordinating glitter, a lip gloss and then a patriotic polish to celebrate either the 4th of July (America) or Canada Day (Canada). 

I never get tired of how Julep packages the Maven boxes! I love it. This month they included Firebombs with the box. 

Lynn a nude blush pearl:

Yumi, a pink opalescent multi-dimensional glitter:

America the Beautiful, a shiny red with royal blue glitter and sterling silver stars:

O Canada, sheer glitter with accent of cardinal red:

In addition to the nail polishes Julep included matching lip gloss (or as they call it, lip vernis) to this month's boxes because of the current trend of matching lips and tips. Peony was the lip vernis I received in my box, which is described as a "nude blush creme" and is meant to match with Lynn. Additionally, I decided to add Poppy to my box, which is a "peachy coral creme" lip vernis.

Peony is on the left and Poppy is on the right. Julep says that these are ultra-creamy, long-wearing gloss with a mirror like finish. I really like this glosses. The formula is good, thick without being sticky and they give a nice shine and color to the lips. I think of two, Poppy lasts longer just because of the color. They have a nice caramel scent to them, but no taste. The only thing I don't think about these is the applicator. These have a brush instead of the usual doe-foot applicator-- and that's what I wish it had! I feel like it's easy to glop on the gloss with the brush and then it's difficult to apply evenly if you get too much on. But I really this-- nice color and shine.

Swatches (my first makeup swatches!):

So another month, another great Maven box from Julep!

Have you entered to win an intro Maven box from Julep? You can enter here! You have a little less than two hours left!

Olympics!! (Oh, and a manicute too)

The XXXth Olympiad kicks off tonight in London with the Opening Ceremonies and I'm so excited! I'm a huge Olympics fan and have watched them as far back as I can remember, basically. One of my most vivid memories is watching Kristi Yamaguchi skate to gold in 1992. I even got to attend the Olympics last year in Vancouver (to watch women's figure skating) and it was incredible. I plan on being glued to my tv over the next two weeks.

For my manicure, I finally decided to do some real nail art and used the Olympic Rings as my inspiration. I painted the colors of the rings across my fingers and then used a gold striping brush to write 2012 on my four fingers. Originally, I wanted to write London on my thumb, but this proved to be too difficult for me, at least with the tools I had at my disposal. So I decided to pay tribute to the host country by painting the Union Jack on my thumb! This was my first attempt at "proper" nail art and I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out!

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Here's a close up of the Union Jack on my thumb:

I needed a lot of polishes to make this happen:

From left to right: American Apparel Downtown LA, China Glaze Starboard, a england Camelot, Cult Nails Feel Me Up, OPI Dating A Royal and then gold, white and red striping polishes from Stripe Rite and Finger Paints. Whew! On my right hand I did a patriotic manicure with American Apparel Downtown LA and Julep America.

Are you going to be watching the Olympics over the next two weeks? What are your favorite sports? Personally, I love swimming and gymnastics the most, but I will also watch diving, beach volleyball and some of the track and field events. I also like to try and watch something I haven't before-- I might try cycling this year, since I just read Gold by Chris Cleve.

Julep O Canada

Tonight's polish is an add-on to my July Maven box. Technically I wasn't supposed to, but I couldn't resist because of this polish! This is O Canada, which Julep made for their Canadian customers to celebrate Canada Day. At $4.99, I had to have it!

O Canada is a  "sheer glitter with accent of cardinal red" and in this case, the sheer glitter is iridescent and very sparkly. Here I decided to swatch O Canada over my bare nails-- something I rarely do! But I couldn't decide what base color to use, so I figured I would just show it to you alone. Here I have used three coats of O Canada and my Essie Good to Go top coat. I like that the red hex glitter doesn't over power the smaller iridescent glitter. I also think you'd kill yourself trying to make this actually opaque, but considering how pretty it is over just a bare nail, I bet it would really pretty over a nude polish.

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Another fabulous glitter polish from Julep! I want to try this over a bunch of different base colors-- I think it's really pretty!