Julep October Boxes American Beauty & Boho Glam unboxing!

First off, apologies for being away for a week. I helped my grandparents move down from Oregon, so I went up there for a week in order to help them pack, and I was one of the drivers on the way down. The drive took 14 hrs on sunday, so I recovered yesterday. But now I am back!

My October Julep Maven boxes arrived while I was up there, and I have been dying to get to open them up!

If you're not sure what the Julep Maven program is, here is a link to a previous post about the program, and here is a link to their website so you can go check it out. If you use the coupon code FB, your intro box only costs $5! Not too shabby.



First, I unboxed the American Beauty profile box. I'm not sure if you can tell, but Julep made the boxes that they send the products in smaller. I am so glad! I kept one of my previous months boxes in order to store my polishes, and another for the hand creams and things that they sent. The boxes are nice and sturdy, so they would also be great for wrapping Christmas presents in! You could also redecorate the gift bags and reuse them as well.

Opening the box, the two nail polishes [yay we got 2 this month like the intro box!] were wrapped in tissue, and then the new Age Defying Hand Brightening cream! I haven't had a chance to test it out yet, but I'll definitely let you know.



Another difference this month is that there were no product samples included. That's okay though, because I really do not need more samples of either the hand scrub or the SPF hand cream.



The two colors in the American Beauty box are one of the New Holiday 2011 collection colors, Brooklyn, which is a GORGEOUS sparkly true crimson red. It's stunning. So so pretty. I cannot wait to wear it. The second color included is Dendrie, a "chic, dove grey"


Admittedly, I was less excited about this one because from the photo it looks like an exact dupe of Annette, which the company also described as a "dove grey". However, I compared the two colors and they are distinct from one another. But I probably don't need any more grey nail polishes between the two of those. Here's a comparison shot of Annette and Dendrie next to one another so you can see. Annette is on the right, Dendrie on the Left.


I was wary of the bright sparkly red, but I think that's going to be my fun holiday color that I end up wearing to holiday parties, along with Sienna, their gold polish.



Here is a shot of Dendrie separately, so you can get a better sense of how it looks. Brooklyn turned out beautifully in the above photo, but Dendrie looked washed out. My camera tends to focus on the darker color, and the lighter one gets washed out next to it.






For the Boho Glam Box, the packaging is the same deal. A smaller box, with a gift bag tied with ribbon [love the attention to detail!], and inside the bag is a tissue wrapped set of the two nail polishes, and the box of hand cream. There's also the nice profile card on top so you can see what you are getting inside.




The colors included in this months Boho Glam profile are their 2011 Holiday color of Gayle, which is a deep creme finish purple eggplant color, and then Malin, a "pink champagne" color.

Unfortunately, since the colors are so drastically different I had a hard time getting a good shot of both.

Here's a shot of Gayle alone. I plan on swatching Gayle, I'm still a bit skeptical about it because I don't generally wear purple. But I am hoping it looks good on, and I know the quality is good!



Here's a better photo of Malin so you can see.


Out of the two, I have to say Malin is the one I am more excited to wear, but that it also looks almost exactly like the color Jennifer. Malin in on the left, Jennifer on the right.


Comparing the two, they are not exactly the same. While they are the same color, Jennifer is a creme finish and Malin is shimmery. I prefer the shimmery version so I am excited to add Malin to my collection. It's a nice neutral, and those are always useful to have, so I'm not upset about it being so close.

All in all, I love both my profile boxes. They are completely different from each other, and that's great! My favorite is Brooklyn, and second favorite is Milan. So neither box was a bad choice and I'm happy to own all the colors.

It should also be interesting to try out the hand cream and see how it works.
Thanks so much for reading!

Julep Annette Review

Today my box from Julep came, and inside was the bottle of Annette that I was supposed to receive as my September Julep Maven Boho Glam color.
Instead of shelf pulling Annette for me,as per the email, I was sent the original set with Amy in it. This was disappointing to me because the whole reason I did not want the original set is because I already own Amy! I foresee a giveaway in the future of this blog! Thankfully customer service was super nice and sent me out my bottle of Annette the same day I contacted them about the mix up.

In case you don't know about the Maven program, it's a monthly subscription service that you take a profile quiz for. Based on that quiz, you get assigned 1 of 5 profiles. Each month they send out a different box and you can either send it to someone else, pause your sub, or do a shelf pull if like in my case, you already own the featured color or just don't care for it. Here's the link to the program so you can check it out!

Unfortunately, they seem to be a bit overwhelmed by the response to the Julep Maven program. Some people have had shipping issues, been double charged for 1 month,never got their referral credits, or got the wrong box entirely. I personally have not had problems getting things resolved though, when there have been issues with my order. Like every company, there are always growing pains when they go from a small start up, to having a huge following almost instantly. They really do seem to want to make things right, and I appreciate that. So I plan on sticking things out with them.

Anyhow, here is a photo of the bottle of Annette on a white card so that you can see the color. To me, it appears as a light light lavender grey, not a brown grey like the bottle can make it look. The color is very creamy and opaque, while still being very shiny. It's strange but it almost reminds me of patent shoes that you have as a little girl to wear with your Easter Dress. This color is great for all seasons.

Here is a swatch of the color on my nails. Please excuse the messy paint job. The formula evens out and dries very smooth. I only did one coat and it's opaque and it's very shiny! The consistency is not gloppy or too thin either. To be honest, it was the brush that was sort of giving me trouble, it was almost like it was too long.

I was a little worried the color would be kind of ugly, since it sort of looked like cement grey when I first put it on. But the hint of lavender is flattering and I think it's a really sweet and pretty color. Baby pink would go perfectly with this.

Annette is a really pretty color and would be great for people who have professional jobs, because it's a trendy color that isn't crazy or overpowering. It's very subtle color wise, but manages to be trendy, classic, and edgy all at once. It's described as "dove grey" on the website and I think that's very accurate. Definitely a keeper! I was skeptical if I would like this one or not but it's one of my favorite colors.