August 2012 Julep Maven Unboxing!

 If anyone is unfamiliar with the Julep Maven program, it's a monthly subscription that costs $19.99 a month.
It's nail polish, but they also have had makeup and other extra products lately as well.
Some people don't like them straying from Nail Polishes, but I really love their other products, so to me it's fun to see what they come out with next!
I've been a Maven since it's launch back in August of 2011!
  For those unfamiliar with Julep, here's my blog post explaining it all, and here's a link to the site for anyone interested in signing up! (just for clarity that is a referral link)

I was surprised when I opened my box and found a personal note from Jane, the owner of the company, and a special Keychain that says "I'm an Original" on it.
I was not expecting anything like that, so it was really a sweet gesture!
This was their Anniversary Month, since they started a year ago, so those of us who have been with them since the beginning received this little extra as a Thank You.

 Here's a close up of the "dog tag" keychain that they sent out!

 The box comes with a card stating the contents, and another nice card with a cute inspirational quote on it. They change the quotes every month, and each month has a different theme.

August's Theme is "Metallics and Chromes"

As you can see, there are two polishes and the extra is a pump Nail Polish Remover!

Another nice extra included was a reusable tote bag with the staying "Beauty is about Connection, Not Competition".

You can see the products here as well.

My profile is Boho Glam, but I often switch to American Beauty as well. This month I stuck with it because I love both colors!
Isla is a pretty shimmer white, and Piper is a metallic Teal Chrome. Both are beautiful and I love their shimmer/metallic finish polishes the best.

Also you can see the nail polish remover with the pump! I've never had one like this before. You put the cotton ball on top of the pump and push down, and it dispenses the remover into the cotton ball. Super easy to use and way better than the regular bottle.

The nail polish remover works really well, and I love the nail polishes.

Don't forget to sign up if you're interested!

Julep Nail Appliques Peacock Review

I received these Peacock Nail Appliques as part of my December Maven boxes. (If you're not sure what the Maven program is, here's my blog post about it! )

The Peacock Nail Appliques retail for $14 on the Julep website, and can be purchased here: http://www.julep.com/nail-color/julep-nail-appliques-peacock

Well, actually, I did a shelf pull on my American Beauty box, to get Classic with a Twist instead. But when I got my boxes they had shelf pulled my boho glam box instead, sent me the american beauty and the classic with a twist.
So I emailed about it, and they kindly sent me the appliques that I was missing.

The holidays were a total whirlwind, so this is the first chance I've really had to use them. The appliques come in a white sleeve, and are in a plastic sleeve inside of that.

Julep Peacock Appliques

As you can see, there are 16 total appliques to use. It also comes with a mini orange stick and a mini nail file inside the sleeve, and the instructions in the back say to clean your nails off completely before using the stickers.

The appliques have a black back with adhesive on them, and the top part has the design that you can see. I was impressed that the artwork was raised and has a 3-D quality instead of being flat. 

 First I cleaned off all nail polish on my nails with my Sally Beauty Nail Polish Remover. (I can take a photo of what brand I use if anyone wants to know)

It's important to do this step because these appliques are essentially stickers, heavy duty ones, but still stickers. So you absolutely need a clean surface for them to adhere to. 

 The second step was cutting up the appliques into strips.
My nails were smaller than the generic sizing that they created. The only one that didn't need trimming was the one for my thumb, which required the largest size available.
For each nail, I would cut the strip with the same two sizes, and then cut the strip in half to separate the individual nail sticker. Then I would hold up my nail to the sticker to see about where I needed to trim it. I also had to trim a mm or so off of the edges on most of them, because my nails were more narrow than the stickers.  The left portion of this image shows all the leftover pieces. I put the part with the "peacock feather" design on my nail, but had tons of leftovers and it would definitely be enough to do my nails again at least once, possibly twice more. I don't have long nails though, as you can see, which makes them stretch further.

