Julep Maven March Classic With A Twist Box & Review

I received my Julep Maven box today!

I must say, I am a bit  disappointed in it. There is nothing WRONG with it, but you will see (and maybe agree, maybe not!) with why I am disappointed.

A cute nail file is added in the wrapping as a bonus gift.

BUT... I know I shouldn't complain about a free bonus. But I find it kind of..... I dont want to say stupid. But I feel like it was put there for no purpose other than to make us exclaim "Yay! A free gift!". They are a company that goes on about the benefits of a glass file. That they should be used and NOT cardboard ones. So why send us a cardboard file? Are they just as good as the glass ones or did they just want something cheap to throw in? Again, I am not necessarily disappointed in this free gift, but it just kind of seems funny to me.

On to the actual package. Nicely wrapped, as is now the norm!

And is also the norm now, nicely wrapped bubble wrap!

This was a nice surprise. The size is 30ml which is about standard if not larger than other similar items on the market. And the 24.00 retail is significantly lower than other argan oil products I've seen.

And its completely and I mean COMPLETELY odourless!

Now here comes my real disappointment. The polish colours in this box include a new colour and a previously released colour. I already had the nude polish so I knew what I was getting. I really don't know why I didn't think of this before, but as a facebook friend just described it, its "my nails but better!". And that is such a wonderful description. So the logic follows that the effect top coat will look quite similar on its own to over a colour of "my nails but better!" It just seems like they could have put a different colour in the box that would have let us have another look. Again, this is not really a complaint, just a  disappointment .

Each colour alone (Jennifer and Brooke):

Brooke over jennifer, and alone:

New Collections From Catrice & Essence!

Catrice Limited Edition Revoltarie Collection - April/May 2012

  Attracting Camouflage, Mission Lilac, Color Of Honor, Innocent Toxin and Color Bomb

Essence Trend Edition Fruity For April 2012

Banana Joe, Peach Beauty, Very Cherry, One Kiwi Day and Mashed Berries

New Beetlejuice Colours For Summer 2012

Models Own just announced that following the sensational response to the Beetlejuice collection they recently came out with they were going to add 3 new colours to the line up! I think I am the only one who is not really feeling these, though I do reserve the right to change my mind and need them once swatches come out! 

New Shades Include:

• Copper Pot (deep olive tan)
• Tropical Sun (glistening sunset)
• Indian Ocean (calming, iridescent blue with soft pink undertones)

Polish Frankens........ The Legal Side Of Things

I LOVE the fact that all these polish loving artists (Lynnderella, Pam Heil, etc) are creating the AMAZING products that they are. There are TONS of new polish brands people are frankening and selling all over Etsy and on private nail blogs. I think it is totally great. But a few things have me wondering.......

Many a frankening artist (as I will call them from here on out) are making dupes and copies of INSANELY popular polishes such as Lippmanns and Clarins 230. That seems fine. And some have gotten so good at creating original polishes that THEY are having dupes made. I was just contacted by someone wanting me to review a polish they have just made. It apparently takes inspiration from another home made polish I already have and they wanted to know if I would review and compare it. I kindly said no thank you. Not that I find anything WRONG with duping necessarily.. Revlon does it ALL the time, Nubar (Jeans) did it. Who was it who said  "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"? I do not like when an ENTIRE collection is blatantly copied though I feel like I was in the minority with that.

So when Nubar Jeans chose to copy the entire Chanel Collection the overall thought (though I did and still disagree) was that it was great to have a cheaper option. When it comes to home made frankens though, it seems that many of those who were ok with Revlon and Nubar aren't necessarily also OK with this. Why is that? Is it that we expect more out of individual polish lovers than we do big corporations? I don't know.

I am not taking a side or a judgement, but I find it curious. I have recently seen two different polish creators discuss legalities of it, whether there is financial recourse in terms of royalties etc. Now I wonder if they TRY to pursue it (I don't know that they will) if they have realized the fact that the polishes we are all buying on Etsy are technically illegal. Technically they need to be approved by the FDA for sale in both Canada & The United States. The following blurb is taken off the American FDA website.

How Nail Products Are Regulated

Nail products for both home and salon use are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Under theFederal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), these products are cosmetics [FD&C Act, section 201(i)].

