I’ll Give You The Mani

March 31, 2015March 31, 2015 ~ Taylor Justine ~ Leave a comment

I'll Give You The Sun Cover Inspired Manicure One of the most anticipated YA reads of 2014 became one of my absolute favorite books of 2015, and maybe even ever! I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson is a contemporary to rule all YA contemporaries, and I am so glad it came into my life. I have a feeling my overzealous review/opinion of this book might get a bit rambly, so bear with me!

Told from alternating perspectives of a set of twins, this book is liquid poetry and art. If I’m being objective, it could be a bit much for some people who don’t have the patience for flowery language, but it was just enough for me. Love and loss are the main themes, and it ultimately left me breathless.

I have a hard time forming sentences that correctly express my love for this story, so I’ll just throw out some adjectives instead: heartbreakingly beautiful, moving, inspiring and literally a million more. If you want to be moved to laughter and tears, I beg you, PICK UP THIS BOOK.

**I’m not sure if you can tell, but I feel rather strongly about how how incredible this novel is!

Now, let’s give you the mani!

Tools I Used // Essie Mojito Madness + Blanc + Julep London + Jeanne + Bailey + Nadia + Karen + Myrtle + Cover Girl Flamed Out

This was another design that used ALL the polishes. Clearly I’m on some sort of rainbow kick, and I ain’t even mad! I went pretty literal with the design of this manicure, sticking mainly with the gorgeous rainbow sunburst on the white background. You’ll need as many polishes as you can carry, plus some, and for me that included my trusty stash of Julep and Essie colors.

I’ll talk rainbow stripes first. I went with a random order of colors to mimic the lack of pattern on the cover. Grab your striping brush, or skinny paint brush in my case, and go to town! While I would have liked my colored stripes to be a bit thinner, I think I made it work. This design is great for ya’ll who are worried about painting intricate images because it doesn’t have to be exact!

I stripped the dust jacket off for a bit of accent nail inspo. To play with the orange and white, I used striping tape (my fav technique) and a vibrant orange. Voila, you’ve got yourself a contrasting, geometric accent nail!

Did you love I’ll Give You The Sun as much as I did? Let me know what you thought! Happy Reading!

Some Other Manicure, Maybe!

March 20, 2015March 20, 2015 ~ Taylor Justine ~ 3 Comments

In Some Other World Maybe Cover Inspired Manicure // Novels and Nail Polish I was thrilled when St. Martin’s Press reached out to me with their new YA/Adult contemporary novel, In Some Other World, Maybe. It’s possible that I was more excited about the cover than the actual story right off the bat. I mean, look at that beautiful rainbow watercolor-looking gorgeousness! I was ready to paint away before even opening it.

Thankfully, the book lived up to its beautiful cover, and I ended up loving them equally! In Some Other World, Maybe follows three separate story lines with characters that intertwine and intersect as everyone grows up in modern America. The characters learn about love and loss, life in Hollywood and how to make it in this messed up world. It was a fun and unique story that I really didn’t want to put down until it was finished!

A word to the wise, pay attention to people’s names at the beginning of the book. I ended up going through a couple chapters before realizing that the characters (major and minor) we are first introduced to show up in all three of the story lines. Once I realized that, I actually went back and reread some of the book to clear up the confusion!

Now, let’s paint a watercolor masterpiece!

Tools I Used // Essie Bikini So Teeny + Blanc + Mojito Madness + Julep London + Zoya Odette + OPI Guy Meets Gal-Veston

This mani used A LOT of polishes. This might be a record for the most polishes I’ve used in a cover-inspired manicure thus far! I really wanted to capture the watercolor rainbow vibe of the cover, and so I pulled out all of the polish stops.

To start, I painted two coats of Essie Blanc and sealed with a quick dry top coat. If I may go off on a quick tangent, I finally jumped on the Seche Vite bandwagon, and it feels like home. I will probably never use another top coat, it’s that fantastic!

