Shame on you, Julep...

While I was on Facebook tonight, I saw a post from someone in one of the polish groups I belong to, who wanted to get our opinions on a blog post they found.


Julep did a blog post on December 9th called "French Tip with a Chic and Modern Twist". 
Now, just in case this blog post "disappears" overnight, here's a screen shot of what we all saw...


http://i40.tinypic.com/15mln2p.jpg - top half of the page
http://i39.tinypic.com/25a27uq.jpg - bottom half of the page


And here's the actual blog address which *should* go directly to the post. If it doesn't, the post has been removed:
http://blog.julep.com/french-tip-with-a-chic-and-modern-twist

***UPDATE***: When you click on Julep's link above, the post is back (it was removed right after I wrote this post), with photos that HAVE watermarks. In case you missed it on Julep's FB page on Monday evening, Julep's CEO and Founder, Jane Park, admitted to cropping the photos and using them without permission. THEN, she re-posts the article with NEW, watermarked photos. Listen Janey, I appreciate the apology, but you screwed up. Big time. I promise to NEVER purchase a Julep product again.


And for anyone interested, THIS is how Miss Jane decided to address her FB followers last night. As you can see, it goes from,

"Hey guys - we have not

 and would NEVER deliberately crop out watermarks or do anything else that 

would be so dishonest." to  "I'm really sorry we goofed. You guys are right - we

 fixed it as quickly as humanly possible to the way it should have been in the 

first place. Thanks for pointing out this error. We really and truly meant no 

harm and this will never happen again."

If you're interested, here's a direct link to the FB post from Monday evening.


Those of us who are polish-aholics and especially those of us who blog about nail polish or have blogged in the past are familiar with Chloe's Nails. Erika, the creator and author of Chloe's Nails, is one of the most talented bloggers I've ever come across. There are a few bloggers that really inspired me to become a blogger - Erika is one of those people. Her pictures are impeccable. They are always perfectly crisp and clean and I can never find anything wrong with them. Even when I don't like the polish colors/combinations she uses, I still appreciate each and every manicure she does. She always makes it look so easy! 


Check out this really neat post Erika did back in February! 


Look familiar?
What's really sad, is Julep took the time to REMOVE Erika's watermark that she took time to add to her photo. She added the watermark so that people wouldn't STEAL her photos and not give her credit for them!

I can't take credit for finding this post, but here is another blogger-victim whose pictures appear to be cropped and re-posted on Juleps blog: 
http://lyndarthemerciless.blogspot.com/2011/03/talon-tastic-thursday-sophisticated.html

I haven't been able to make a connection with the 3rd picture used. If this looks familiar, please feel free to post your comments below.

To those of you who have followed Paws to Polish for a while, you know that all of my other posts have stuck to reviews and swatches. I've never used my blog as an outlet for my feelings. But I felt that it was important to get this information out to all of you, so that you can see what a dishonest company Julep is. Julep now has the opportunity to make things right by giving credit to these bloggers by simply including their blog address. Let's see how they choose to handle the situation. Talk about a PR nightmare!


Oh, and a little word of friendly advice to my polish and blogging friends: Please take the time to watermark your photos. I know it's a pain and it's a step that we all want to skip, but it's worth it. Even though Julep used these photos without permission, they were watermarked originally, which proved who they really belonged to. And I promise, if I see that one of your photos is being used without your watermark and/or permission, I will stand up for you and your work, and I would hope that you would do the same. We polish-aholics stick together!

OPI "Sapphire in the Snow"

Good morning, guys and gals! Happy Sunday! I woke up to see a little bit of frost on my car windshield this morning - winter's on it's way!


Today's post is looooong overdue. I can't believe I waited so long to share OPI's "Sapphire in the Snow" with you! It's probably one of my all-time favorite OPI cremes ever. In fact, it's one of those polishes that I rarely use, because I don't want it to ever run out! 


I feel very fortunate to have found this beauty about a year ago at my local beauty supply store. It was in a gift set with "Merry Midnight". I really only wanted SitS, but the sales clerk could only sell me the set (which came with a free silver cuff bracelet!). Who'da thunk that both of these polishes would become some of my favorite OPI's?! This is one of my only polishes that I feel I need a back-up bottle of. If it weren't going for so much on eBay, I might buy a bottle today. But I'll wait to see if I can find another bottle dusty-hunting some day. Fingers crossed!


