Month: July 2014

Inspired Instas {2}

~ Taylor Justine ~ Leave a comment

Last week, I started a new series here on N&NP called Inspired Instas, where I talk about some of the inspiration behind my Instagram posts of the past week! This week was filled with cyborgs, Grisha and pretty things!

Rose Gold Accessories: I’m obsessed with rose gold, so I was very excited to realize my purse AND my book had rose gold details!

Rose gold accessories

Trilogies I Love: I love Dystopian YA Fiction, and over the years I’ve fallen in love with these trilogies!

Trilogies

Landline Mani: One of my most popular cover-inspired manicures, and the publisher, St. Martins Press, even re-posted my picture! So happy! :)

Landline Inspired Manicure

Glass Slipper: After meeting Marissa Meyer this week, I was in the mood to start re-reading The Lunar Chronicles. And my glass slipper is too perfect next to a book about Cinderella!

Glass Slipper

Have a great week! Happy reading!

What A Week!

~ Taylor Justine ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a crazy exciting week for both books and nail polish! New things were announced, and I attended my first book signing! Take a look below at all the fun things from the past week:

Louboutin Nail Lacquer

Louboutin Nail Lacquer

When Christian Louboutin designed his first pair of beautiful pumps, they weren’t complete until he painted the soles red with his assistant’s nail polish. Now, many years later, he is venturing into the cosmetics world with none other than a line of high-end nail lacquers. The first polish to debut in this collection is the Rouge Louboutin, the exact red featured on his gorgeous shoes.

The lacquer line will consist of three collections: Nudes, Noirs and Pop colors. Each beautiful little bottle will set you back about $50, but I have to admit, the price isn’t completely deterring me!

Read the full post on Vogue.

Essie Color Boutique

Essie Vending Machine

This week, Essie announced the launch of Essie Color Boutiques, vending machines located in airports and malls that will dispense their nail polish! How exciting is that! The first boutiques are appearing in the JetBlue Terminal of JFK and Oakland International Airport. Additional spots to feature these vending machines are rumored to be Dallas-Forth Worth Airport, the Oaks shopping center in Thousand Oaks and the Shops at Mission Viejo.

The vending machines will feature 48 colors, plus 6 seasonal shades that will change quarterly. My heart AND nails are happy!

Read the full story on Huffington Post.

Fierce Reads Summer Blockbuster at Barnes and Noble

Fierce Reads Event

The Fierce Reads panel and book signing was my first adventure into author events, and it was incredible! I had such a blast with my cousin Mallery! To be honest, I only knew one of the four authors being featured: Marissa Meyer, author of The Lunar Chronicles series. I already owned all of Meyer’s books, so I purchased Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, another one of the featured authors. All four women on the panel were incredibly engaging and funny, and they had the audience in stitches the whole time! I had a great conversation with Leigh while she was signing my book, and she personalized my signed copy a little more than the others based on our convo (beware of hobos!)! She was giving out bottles of red nail polish with the title of her book on them, and I was lucky enough to get one. I can’t wait to do a cover-inspired manicure with it!

Meeting Marissa Meyer was such an honor, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a picture with her. Disney and fairy tales are so close to my heart, so I love the wonderful twist she has put on all of them. They’re some of my favorite books, and I can’t believe we still have a year before the final book, Winter, comes out! Marissa was so sweet, and I probably look like a fool fangirling so hard, but it was totally worth it!

The Lunar Chronicles Nail Art

In honor of this event, I painted my nails to match Meyer’s Lunar Chronicle series. I took inspiration from the three books already published in the series. On my thumb nail, I featured the high heel pump on the cover of Cinder. I painted my pointer finger red in honor of Scarlet, who is based on Little Red Riding Hood. For my last three nails, I painted Cress’ long golden locks stretching across all three. The best part of the day was Marissa Meyer re-tweeting the photo of my nails!

Overall, there were so many exciting moments for both novels and nail polish this week! Happy reading!