Now down to the nitty gritty: the how-to of the watercolor look. I adapted the main technique from a tutorial by The Beauty Department, one of my daily reads for all things beauty! Grab your acetone/nail polish remover and a small container to hold it. I personally use the bottle cap because it’s super convenient! You’ll also need a brush to paint on the design.

On a small square of foil, place a drop of your first color. I went with a watercolor base of Bikini So Teeny on all five nails. Dip your brush in the acetone, then into the color. I did this one or two times to get it diluted a decent amount. Dab the polish on your nail, and don’t be afraid to further dilute the color by dipping the brush back into the acetone without adding more color. The top coat you applied to the first coat will keep the nail polish remover from stripping the base color!

Continue the dilution technique for all colors desired. I decided to do a different color combination on all five fingers because I wanted to capture the beauty of the rainbow! Make sure all of the nail polish remover is dry on the nails before painting a top coat, otherwise you’ll have holes in the final polish layer.

Have you tried a watercolor manicure before? What techniques did you use? Happy Reading!

Happy Read Across America Day

March 2, 2015March 2, 2015 ~ Taylor Justine ~ Leave a comment

My beautiful friends, some dreams do come true. In honor of Read Across America Day, I partnered with one of my FAV nail polish brands, Julep, to create a Dr. Seuss inspired mani. I am so excited to share this fun & colorful manicure with you guys, and I’d love for you to check out my full post over on Julep’s Blog!

How are you celebrating Read Across America Day? Feel free to come celebrate with me and Julep over on their blog! Happy Reading!

Preppy and Polished

January 27, 2015January 27, 2015 ~ Taylor Justine ~ 2 Comments

If it wasn’t clear from my MCM post yesterday, I’ll tell everyone again… I enjoyed Winger very much! It was unique, fun and heartwarming in an immature teenage boy kind of way. I seriously laughed out loud… so loud, in fact, that my roommates made me close the door! And at the same time, it had me crying through the end. I love books that take me on a journey through a whole range of emotions, and Andrew Smith accomplished that with this contemporary YA novel.

This was the book I picked up for National Readathon Day, but I would have finished it just as quickly had it not been the holiday. I knew exactly what I wanted to paint on my nails before I even turned the last page. Manicures that have a clear look in my head always give me the most joy to paint, and ultimately remind me why I started all of this!

So less talk and more polish!

Tools I Used // Essie Find Me An Oasis + After School Boy Blazer + Julep Sheila

It finally happened friends. For the first time in the history of Novels and Nail Polish, I didn’t have a color I was looking for. I have every shade of blue EXCEPT for navy, and I came to that stark realization when I was furiously looking for the colors to complete this manicure. I had to take a break (and a trip to two different stores) to go out and find Essie’s After School Boy Blazer before painting my nails.

Aside from having the perfect name, After School Boy Blazer was exactly the right color to be the base of this manicure. I think one coat would have been enough, because the second coat made it look almost black. To represent the shirt, the powder blue of Find Me An Oasis took care of the accent nails.

I used red striping tape for the diagonal tie stripes across my three nails. Here’s the deal with that: totally a lazy move and I’ll admit it! On the one hand, they look straight and perfect the first time around, no messing with them or worry they’ll smear with a top coat. On the other hand, even with a clear coat, striping tape starts to peel up just hours after applied. That’s why I normally never use it in place of paint.

Bottom line: need a shortcut? Striping tape. Need a lasting mani, use paint.

For my accent nail, the loose schoolboy tie was a given. I ended up using a dotting tool to paint the thin red lines because all of my brushes are too thick. A tip I’ve come to realize when painting something based on the cover is to draw it out on a piece of paper beforehand, so you have a feel for where you’re going to take the design!
If you’re on a contemporary kick like me, don’t miss Winger, that’s for sure! Happy Reading!