Although the name is "Sapphire in the Snow", it's not a sapphire-colored polish. Instead, it's more of a purple-blue. When "Road House Blues" from the Touring America Collection came out earlier in the year, I thought (more like HOPED!) that it was just SitS re-named. RHB is more of a true blue creme; it's bluer than SitS. Regardless, they're both some pretty awesomely gorgeous cremes!


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
1 coat OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula
2 coats of OPI "Sapphire in the Snow"
1 coat of Poshe' Super-Fast Drying Topcoat

And here's a little sneak-peek of my next post...

Last night, at Target, I found this cute little holiday dog t-shirt and couldn't pass it up at only $2.50. As you know, I only have cats...

My little Snow Princess!

She might not look happy, but I really do think she likes her new t-shirt!

Well, enjoy the rest of your Sunday! Thanks for stopping by!

Katie

4 Swatch Comparisons - China Glaze, Zoya, L'Oreal and Revlon!

It's SATURDAY!!!! Yaaaaay! Except for getting a run in this morning, I have nothing else on my to-do list today! I love weekends like this!


I wanted to show you all a comparison I did of 4 polishes that appear to be similar to each other in the bottle, but that are actually quite different on the nail. I picked up Revlon's "Mistletoe" a couple of weeks ago at Walgreens and once I got home, I wondered how much it looked like one of my all-time favorites, China Glaze "Wagon Trail" (but I just never got around to comparing the two). Then, just tonight, I thought about two others that are kind of close: Zoya "Edyta" and L'Oreal "Owl's Night". So, while I was thinking about it and had time, I thought I'd swatch all 4 to show you how alike and different they are.

China Glaze "Wagon Trail", Zoya "Edyta", 

L'Oreal "Owl's Night", Revlon "Mistletoe"

Same order for the swatch photos below:

I used 2 coats of each color in the photos above (no top coat or base coat).

Which one is your favorite of these 4 colors? I'd have to say that my favorite is still Wagon Trail. Up next is Owl's Night, followed by Mistletoe, then Edyta.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!

Thanks for stopping by!

Katie

OPI "Chatters Me Up" vs. Orly "Rococo A-Go-Go" - - - PICTURE HEAVY!

Happy Friday, everyone! I LOVE these 4-day work weeks!  :-)


I hope all of my US friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday! My day was pretty low-key, but quite long. I volunteered to be a balloon handler in the annual St. Louis Thanksgiving Day parade downtown. I even made it on TV (there was just a close-up shot of me walking, no interview!)! It's a lot of fun to be a part of, but it's very early in the morning, and it was reeeeeeally, reeeeeally cold yesterday morning. After that, my mom and I went and had Thanksgiving dinner at a nearby restaurant. After that, we went and saw The Muppets movie! It was so cute! I wish I had painted my nails in one of my Muppets polishes!


When I got home from work tonight, I had a lovely package from Canada from my friend Linda! She was kind enough to purchase a bottle of the Chatters exclusive OPI polish, "Chatters Me Up". I don't even know what a Chatters is (I'm thinking it's similar to a Trade Secret or Beauty Brands?), but I know that this polish was only being sold at the Chatters salons, so my only way of getting a bottle was if I knew someone in Canada - and lucky for me, I do!


Before my package arrived, I had heard that "Chatters Me Up" was a dupe (or very close dupe) of the new Orly "Rococo A-Go-Go", which I already had, but never tried. So, as soon as I opened my package, I knew I wanted to see for myself how close the two are.


Sure enough, they are almost exact dupes...

L to R on all hand pictures: Orly, OPI, Orly, OPI
(no base coat or top coat used)

What do you think? In the bottle, they don't look like dupes. But on the hands, it's my opinion that they do.


My reason for posting so many pictures is because there aren't a lot of pictures of "Chatters Me Up" online. Before I decided to purchase this, I wanted to check out swatch pictures, first. If I remember correctly, there was only one blog post which showed pictures of CMU. And at the time, there were no swatch comparisons of it with the Orly polish. 


