Nails | Minty Chevron

These pictures have been sitting in my collection of pictures for a while now and I thought I would dig it up for a nails post.  I like to recycle my plain nail swatching manicures as bases for more "intricate" ones that have designs to extend the time between manicures.  This particular one was created after my swatches of Julie G's Gelato In Venice nail polish; so yes, I have had these pictures for THAT long.  

This was actually my first time doing a chevron design, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with my first time.  There were some things that I could have done differently, but it still turned out pretty well in my opinion.

For my base colors, I used Julie G's Gelato in Venice.  The chevron was created using Wet 'N Wild's French White Creme and the accent nail glitter was with Sephora by OPI's I Found a Pot of Gold!  I really liked the mint green and gold combination.  If I were to redo this design, probably in the far future, I would have used the white polish as the base color for the glitter polish instead.  I think that would make the gold stand out a lot more.  I would also have switched the colors for the chevron nail, so that white would be the base and the mint green would go on top.

Overall I was really happy with my first ever chevron nails.  What are some of your recent manicures that you are happy with?

Swatch: Julie G's Gelato in Venice

A few months ago, I had the chance to go to Rite Aid and saw a bunch of Julie G nail polishes and kind of went crazy over them.  This is kind of like a review/swatch of the first Julie G polish that I tried, in Gelato in Venice.   The pictures in this post were taken under artificial light.

Gelato in Venice is one of the first shades recommended by Dani from CoffeeBreakwithDani on youtube. I will admit, I went back and watched that video before I headed out to Rite Aid and kept her recommendation in mind as I was browsing the selection. Jesse's Girl's website described Gelato in Venice as a "mint green creme."

I will admit, this polish is such a gorgeous color. I remembered the first night I put it on, I could not stop staring at my nails. I don't remember falling in love with a nail polish shade as much as I fell in love with this one! It is a really pretty light mint green and I was really surprised at how well the color complimented my skin tone! I've tried Essie's Mint Candy Apple, which is another minty green shade, but it looked terrible on me! I think one of the main difference between Julie G's Gelato in Venice and Essie's Mint Candy Apple is that Gelato in Venice has a warmer tone while Mint Candy Apple, from other people's swatches, looks like it has a cooler, blue undertone, which my guess is why it looked horrible on me.

I love the fact that Gelato in Venice is a creme polish. It applied on my nails like a dream! One coat was opaque enough for most of my nails, and I applied two coats for some of my nails that I accidentally applied unevenly. I would say you definitely can get away with only applying one thicker coat and reach full opacity. The polish does not apply on streaky or unevenly, unless you really messed up while applying it. I actually have no idea how long the polish can wear without any help from base/top coats. I usually apply a top coat to all my manicures out of habit.

I did notice that Gelato in Venice reminds me of Elf's Mint Cream nail polish. I haven't done and side by side swatch yet, but they do look pretty similar in the bottles. You can be sure I will be doing a comparison on these two polishes soon!

I've heard so much rave about Julie G polishes and after trying this polish, I can honestly see why people love it! Julie G's nail polish line has a wide range of variety from creme to glitter to texture finishes. I've purchased several creme polishes along with one glitter and will be trying them over time! If all of Julie G's polishes are as wonderful as Gelato in Venice, I am pretty sure my nail polish collection will have a lot of Julie G's polishes soon.

Have you guys tried any Julie G polishes before?  If so, what are your favorites?