Applying them was pretty straightforward. You just cut the piece to size, and place it on your nail. You can move them around easily if needed. After I got it positioned, I smoothed it and then used the orange stick to get the edges down into the edges of my nails more. I also put a clearcoat of topcoat on top just to seal everything.

Here you can see the finished set a little better. All in all these held up fine for the three days I could stand them.

I washed my hands and took a shower with them in. I did experience some peeling on the edges on the 3rd day, and the stickers are on the thicker side, which coupled with the clearcoats I put on top made them feel kind of weird.

I found myself constantly rubbing the texture unconciously, and ulitmately couldn't stand how it felt on my nails anymore and took them off.

  I like them, but they're thick, I wish it came with more sizing options, and that they were more nail polish and less sticker like.

That said, they lasted pretty well and looked really great! There's no way I could ever do a complicated design like that, and getting it done in a salon would be expensive. This is a really great way to change up your nail look to something elaborate in only about 15 mins.  I would use these again for a special occasion or just for fun.

One minor annoyance to me was also that the design isn't mirrored for the hands. It's the same positioning for both hands, so when you hold your thumbs up next to one another, they're not symetrical in design like it would be if a nail design person had done them with real nail polish. Personally I would prefer to have the hands be a "mirror" of one another just for symmetry. I think it's a small touch that makes a big impact and looks more high end and professional.

I give this product a 7/10.

Julep Maven January Box: Boho Glam

Hi everyone! This week, I received both of my January Maven boxes in the mail! Yay! So exciting. My boxes both had an extra in them for being one of the "original Mavens" which was a nice little perk. I ended up choosing the nail treatment, since I already had both of the other colors available as the perk. You can never have too much clear nail polish, right? I'm doing a separate post for the American Beauty box, since it's so image intensive. All the photos on here were taken with my new camera, so please let me know what you think!

If you're not sure what the Julep Maven program is, here's a link to my post detailing the program. If you would like to go sign up, or check it out, here's the link for the Julep Website!

The first box I got in the mail was the Boho Glam one. This is the preview email, detailing what is in the January box.

This month, the product is a Pomegranate Scrub. Last month was the matching lotion, so at least the scents are compatible. Then we have a bottle of Blake, their cream finish summery yellow that was in last years Summer collection, but is a classic. Then the new color in the collection, Heather, a metallic platinum "greige" Now for the unboxing! It's probably hard to tell, but they've really improved the packaging! If you compare it to one of my posts showing the first incarnation of the Maven box, you will see that they have really made the box better. It's much smaller, and now they're using crinkle paper for padding, along with bubble wrap. The set came wrapped in a pretty cellophane bag, with more crinkle paper inside, and the products were kept in place. They also tied the cello bag shut with a pretty grey ribbon. Opening it this month was really just like opening a carefully packaged gift, and I love that!

Here's a photo of all the contents, we have the card detailing what the specific contents are for the month, the cello bag with the products, and my bonus Nail Therapy in the separate little bubble wrap.

Here are the polishes! We have Blake, Heather, and the Nail Therapy. There was also another bonus inside the bag! It's a nail polish remover pad. [I admittedly already tested this, and will post my blog write up about it for you this week!] But it's always cool that they're working on new product lines and letting us try them out. I'm really happy with Heather as well, because it's a pretty shimmery neutral. It's kind of a khaki color, but metallic too, which makes it unusual, but still very wearable. I already own and love Blake, but I'm going to add this bottle to my growing box of duplicate colors. To be frank, I really wish there was a way to switch out colors we already own with another color instead. After being a Maven since September, along with ordering a few sets last year, I have quite a few of their colors already. I feel like the Maven program is really good if you don't order anything from them, otherwise you risk getting dupes.

Next we have the Pomegranate Body Scrub. Last month there was a bit of a fiasco with packaging of the body lotion that they sent out. Many people had problems with theirs coming undone in shipping, and making a total mess in their box. Thankfully that did not happen to me! But I was really glad to see that they listened to feedback, and heat sealed the product. I feel more comfortable using products that have that heat seal, because then I know it's sanitary. The other nice part is, if you want to give it as a gift, it does not look like you already opened the product! So props to Julep for fixing that.

