Julep Haul February 2014

This month Julep put out a coupon code in honor of the Oscars.  

I saw one of these products in the past and wanted to try it out, but it was out of stock. During the promo, I saw that the item was back in stock, so I decided jump on the offer and put in an order. 

Keep reading to see what I got. 

All of the products I ordered. 

The promo code offered a sequined clutch and two nail polishes for free with a $25.00 purchase. The 'Everybody Wins' set is still for sale on the Julep site, however, the coupon code is expired. Here is a close up of the clutch. It's a nice bronze color with tiny sequins throughout.  The sequins are on both sides of the bag, which was highly padded. I was surprised how well made this bag was, especially for a gift with purchase item. There were two options that could have been chosen in the nail polish selection. Keep reading to see which one I chose. 

The inside of the clutch is lined in this leather silk. There are two pockets on one side of the clutch, one of which is big enough to hold an iPhone. The clutch closes with a gold zipper. 

This is what was contained in the 'Party's Over' glitter nail polish removal kit.  The kit included ten nail caps and five packets of nail polish remover pads.  The nail covers are black rubber, all are the same size, aside from two caps (top) which are to be used over the thumbs. Each pack contains ten nail polish remover pads.  The idea behind this kit is that you place a pad on the nail and then place the finger caps over the nail and the pad.  I'm excited to try this out, to see how it removes glitter polish.  I though that it would also be good for gel nails. Review to come. 

Here are the polishes that I received. 

Left to Right: 

'Rita' - magenta shimmer

'Oscar' - gold glitter

'Courtney' - spring green

'Clara' - creamscicle orange

Rita and Oscar were the two polishes that were included in the 'Everybody Wins - Rita Royale' set. The other choice in the 'Everybody Wins' set is 'Holly Would'.  'Holly Would' had a mermaid green color ('Holly') and 'Oscar'.  

'Courtney' and 'Clara' were add ons. I used the add on function to get me to the $25.00 minimum purchase I needed to get the 'Everybody Wins' promo.  I don't currently have colors like this and I though that it would be nice for the spring time. 

If you would like to sign up with Julep and become a Maven, for discounted prices on all Julep products, please use my referral link.

Julep June 2013

My June Julep Maven box arrived. 

First Look!

I actually though that I skipped this month, but I was wrong and I received the box in the mail.  I have been skipping the past few months, trying to save money for my trip. My style profile is "It Girl" and with that profile, you receive three nail polishes in the monthly box. Three other style profiles come with two nail polishes and an extra beauty item and the newly revamped "Modern Beauty" box contains three beauty products. I actually just switched my style profile to "Boho Glam" in case I forget to skip another month so I can get the one beauty item alongside my two polishes. This months's beauty item was a new product for Julep, DD Cream. I'm kind of glad that I didn't get the DD Cream in this box, because as I stated above, I forgot to skip this month and I wouldn't have been able to pick my DD Cream color when the box shipped. Which could have meant it a wasted product if it was not my shade.  This month's theme is 'Sail into Summer' and is described as being perfect for summers on Nantucket. 

This month's extra was salt water taffy from Dolle's.  I received the lime, chocolate and strawberry flavors. I tried the lime one and it was good - tasted just like salt water taffy should. I usually like the harder taffy's and these were soft ones - but they were still good. 

The three color's I received were:

Bess

Nan

Char

The thing that I hate the most about Julep polishes is that the formula is so inconsistent. I painted my nails with Bess (Light blue) and Char (Navy) and both of them applied so differently. Char was so THICK. You only need one coat to reach opacity on Char, but it's hard to apply because it is so thick. Bess was much thinner, but needed two coats. Both of the polishes, as with all Julep polishes that I have tried, last a really long time. I would equate the longevity to my Essie polishes. The color lasts more than a week, most times longer. 

You can sign up for Julep here (<--referral link).  Use code 'Freebox' to get your first box for FREE!

Review: Julep 'Simone' Nail Polish

If you are interested in beauty boxes, there is no doubt that you have heard of Julep's Maven box.  They always have deals where you can receive the first box for next to nothing. I think I signed up with a code that gave me the box for a penny(plus shipping costs, but I think I only paid around $4.00 for my box), but I have recently been seeing links all over the web where you can get the first box for totally free. You will take a style quiz to see what your "Style Profile" is and they will send you a box that corresponds to that style. I was "It Girl" which is for the nail polish lover.  This ended up being the colors that I would have picked anyways, so I was totally happy with my style profile. The first box is the same for each person. It might change with time, my first box came with two colors that were from the Trina Turk collaboration.

You can check them out by clicking on my referral link. Put "freebox" in the coupon code box to get your first box for free!


Now on to the review!


I received Simone as part of the March Maven box.  At first glance it is a really pretty shimmery lavender color. Purple is my favorite color, so I was really happy to receive this polish. The hue lets off a dark purple or blue shimmer color in the light.

Now for the bad. I hated the formulation of this polish! The consistency of the polish ended up being really thick and you really had to get the brush into all the groves of your nail if you wanted coverage. The polish also was really streaky - I had to load up the polish on the brush to get the coverage that I needed to not look like a five year old had painted my nails. This technique caused the polish to get all over my cuticles. Not a good look. Plus the polish took forever to dry and smudged and moved all over the place.

Another issue I had was that the brush was horrible! I felt that the brush was too think and the bristles would go where they wanted, not where you wanted them to go.  You really have no control with this brush.  This isn't the first time that I have received a Julep polish with a crap brush.  The intro box that I received also had a brush that was crap.  It was even worse than the brush that came with Simone.  The hairs went everywhere!

Despite the horrible time I had painting my nails, here is the look I created.

These are the polishes I used:

In artificial light:

In natural light: 

Polish: Julep 'Simone'

Ring Finger: Savina 'Fairy Dust' and Zoya 'Electra'

Top Coat: OPI