Unexpected Attachments

January 18, 2015February 27, 2015 ~ Taylor Justine ~ 4 Comments

Attachments Cover Inspired Manicure Another day, another dollar for Rainbow Rowell. And in her case, another dollar is another incredibly written novel! Attachments was the last of her four books out that I’ve read, and honestly, I was a little bit worried. I’d heard that it paled in comparison to some of her other books, and while the story felt a tiny bit dated in a way that Eleanor & Park didn’t, I still adored it!

Attachments follows Lincoln, an “internet security officer,” whose job is to snoop through company emails, looking for sordid and inappropriate conversations. He quickly finds himself immersed in the lives of Beth and Jennifer, and soon they’re the Three Musketeers, except they don’t know he’s involved.

This book made me smile, laugh and cry purely out of happiness. I love LOVE, and this novel found a special place in my heart that I’d thought had frozen over. And, just like her other books, the cover is perfect for a manicure!

Tools I Used // Julep Sheila + Sally + Essie Bikini So Teeny — Tools I Used // Julep Sheila & Sally + Essie Bikini So Teeny

The cover has a very vintage vibe and theme, and I had the perfect colors. Julep Sally is described as an “antique ivory,” which means it was born to be the base for this mani. Julep Sheila is a “cherry pie creme,” and is so compatible with Sally. I also wanted to bring in a bit of that pretty periwinkle that just accents the cover color palette, which is where Essie’s Bikini So Teeny comes in.

I liked the idea of color blocking with the ivory and red to bring in the design of the two-toned title. I used striping tape to get the randomized, classic feel of the blocks, and threw in a couple of blue polka dots and stripes for fun. Once all of that was dry, it was time to decide what designs I was going to paint.

I knew I wanted a paperclip from the beginning, so that was an easy choice. I used the fine-tip nail art pens from my Sephora kit to paint both of the designs. The desk chair came about more on a whim. I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to pull it off, but I did, and I’m quite proud of myself! I practiced once on a piece of paper, and then just went for it! This, plus my Landline manicure, is another reason I love Rainbow. Her covers push me to try new designs and be a better artist!

Have you read Attachments? What did you think? Happy Reading!

A Divine(er) Manicure

January 8, 2015January 8, 2015 ~ Taylor Justine ~ 2 Comments

Evie O’Neill is a modern woman. A flapper. A ditz. She would be overjoyed to know there is an entire 600 page book written about her! But she’s also something more, a Diviner. In Libba Bray’s 2012 novel, The Diviners, something sinister in the air is headed for the bustling 1920s New York City. We find out that Evie isn’t the only one with these abilities, and soon everyone is thrown into a supernatural thriller with a ghost murderer and weird cult-like religions!

While the story sounds a tad far fetched, it is SO MUCH FUN! And it’s also a little bit scary. Ok, who am I kidding. I was terrified for almost the whole thing! I’m a total wimp when it comes to anything even remotely spooky, but Bray does such an incredible job painting such a vivid picture that I honestly felt like Naughty John was in my closet at night.

I truly adored the character of the story, but there were a couple things that took some help getting past. For instance, plot lines. There are subplots, and then there are TOO MANY DIFFERENT STORY LINES. This book rode the line between the two, and it took almost the whole novel for the characters to intersect and become relevant to one another. Because of that, it sometimes felt a bit like a set up for a series as opposed to a story. But despite these things, I was wildly entertained!

Now, let’s be real. How can you NOT be inspired by this incredible cover? With that, we can talk nail polish.

Tools I Used // Julep Cleopatra + Sephora by OPI A Brush With Fate

Black and gold is a quintessential color combination, especially when you think of the Roaring 20s. The glittering night life and opulent lifestyle of New Yorkers is pretty well represented in this book and its cover, and I wanted to portray that class. In addition to it representing the time period, gold and black (well, really gold and any color) is my life! So this has to take one of the top spots in the Novels and Nail Polish Cover Inspired Hall of Fame.