By law, nail products sold in the United States must be free of poisonous or deleterious (harmful) substances that might injure)." users when used as labeled or under the usual or customary conditions of use (see Key Legal Concepts: Interstate Commerce, Adulteration and Misbranding). Many nail products contain potentially harmful ingredients, but are allowed on the market because they are safe when used as directed. For example, some nail ingredients are harmful only when ingested, which is not their intended use.

The labels of all cosmetics, whether marketed to consumers or salons, must include a warning statement whenever necessary or appropriate to prevent a health hazard that may occur with use of the product (21 CFR 740.1). Cosmetics sold on a retail basis to consumers also must bear an ingredient declaration, with the names of the ingredients listed in descending order of predominance. The requirement for an ingredient declaration does not apply, for example, to products used at professional establishments or samples distributed free of charge. However, the requirement does apply if these products are also sold at retail, even if they are labeled "For professional use only" (see Cosmetic Labeling: An Overview"

With the sudden mass popularity of certain brands it seems the arena of home frankens is becoming massive. These are not issues that have ever come up before (its a very recent and new trend - home frankening) and there are a lot of learning curves.

I am personally a MASSIVE fan of Girly Bits, Nerd Lacquer, many of Lynnderella's polishes as well as a few others. I personally do not give two figs if they are FDA approved or not,  but I fear the affects of all these "inspired by" polishes may lead to legal action that could potentially destroy the very brands I love most.

I am not sure what I gained from writing this post other than to ask what are your opinions? Do you think duping a home made franken brand is different than a Lippmann or Chanel? Do you think its the same thing? Would a person duping a certain polish stop you from buying others by them? I am really curious as to your thoughts. I have been thinking about this a lot recently and am very torn on the issue.

MAC Play Day & Salad Dressed Swatches & Reviews!

I was planning on getting Salad Dressed from MAC but when I went, Play Day seemed so pretty I had to pick it up too. BIG MISTAKE!!! BAH!! When will I ever learn. When I see MAC polishes, I need to STOP, DROP & WALK AWAY!!

MAC Salad Dressed is described as a mid tone dirty aqua cream and comes from the MAC Shop MAC, Cook MAC Collection (Shop Shop Shop, Cook Cook Cook) for Spring 2012. In reality that is close. I see it as a pale teal cream. It was streaky and thick and it applied uneven and patchy. A real PAIN in the YOU KNOW WHAT!  The swatches below are with THREE coats of each.

Play Day is described as a pale milky coral creme and comes from the MAC Vera Collection for Spring 2012. This one was more of a nightmare than Salad Dressed! It was pretty much the same nightmare as Salad Dressed, but also just kinda turns a tad... dirty looking when it dries on the nail.

While I hated the polishes, the colour of Play Day seemed perfect for that Esprit Dress that I bought boxing day if you remember? So I was holding it for swatching and figured I might as well put it on for the event. After three coats it looked horrendous. It was uneven, gross looking and just BAD. With no time to completely re-do my nails I figured I would TRY to put a coat of Deborah Lippmann Girls Just Want To Have Fun over top and hope for the best. It didnt turn out QUITE as bright as the picture shows and ended up being perfect.

Essence Vampire Love for November 2011 SWATCHES!!!!!

I have been trying my best to track down the Vampire Love polishes from Essence and was SOOOOO amazing lucky a girlfriend found these on an international ebay site and had them shipped directly from Slovakia to me! I was SOOOOO excited. I have spent a few weeks playing with, experimenting with and wearing these! I LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!!!!

Gold Old Buffy is a dark green with intense gold shimmer. All of these polishes were opaque in two coats and both applied and wore wonderfully well. They all have kind of a textured look to them (almost like granite or stone). Its hard to describe, but they feel and wear like cremes, though they are all shimmers. But they dont look like either to me. They all have a very gritty uneven look that I LOVE!!!!

Into The Dark is a dark blueish grey polish with intense silver/grey shimmer.

The Dawn Is Broken is my favourite of these four. It is a light grey polish with silver and bluish glitter. It is the only one that is slightly gritty. It looks like the same finish as the rest but its not quite the smooth finish the other three are.

Hunt Me If You Can is a black polish with multi coloured glitter.

Now onto the fun stuff! The SWATCHES!! I am still missing the pretty purple one in this collection and hope to get it soon! But here are 1,2, 4 and 5 all in order!

Nail Mail! Who Doesn't LOVE Nail Mail?