Next we have a another difference I noticed this month. They started putting the names on the bottom of the bottles! I always have found it strange that they put them on the side on those huge rectangular labels. To me, those labels completely detract from the design of the bottle, and obscure an entire side. I don't like them placed on the lids either. So I'm really happy that they finally are starting to label the bottom like most other brands do. I think it looks more professional and nicer in general.

All in all, I am pretty pleased with the Boho Glam January box. I haven't tried the scrub out yet, but I'll review it when I do. I'm generally not a fan of pomegranate scented things, but the lotion smelled good to me, so I am hoping the scrub is scented the same. Heather is a really nice new color, and the bonus products are always fun to receive.

Julep November Boxes: American Beauty & Boho Glam

Hi Everyone!
I received my Julep Maven boxes just in time for Halloween! If you read my last entry, you'll notice I said I got the American Beauty box, despite putting in a shelf pull for the Classic with a Twist.
Unfortunately, even though my invoice stated that it was changed, it wasn't. Luckily, I really love the color Trina in person, so it's okay. The company contacted me and if I end up getting the Classic with a Twist box, I will definitely post photos and swatches for you all!

If you're not sure what the Julep Maven program is, here's a link to my post detailing the program. If you would like to go sign up, or check it out, here's the link for the Julep Website!

One thing I noticed this month is that the boxes that the products are sent in are much more appropriately sized. They're at least 50% smaller, and there is no gift bag inside anymore. Personally I am super pleased about that, because I have about 6 of those gift bags sitting around. I feel bad recycling them,instead of using them, but the only way I'd give a gift in them is if it were a Julep product. They would be good for a kids project of recovering them though.

This month, they switched to shredded black paper, and purple tissue surrounding everything, which was packed inside the absolutely adorable and beautiful cosmetic bag. It's a gorgeous cosmetic bag, that's got little pockets to hold lipgloss/lipsticks, or whatever else. The zipper is metal! I loathe plastic zippers, so this is a huge plus for me. It's gorgeous enough that you could easily give a Christmas gift inside of it, and then wrap the whole thing in a box. I tried to take a photo of it, but my camera is having troubles right now and it wouldn't get it. I'm going to try again tomorrow, hopefully with better lighting!


Now on to the details of each one!



American Beauty: This month, American Beauty comes with a bottle of Trina. It's definitely eggplant purple as they say, but it's got a bit of a shimmer to it. It's a beautiful color for sure. One coat was not enough to get opaque coverage for me. I took a photo so you could see.


The lipgloss is Arousal, a neutral, rosy-brown with pink pearl. These are more of a shimmer frost finish. I don't mind it but I know many people aren't fans of frost lipproducts. The color is very warm. Swatching it, it came out a really pretty golden bronzey pink. The smell of this product is familiar to me, but odd. I can't quite place it. If you don't like heavily scented products, this might bother you.

I haven't worn it yet to see if it's moisturizing or not, I'll let you know.

Boho Glam:


This one, I was a little scared of. Yellow green is a scary color to me. I got it because I like to challenge my color horizons. Unfortunately, as cool as this looks in the bottle, it looks terrible on me. My skintone is NW15 for reference. It looks almost like highlighter yellow, or pea soup. I think this would be gorgeous on someone with a darker skintone. The coverage is great, it only took 1 coat to get a totally opaque coat. I really wanted this one to work on me, but it just doesn't. I'm going to see if I can put Sienna over it and somehow make it work.


The lipgloss in this style profile is in the color Extravagant: warm pearlized golden bronze. This one really is super close to Arousal, it's just missing the pink part. It has the same scent, and frost shimmer. I didn't find the texture to be too sticky, but it was a little bit to me.

I love the cosmetic bag, and the lipgloss in this set, and the nail polish is great except that the color looks terrible on me. That's not Juleps fault though, I think this is just one of those tricky colors to pull off and I don't have the skintone to do it.

