Hopelessly Helena!!!

Well Happy New Year NPWasters!!!  I hope that you all had a very Safe & Happy New Year's Eve celebration and that you aren't to hung over from all of your festivities.  Well let's get to what we do best here...get NAIL POLISH WASTED...wait I meant have our Therapy & Rehab Session!!!  

So today's Therapy & Rehab Session:  Hopelessly Helena!!!

Now a few post back I encouraged you all to become Julep Mavens for a Cent...yes 1 RED CENT.  Hopefully you all took my advise...the offer ends Monday 1/2/12.  There should be another low cost introductory price soon...I will post it when it becomes available.  Now back to what I was saying.  Today's color comes from my December Maven Box...I need to post pictures of what I received for December & January's Maven Boxes...but for right now we are going to focus on this particular color.  

This is Julep's Helena...Julep describes it as an "Ultra-saturated Fuchsia", now me...I call it Neon Purple...but hey that is why I don't work for Julep.  It's a semi-matte creme,  is easy to apply and you will only need a few coats (no more than 3) to get the powerful color that will have everyone stopping you and asking what color you are wearing.  I wore this sometime back in the early part of December when I received it originally but never swatched it for this purpose.  On a Christmas shopping trip I had several ladies who worked at my local Ulta ask me what nail polish I had on so they could go get it...I think they thought it was a color& brand they carried in their store  Needless to say...none of the ladies had ever heard of Julep and I had to share with them how to get this gorgeous color!!!

So as usually here are all the logistics...

1. Base Coat:  1 Coat Essie's Grow Stronger then 1 coat of Julep's Nail Therapy...see BARING IT ALL as to why I am on all these different Base Coat Therapy formulas!!!
2. Color Coat: 2 Coats Julep's Helena...the coats were kinda thin to regular coats.  One thing that I did try that Jane Park (CEO of Julep) recommends in a Video Blog regarding how to apply nail color...is that you apply a very thin coat across the "free edge" or the tip of your nail before polishing the nail itself.  This helps your manicure last longer and not have it susceptible to polish peeling.  I will be honest that I never did this before, so it made me wonder about the times in which my manicure didn't last and my polish began to peel at the tip.  Hmmmm!!!
3. Top Coat:  CHANGE UP...yes this is NEW for me!!!  1 coat Julep's Fast Dry Top Coat.  I wanted to use this because I wanted to see how it would compare to my heart of all hearts...Seche Vite.  Not to mention...my OCD would not allow me to mix base, color & top coats when it came to Julep...I know go figure.  You guys know me...I will slap some Seche Vite on any and all nail polish brands...but just couldn't do it to Julep's!!!  I must say that the Fast Dry Top Coat did work just as good as Seche Vite.   But I do notice that I can see the brush strokes of both polishes...color and top coat...now I don't like that.  Another thing is that is smells horrible...so if you are sensitive to smells..then this is not the Top Coat polish you want to use.  The last con was that it's not as shinny as Seche Vite...now I am not sure if this is due to Helena being a "Semi-matte" as Julep calls it or if Julep's Fast Dry Top Coat is really not that shinny.  This I will have to put to test with some other Julep colors that I haven't swatched yet.

So here are the pictures and this is EXTRA PICTURE HEAVY!!!

ALL POLISHES USED FOR THIS SWATCH

BOTH PICS INSIDE WITH FLASH

OUTSIDE WITH NATURAL SUNLIGHT

BOTH PICS ARE INSIDE LEFT & RIGHT HAND WITH FLASH

BOTH PICS ARE INSIDE BY THE WINDOW RIGHT & LEFT HAND IN NATURAL SUNLIGHT

LAST 2 PICS ARE BOTH THE RIGHT & LEFT HAND OUTSIDE IN NATURAL SUNLIGHT

This time for the clean up I tried NON ACETONE Nail Polish Remover...once again see Baring It All for the reasons on why.

Overall, I love this color.  The description doesn't do it justice not to mention I recommend that Julep have more views of the polish to see it from different angles and close up.  I definitely think that as a Maven when you first get this polish...like I did...looked at it and thought it wasn't the right color for you.  I especially thought this since I am a woman of color and like I said in my post So It Begins...some nail colors that look good on lighter skin tones don't always look good on me since my skin tone is darker.  I will definitely be wearing this and reordering the color since everyone is so in love with it now.  Yes...I have hoarder tendencies as well!!!  Don't judge me...if you are reading this...you have tendencies as well too...LOL!!!

Well folks...I always want to say ladies, but to be politically correct...FOLKS...this concludes today's Therapy & Rehab Session.  Hope to see you again...as we know...this particular therapy & rehab is forever despite what your psychiatrist told you!!!  (:  As always...

Sit back and enjoy the fumes!!!

Charms