With the help of my ever trusty Julep Cleopatra polish (I’m not sure what I’ll do when it runs out!), I achieved the perfect almost-matte black, minus the chalkboard dust look. After letting two coats of that dry completely, I broke out my brand new nail art set from Sephora!

The subtle gold shimmer polish is A Brush With Fate from the Sephora Cinderella polish collection. I painted the flower-like magic wisp accent nail freehand with the pointed brush, but the stripes were created with striping tape. A thin coat of matte top coat, and this mani is good to go!

Have you read The Diviners? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Happy Reading!

Making Waves in a Sea of Nail Polish

November 23, 2014November 23, 2014 ~ Taylor Justine ~ Leave a comment

Lights out, plague, birds. Would you have survived the first 4 waves? NOPE. I definintely wouldn’t have! The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey is an intense, Sci-fi YA thriller packed with action and adventure. Of course, since it is a young adult book, you have to throw the love interest and strong familial ties in there too!

I feel like I’ve really been looking for a book like The 5th Wave recently; one that isn’t so much dystopian, but more action/science fiction. I mean, who doesn’t love a good alien takeover? I was intrigued right away, it held onto me the whole time and left me wanting more as soon as I realized I only had a couple more pages left!

I’ve just started The Infinite Sea, so a review of that will be coming later. But once I had both of these books together, my manicure inspiration hit me almost immediately, and I couldn’t wait until I finished the sequel to do it.

One thing I do want to mention before we get into the manicure is that my inspiration for this look really came from the colors of the naked books, as opposed to literal interpretation of the dust jackets! I will talk more about that below, but I wanted to throw it out there first. Now, let’s get to the polish!

Tools I Used // Essie Jiggle Hi Jiggle Low + Ciate Ladylike Luxe + Julep Black Latex — Tools I Used // Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low + Ciate Ladylike Luxe + Julep Cleopatra

Lining up the two naked books next to each other, you see there’s one main color, black, and two accent colors, silver and gold. Those three colors together ARE MY EVERYTHING! That is what really got the inspiration wheels turning, even before I’d left Barnes & Noble with the book!

I rounded up three trusty colors: Julep’s Black Latex Cleopatra, Essie’s Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low from their Winter Collection and Ciate’s Ladylike Luxe. Now, Essie describes Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low as a bold molten gold, but I’m really not sold on that description. It’s definitely silver, possibly with a hint of gold, but not much more than that.

One of the classiest AND easiest nail art techniques I’ve tried is the Ruffian manicure. It’s a reverse French Manicure that follows the shape of the nail bed. I’d only tried it once before, but I adore the striking look it creates if done with the correct contrasting colors.

To create the Ruffian look, start with your base coat. Try to concentrate the color closer to your cuticles, as you will be covering the rest of the nail with a second color. Once it dries completely, you have two options. The first is using tape or a stencil to create the look, and the second is doing it free hand. I chose to run with it free hand, which speeds up the process because you don’t have to wait for the full dry you need when sticking tape to your nail.

If you free hand the design, start with a good amount of polish on the brush. Place it where you want to start the second layer, and gradually spread it out from the center of the nail to the edges in one smooth movement. You can always go back in with a smaller brush and touch up any rough edges, but it works best if you can do it all at once.

In The 5th Wave, one overarching theme that really resonated with me was that of hopelessness. I took that fear of the unknown, as well as the clean lines of the naked covers, and created this manicure. The black represents the fear the aliens have instilled in the human race, and it is covering up the gold and silver, which is their hope for the future. On my accent nail, I drew from Cassie’s strength, which is the reason for the reversed colors, covering the desperation and letting her perseverance shine through.

Have you done a Ruffian Manicure before? I’d love to hear your techniques! Happy Reading!

Novels and Nail Polish

A pretty, little blog that celebrates well-written books and beautiful nail polish.

Cover Inspired Manicure