Sorry for the length between posts everyone! I just got a full time job, so it's been a little hard to figure out how to balance everything.

I ended up signing up for Birchbox, because they are currently having a deal where if you sign up for an annual upgrade by today the 29th, you get a bonus pink box, and 110 bonus points! So you get $20 in credit, which makes it a fantastic deal. The code is upgrade100annual’ if anyone is interested in taking advantage of this deal.
Hopefully Birchbox ends up being a good fit for me. I have soooo many product samples due to Sephora promos where you could get 16 samples with an order, so I'm trying to use them all up if at all possible instead of hoarding them.

Today my Julep March Boho Glam box came in! I think this one has my favorite packaging yet.

If you're unsure what this Maven thing is, here's my blog post with all the details! If you join, you can always cancel, or skip a box, or change profiles, hassle free. It's $20/month, but I find that with the extra products they are introducing, it's worth it. I also really like that they tell us beforehand what will be included in each months boxes, so that I am able to switch if necessary.

For example, I'm usually American Beauty, and Boho Glam. American Beauty this month has some gorgeous nude colors. However, I already have about 6 of their nude colors in my collection, so I switched to Classic with a Twist instead, since it comes with a pretty lavender color. Unfortunately there is still a nude in there, but one is better than two! If you're curious about this months boxes, here is a link to a blog with all the different profiles! 

My box arrived super fast this month! They shipped it out a few days ago. My Boho Glam box was the first to arrive, and it came in the small black box. No golden box surprise for me! =(
Haha. It's okay though.

Opening it, everything was in a nice lavender gift bag, tied with a pretty white ribbon, with the style card on top. I really love the way they did the colors this month!

Inside in bubble wrap were my two nail colors, the nail elixir, and then the glass dropper.

The coral color is Alicia, which is a very pretty pastel Coral shade that will be perfect for summer! Next is Portia, a turquoise base with iridescent glitters in it.
I thought it was kind of weird that the dropper was put separately, instead of inside the bottle. But it's nice to have the screw top lid if you are going to travel!
One issue I had was putting in the dropper. Because the bottle was filled to volume, it ended up displacing oil and overflowing it when I put in the dropper! So now my hands are covered in Argan oil. Just be careful with putting in the dropper. I would even suggest waiting to fully put it into the bottle until you've used it a few times, to prevent the weird displacement issue that I had.

I happen to own Josie Moran's Argan Oil, in the 1.7oz, so I figured I would compare them for you all! The Julep version is 1 oz. Both have similar glass bottles, the same style of dropper, and the ingredient list is the same. Both just have 100% Organic Argan Oil. I put them side by side on my hand, and they're identical. Same color, same texture, same scent [which is none really]. The Josie Moran retails for $28/ounce, and the Julep version sells for $24/oz. So honestly, they're pretty similar cost wise. If you are a Maven then the Julep version only costs $19/oz which is a really nice deal.
Packaging wise, I have to say I prefer the Josie Moran, just because the label is a little more well designed, and doesn't look so generic. I'm not a fan of black and white labels like the Julep one has.

Just for fun, here's another comparison. Someone on the Julep Facebook Page pointed out that Portia looks exactly like Vanessa, just with some blue added into the base.

So I pulled out my bottle of Vanessa, and yup, they're pretty much exactly the same polish, just Vanessa has no blue in it.

The glitters, as you can see, are identical between the bottles.

Here's a close up for a better comparison.

Personally, it doesn't bother me too much, but I'd be totally lying if I didn't admit that it does a little bit. It sort of feels like they had a bunch of Vanessa leftover, didn't know what to do, so Hey! Let's add blue to it and release it for Spring!

I happen to love that shade of blue, but I do wish that maybe something different had been added into the mix, some other color of glitter along with the iridescent, just a little tweak besides the base color change to really bump it up a notch and make it more special.





All in all, I think this is one of my favorite boxes yet, despite the redundancy with products I already own. I know a lot of people don't like the addition of body products, but for me it's fun to get things such as Argan Oil that are splurges for me to buy normally. I also like knowing I'll have backstock of Argan oil, so I can use it on my hands regularly.

Now I'm super excited to get Classic with a Twist in the mail!