Because I'm such an OPI hoarder/collector (just all-around FAN of OPI!), I'm not regretting buying CMU (even though it was the most expensive OPI I've ever bought!). I love it, and am anxious to wear it soon. That said, the Orly version *might* just have to go in the swap pile, since there's no need for me to own both.


Have a fantastic weekend, and thanks for stopping by to check out this post!


Love,
K

Orly - "Androgynie"

Hi!

Currently on my nails is "Androgynie" from Orly's new Holiday Soiree' Collection.

When I first laid eyes on Androgynie, I fell in love. I had seen pictures on The PolishAholic's website from when she went to Cosmoprof in Vegas in July. I was so anxious to see it for myself in person, I didn't think I could wait 3 or 4 months for it to be available!

So needless to say, when I did finally find the collection at Sally's a couple of weeks ago, I knew I needed Androgynie. The others in the collection, in my opinion, are very "passable", and I don't plan on buying any of them.

I've seen/heard some very mixed reviews of Androgynie from nail polish bloggers. Some are just head over heels for it, others are disappointed with the final results. I, myself, may have found a new favorite polish that will never - ever - go in the "swappable" pile! I LOVE it! It's so unique and unlike any of my other polishes!

Based on the pictures I had seen previously, I knew I wanted to layer Androgynie over a black creme polish to avoid it's jelly-like formula. My only complaint about this mani is that I didn't wrap my tips when I was applying the black creme polish. It looks like I have a lot of tip wear here, but I just forgot a step in my mani! Otherwise, this was a breeze to apply. I used 2 coats of Poshe' topcoat because it was still a little bit rough after 1 coat of top coat. Some have said that Orly polishes take longer to dry, but since I used the Poshe', my mani was completely dry within minutes.

Application:

OPI Chip Skip

2 coats of OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula

2 coats of OPI Black Onyx

1 coat of Orly Androgynie

2 coats of Poshe' Super-fast Drying Topcoat

OPI RapiDry Spray

What do you think? Are there any colors from this collection that you're anxious to get your hands on, or that you already own? Which ones?!

OPI's "Parlez-vous OPI?" and China Glaze "Below Deck" Comparison

Well hello!


Today's post is going to be short and sweet...


A friend of mine on Facebook recently wanted to see a comparison of OPI's "Parlez-vous OPI?" and China Glaze's "Below Deck" to see how similar they are. As you may know, PVO was part of OPI's 2008 Fall Collection de France (one of my favorite OPI collections!). I purchased mine at my local grocery store (I know, total diversion...) and am so glad I snatched it up when I did. It's quite hard to find, and is going for some pretty crazy prices on Amazon and eBay. I purchased Below Deck recently from a local beauty supply store. This one isn't as hard to find (yet!), since it was part of China Glaze's 2011 Anchor's Away Collection which was released earlier in the year. 


I never realized how close the two were until my friend requested a side-by-side comparison.

Sorry about the messy painting. I literally just slapped on a couple of coats of each and snapped some pictures quickly. 

But as you can see, they are very close, but not dupes. PVO is much more "purple-y", where BD has a hint of taupe in it. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I prefer the color of Below Deck over Parlez-vous OPI. Normally, I'm all about the OPI's, but this time, CG wins! That said, I'm not giving my bottle of PVO up to anyone! 

Essie - "Bobbing for Baubles"

Today's post is for one of my new favorites, "Bobbing for Baubles" from Essie's 2011 Winter Collection, Cocktail Bling.


Essie describes this color as "a deepest darkest sapphire". To me, it doesn't scream sapphire. It's more of a dusty gray-navy blue creme. That said, it's still pretty awesome. I got a lot of compliments on it when I wore it recently. I love the fact that it's a dark shade (as you know, I LOVE dark shades, especially blues!), but it's not black, and doesn't look black when you're wearing it. One of the women who complimented me when I was wearing it asked, "Oh, is that teal? It's amazing!". I didn't mind, because she didn't ask if it was black!


If you've never tried Essie before, you really should. It's one of my favorite brands of polish that never seems to disappoint. If you're looking to try Essie and not spend a lot, Beauty Brands has a bunch of their polish on clearance right now, since they will no longer be carrying the brand (*sad face*). Normally, they retail for around $8/bottle.