Landline Lovin’

~ Taylor Justine ~ 5 Comments

Who loves Rainbow Rowell?? I DO!! What isn’t there to love about her adorable love stories and cute book covers! Her brand new book, Landline, is no exception. Sometimes she writes about teens and sometimes she writes about adults, but no matter the age, her stories have touched me and made me think.

One reason Rainbow Rowell continues to produce work that is so special comes from her ability to capture the different facets of love and relationships. Their ups and downs, laughs and tears, struggles and triumphs.

Landline follows Georgie McCool as she makes the difficult decision to spend Christmas working instead of with her husband and two daughters in Omaha. Through a series of flashbacks that get us caught up on Georgie’s relationship with long-time best friend Seth and husband Neil. Things really get interesting, though, when Georgie realizes that the Neil she thought she was talking to is actually 23-year-old boyfriend Neil! Is this the chance she’s been waiting for to fix their marriage or is she supposed to stop things before they ever happen?

I haven’t read Attatchments, Rowell’s other Contemporary Adult Fiction novel, so I was interested to see how much would differ in the story and style in comparison with her YA novels, Fangirl and Eleanor & Park. I was pleasently surprised to find that really the only thing that changed was the fact she was writing about an adult couple. I was worried her voice and style would lose its captivating fun and engaging details, but it didn’t! I devoured the story in just over 24 hours!

Now that I’ve told you how much I adore Landline, let’s do this mani!

Tools I used // Julep Polishes + Banana Republic Polish + OPI Polish + Plie Want & Dotting/Striping Tool
Tools I used // Julep Polishes + Banana Republic Polish + OPI Polish + Plie Want & Dotting/Striping Tool

When I saw the cover of this book, I was SO EXCITED to paint my nails! Perfect color palette plus cute images had me inspired right away. Grey and pink are two of my favorite colors together, so I wanted the striped spine incorporated into  my overall design. I took the rest of the cover pretty literal, choosing to paint an old-fashioned telephone on my ring finger and continue the cord across my other two nails.

Landline Inspired ManicureTo create the yellow telephone, I grabbed my Julep Plie Wand and dotting tool. I made two yellow dots and with the extra paint, connected them with a line. I tried a striping brush first to connect the dots, but the line wouldn’t get to the correct width. The cord was a little bit trickier! The long striping brush was harder to control and keep thin, but I made it work.

Landline Inspired Manicure

I’m very proud of how this manicure turned out! This design was the most challenging I’ve attempted so far, but with great risk comes great reward! Normally, I don’t consider myself the artistic type when it comes to painting, so I go a more abstract “inspired” route in my manicures. I’m really excited, though, to continue to learn and try new things when it comes to nail art.

Landline Inspired Manicure

Landline Inspired Manicure

Have you read Landline yet, and do you have a favorite Rainbow Rowell novel? I’d love to hear! Happy Reading!

Inspired Instas {1}

~ Taylor Justine ~ 1 Comment

I hope everyone enjoyed their wonderful and relaxing Summer weekend! Starting today, I’m excited to start a brand new weekly series here on Novels and Nail Polish called Inspired Instas. Every Sunday, I’ll share with you some of my Instagram photos from the week and my inspiration behind them!

Bookish Teddy Bear: My tiny version of The Perks of Being a Wallflower fit perfectly in the arms of my vintage Winnie the Pooh teddy!

 

Book and Bow: The Program Edition: Finished up The Program this week, and all I can say is… What a book! Definitely going to stay with me for quite some time. I reached into my massive collection of hair accessories for a vibrant yellow bow, and it played the perfect co-star in this photo!

 

Fangirl + essie Fashion Playground: For the first time in a while, I painted my nails without a book cover in mind. What’s funny is that, without meaning to, my nails matched my naked Fangirl!

Ladylike Landline: I love me some Rainbow Rowell in any form! She’s one of my favorite authors, and Landline joined the ranks of Rowell classics. Paired with a pretty flower, this gorgeous cover brightened up my Saturday!

 

Sneak Peek of Landline Inspired mani: It’s magical when a beautiful cover and great story come together like Landline does, and the second I picked it up, I knew what my cover-inspired manicure would look like! Here’s a peek at the colors I used.

 

Happy Sunday and happy reading!