Dandelion Charm (and Julep Camille review)

I have a lot of stuff for my readers today, so grab a cup of tea and settle in because this post is so long I have utilized a jump break for the first time ever!

Over the past few months I have shown several manicures featuring my beloved Nailz Craze stamping plates.  Remember Nude Feather, Purple Anyone?, and Earth Day Butterfly?

It was the feather and dandelion on the Nailz Craze plates that convinced me I HAD to have them.  Without further ado here is how I used the dandelion stamp:

On my pinky and thumb I started out with two coats of Zoya Laney, which was topped with two coats of KleanColor Bridal Shower.  On the remainder of my fingers I started out with one coat of Zoya Cho.  

Once that had dried completely I used the sponging technique for the gradient nails.  In order to get a smooth gradient across all three nails I used three colors on each nail and overlapped the colors...I'm having a hard time explaining exactly how I used each color, so I created an illustration.  Not only are illustrations helpful, but they're also fun to make!

All colors referenced in this illustration are from Essie.

Even though I overlapped the colors a lot I was very pleased with the way it came out on my nails.  What do you think?

Oh and the dandelion stamp...isn't it the cutest ever?  Just in case you missed it before it is from Nailz Craze stamping plate NC 01.

Let's travel back in time a bit - recently I became a Julep Maven (I have yet to decide if it's really worth the money - more on that another time).  One of the Julep polishes I received was Camille a "full coverage opalecent white multi dimensional glitter," and was super excited to give it a try.  To my complete horror and dismay when I used it as a top coat over OPI Birthday Babe it made my nails look like they had some kind of disease, like leprocy.  Total disappointment... (see my thumb and pinky in the picture below).

I was also less than impressed with the way the stamp looked over two coats of Zoya Cho, hence the reason I started from scratch on the whole design.  On a side note, I have spent the better part of fourteen years either in some form of design school or in some form of design job.  For many a year I thought that I was a crappy designer because it was rare that I came up with the perfect or "right" design the first time around.  But the loudest lesson I learned in my last stint in design school was that design is ALL about iterations - do it again, and again, and again, and again, and maybe then you'll have a good start.  Design is all about the ability to look critically at your own work and know that there is always room for improvement.  The trouble though is when do you put your hands up and say, "Done!"?  Deep thoughts...

 

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post.  Happy Hump Day!  Toodles!