Nail mail always makes me happy. But when you get MULTIPLE packages all at once in one day its even better!! Look what the Canada Post Man, the Fedex Man AND the Purolator Man all came to the Polish Jinx House today!! YAY!!

First up, my Dior polishes from the Anselm Reyle collection. I hate pink, so that one was easy to skip and after much debate, I chose to skip the black. A black crème seemed easy to replace with others!

Next up, was a swap I did with someone for two polishes from Julep. She noticed I did not have a lot of MAC colours and offered to send me a few in exchange. I had no idea what polishes were coming, but I ended up with Kid Orange and Vintage Vamp.

Next up I got the Lippmann polishes from Juicy Couture. The Metallic set is mine, the other set is for my mom. I have two of the three colours already and hate pink. So it was a no brainer to skip for me! I still dont understand why they put BOTH limited edition Juicy Couture polishes in the one set. Though I am very happy they did! Made shopping decisions much much easier.

Connect The Dots from Lynnderella. Courtesy of Leah Ann to review for my blog!

And while NOT nail mail, equally exciting, a replacement blush shade. I actually liked the New Classic palette so much I got a second one! And when I opened the palette to swatch it I noticed the blush shade was loose. The second time I opened it the blush shade fell out and shattered. I was gutted. I emailed Chantecaille three times and never got a response. They saw/heard me twitter about my bad experience a few weeks back and reached out to me, and today I got a fedex package with this beautiful shade in it! I have been so upset by the experience that I ignored both my palettes and never used or touched them since it happened. I think I will now be using my palette again!

Look! Its whole again! Yahoo! 

Lynnderella Connect The Dots

So a while back I posted my frustration with certain aspects of the selling of Lynnderella polishes through Llarowe's website. Somehow my blog post was interpreted by some of Leah Ann supporters as my attacking her. There was even a thread on makeup alley started that suggested people send me hate mail. Trust me - I GOT IT!!!! I was so upset with the rumours and the stories going around online that I felt the need to call Leah directly and make sure SHE knew that I wasn't trying to attack her or hurt her. I truly think she is a great person. Any and all frustrations that I have/had with her stem from the fact that she is TOO nice and TOO accommodating. Any ways, I am very happy to say that WE are good, and I will just have to be ok with certain people out there in "internet land" hating me for my opinions. I certainly AM opinionated!!! And I don't bite my tongue or hold back!

Now on to the good stuff. POLISH! I have to say, for the most part, if you are unsure of a polish or a brand and do not know if you should order it or not and if Leah sells it on http://shop.llarowe.com/ then just go for it. She is VERY selective about the brands she sells and they are all gorgeous and the best of quality. Girly Bits is a great example! I have no idea how Leah does it, but she really zeros in on the great all around brands.

I was lucky enough to be offered a polish off the website to review. I chose (in about two seconds flat) Connect The Dots. 

Now for me personally, most stores take your money, send you your polish. End of story. So what is there really to say about a company or a store? Well, in the case of  http://shop.llarowe.com/  A LOT! The really nice thing is that this isn't just a job for her. She really has a passion for it. She loves polish. It shows in the high quality, unique and niche brands she sells. Have a problem? Email or call the store and there is a good chance you are going to get Leah herself on the the other end! How many companies can you say that about? The other big issue I have with polish companies is HOW they send your polishes! A nail polish is a very easy thing to break open or leak if it is not well packed. Well let me tell you, this was well protected. And by that I mean it took me like five minutes to tear open the bubble wrap! It did NOT want to come off.

How amazing is THAT??? I am wearing it now over Essence The Dawn Is Broken from the Vampire Love Collection. Connect The Dots is described as a Black and white hexagon, square and bar glitter with slight sparkle in clear base. Its from the Halloween 2010 collection and I hope it will not ever be retired! It looks AMAZING on crème polishes and really really makes a statement. I haven't been able to stop staring at my nails since I did this!!!!

I did however swatch it over a few other colours. Basically, just assume it looks AMAZING over EVERYTHING!!! 

I wish I could say something, anything to make you guys feel like "nope. Not worth the hype. Not worth the hassle. Skip it" But I really can't. Sorry. AMAZING!!!! You really do NEED this polish. I will however be good and NOT show you the 4,234,232 OTHER amazing polishes you need from Leah's website. I will let you find them all yourself!