Here are swatches of the lipglosses on my hand, so you can see how they look. I personally found the colors in the tube to be totally accurate as to how they looked. The formula is a little on the thick side, slightly sticky, and kind of heavily scented. So just be aware of that! They remind me of the texture of the Victoria's Secret lipglosses that come in the squeeze tubes. Again, sorry, my camera is having troubles. But as you can see, neither color is very dark, and they're both extremely similar to one another. They're both very shimmery bronze neutrals. I'm going to do better swatches earlier in the day.



Just for comparisons sake, since I know people are curious, I put Blake and Selena next to one another, and Gayle and Trina, just so that people could see the difference between them directly.



As you can see, Blake is much more of a bright buttery yellow, whereas Selena is darker, and more pea soup green. They both have the same exact creme finish, and opacity.


Trina is much darker than Gayle, and they have completely different finishes. Gayle is a creme finish, and very opaque. Trina has the same finish as Zoe and Boris & Nicole have, that sort of metalic sheen. It's not opaque and would take at least two coats for complete coverage.

Again, huge apologies for my super blurry photos. My digital camera was having problems focusing. Hopefully I can save up and get a new one soon, so that my photos are much clearer for you guys!

Thank you so so much for reading, and I hope that you all have a great Halloween!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my huge huge giveaway announcement! I promise it'll be worth it!

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.

Boho Glam Julep Maven September Box!

Today I received my first September Boho Glam box in the mail! Yay!

If you read my last entry, you already know what's supposed to be in it.

The julep maven program is a monthly subscription service that's pretty awesome, imho. It's $20 a month and you take a cute quiz to figure out your profile. For the $20, you get at least $40 worth of product and the opportunity to try new products and colors before they're officially released. If you're interested in checking it out, here's a link!

On to the unboxing! Like the previous 2 maven boxes, they came in a nice black box and inside was a gift bag, tied shut with a pretty ribbon. Personally I really kind of wish they would skip the gift bag portion. I realize it's to make it look like a "gift", but it's really odd looking to have a half folded up gift bag inside of a box.

Inside the gift bag were the contents! And a surprise for being one of the first 100 subscribers, which was very sweet of them.

If you read my last entry, you also know that I requested a shelf pull. So Imagine my surprise when I opened the box and saw the card with Amy on it! Unfortunately, they forgot I did a shelf pull and sent me the wrong box. This is kind of disappointing, since the whole point of the shelf pull was to not end up with 2 bottles of the same nail color! Ah well. Thankfully emailing customer service about it got it resolved and they're sending out my bottle of Annette today. So at least they fix things when they mess up! They have really nice customer service people too.

Here are the contents laid out! Included in this months box are: 1 bottle of full sized Everyday SPF 30 handcream that retails for $28, a full sized cuticle oil that retails for $18, and 1 bottle of nail polish that retails for $14.
As a bonus for being one of the first 100, they also included a crystal nail file, and a travel 5 in 1 helper. Honestly the 5 in 1 helper is pretty gimmicky and like something you would get at the $1 store, so I'll probably end up getting rid of it. I would expect something a little more high end from this company than a cheap plastic item like that. But it was really great of them to send the nail file! I have been eying them for awhile now.
No samples were included in the box this time either.

BlogThis!

Julep Maven Sept Boxes

I got the emails for the September boxes for American Beauty and Boho Glam!

If you aren't sure what the Julep Maven Program is, my older entry explains everything about it, or just click the link to read about it and take the quiz!

American Beauty has a beautiful red color, that isn't really something I would normally choose for myself, but I figured I'll see how it is in person. Alfre and Olivia have both been pleasant surprises so I'm hoping that trend continues!

Boho Glam comes with Amy, which I already got in the Summer 2011 set last month.

I put in a shelf pull request, and the shelf pull option is Annette, a gorgeous dove grey.

I'm so excited for these boxes to come!