Julep - April 2012

Hey guys!

As I continue to get caught up, I have my Julep April Bombshell Box to share with everyone. I have been skipping Julep more than I like lately. The colors have been really similar to others that I already own, and although I feel a little bad skipping, I am badly behind on putting up swatches and reviews of the Juleps that I have, so until I am caught up, saving the money seems like a good idea.

Anyway, on to the box!

 

It came in this amazingly cute color-blocked box. I just loved this when it was open! So spring and so colorful.

 

I received:

1. Julep "Best Pedi Creme Ever".

2.  "Parker"

3. "Annette"

4. Toe Separators (2)

Not a bad little box! I traded the pedi cream since I can't really use exfoliants on my feet, but both colors are gorgeous.

I also ordered two add-ons:

 I picked up "Susie" and "Allyson". I loved the neutrals and I liked getting a few extra shades.

I hope you like these box openings. If you by chance are not yet subscribed to Julep, I would LOVE it if any of you would use my referral link: http://www.birchbox.com/?raf=qtjvd. You can receive the box for a penny with ShareOnMay as a coupon code. If two people use my link, I can get a box to share for free. :)

Thanks everyone!

Product Review - Julep "Fast-Dry Topcoat"

 

I had one more quick review I wanted to get out to you guys today. For my December Julep Maven "Bombshell" box, I received a bottle of Julep's "Fast Dry Topcoat". 

I first used this with Julep "Demi". I had sort of thought that the topcoat was intended to be used as a topcoat to get the polish to dry faster, as many people have done with glitter sandwiches, etc. However, I had a bit of a rude shock when my topcoat turned a permanent shade of light-Demi as a result!

The topcoat itself seems to last nicely, though I don't know how much I can say for the durability-affecting qualities. Polishes (mostly Demi, since they seem to be a perma-pair) dried quicker than they would have normally, though as I said, beware, because the polish will tint the topcoat if they are not completely dry. The other way to get around this is to wipe off the brush between dips into the bottle.

The other strange thing about this topcoat is that it has the distinct eau of "skunk" during application. Afterwards, there is no trace of this, but it is kind of amusing to have "skunk" topcoat, I think. Unless you are diametrically opposed to anything vaguely skunklike, it isn't too bad.

... and why would you be diametrically opposed to skunks??

Product Review - Julep "Glitter Pot"

I have pot to share with you all today. LoL.

Specifically, I have this little pot to share with you, the Glitter Pot that came in my December 2011 Julep Maven "Bombshell" box. Isn't it cute? And sparkly? I tried this out with Demi as an accent nail earlier this week. It looked super festive and pretty.

The way that I found works best for a cute little glitter pot like this is to take it in your fingers and sprinkle it on the wet polish of whatever nail you want. Then, you should wait (as I did not) for the polish to completely dry, then add topcoat. I was impatient, and ended up with Demi-covered glitter.

The nails with the glitter did tend to peel more than those that did not have glitter, but I again used the mysterious Julep fast-dry topcoat that may be responsible for peeling...

Please, Julep, put these on sale! I would pay a lot for them. They're a really nice little product, and I want to try the others!

Polish Review - Julep "Demi"

I have a polish that I have worn a few times this month. This one, Demi, came in my December Julep Maven "Bombshell" box. :)

Here, with a flash, you can see it (11) with a little bit of shimmer. :)

 

As you can see, it is a fairly bright burgundy, though a lovely color. Everyone knows I can never keep my hands off anything in the dark crimsons + burgundy family, so this was a welcome addition and my favorite choice out of all the Maven selections for the month -- and I already am a Bombshell! :)

Now, Demi does seem to have a mystery around her.

... where is Demi?

She's not under reds, pinks, purples, or anything else on Julep's website. Is she an unreleased color? Out of stock? Discontinued? Where is Demi? LoL.

Demi lasted pretty well. It tends to peel, though, and it peeled in some spots pretty quickly. I did apply it this time over my Color Club basecoat, though I think the first time I wore it, I put it over the Nail Therapy one. Both times I used the Julep fast-dry topcoat that also came in my Maven box. Now my topcoat is slightly tinted Demi. Haha. I am kind of tempted to try it over a tried and true polish and see if it makes that one peel as well. Short story: I love Demi, but I'm not sure about this topcoat buddy she brought along. But that's a review for another time...

Overall, I am really glad I picked this color out of my Maven choices. :)

Polish Review - Julep "Vanessa"

Hello again!

I have another Julep polish for you guys. This one also came in my October 2011 Julep Maven Bombshell box. Today I have "Vanessa" for you.

Vanessa is a really pretty, micro-glittery polish suspended in a clear base. It serves best as a topcoat, but I swatched it on its own below.

I think this picture is about 4-5 coats to get the maximum opacity that I could out of it, but as you can see, the glitter is really too fine for it to stand on its own and have full coverage. This picture does have a clear topcoat to bring out the glitter.

I like this polish a lot. When I wore it I wore it over an old, goopy, "never come off your nails" kind of L'Oreal white because it was the only white that I had. It never dried, but at least it was pretty until I had to take off the whole manicure. It looked like snow that has just melted a little bit, so at night it sparkles -- pretty!

Drying time is very quick on Vanessa itself, like any good glitter. It seemed like it wasn't very chippy, though I didn't get to wear it for very long before the bottom layer of white polish got squishy and started sliding off the nail. Ew.

My biggest problem with it is that it's a very goopy polish. For some reason this doesn't equal an impossible drying time, but it does equal going through a LOT of polish, very quickly! You can see that I've used almost a third of the bottle in the bottle picture above. I swatched it on the nail wheel, and I did a two-coat manicure. Eeps! I hope I don't have to buy another round of Van really soon. :(

Overall this is a pretty polish. I think I like it a little more than Chloe, which came in the same Maven box. This one is definitely easy on the application, and much more versatile.

Polish Review - Julep "Chloe"

   While I get caught up, I have one more polish review for you today. For my October 2011 Julep Maven "Bombshell" box, I received a couple of nail polishes. One of them was "Chloe". Chloe is part of their Holiday 2011 collection, and currently unreleased. I love getting the advance "copies" of the nail polish -- it's the same thing that I do for advanced copies of books and other products. It makes me feel like the ultimate VIP, hehe.

   Chloe is superb-looking in the bottle. It is a gorgeous magenta shimmer/micro-glitter suspended in a black base. It sparkles in the bottle, and the magenta is very apparent. However, and this picture with a flash was the best I could get that showed the shimmer at all, once you get it on the nail (or nail wheel, where it is pictured next to Hard Candy "Beetle", which I thought would be more of a sister color when I only had Chloe to compare to it in its bottle), it loses a lot of the glow that is in the bottle. I added a top coat on my manicure, which zests it up a little than in the above photograph (without the top coat), but it's still nothing like in the bottle.
   I hate to say it, but this had some of the most difficult application I have tried in a long time. The manicure I have with Chloe right now is actually its second attempt. The first time I did my real nails with it (which are admittedly a little short right now after a very stressful couple of weeks), I was so irritated with how it looked that I peeled off every nail. Long story short: when Chloe arrived, it had a consistency somewhere between glue and congealed blood. It got a little better after I shook it up, but I still had the urge to put a drop of thinner into it -- and it's brand new! It goes in in big, chunky coats that are difficult to control, and I had it dripping everywhere on my cuticles. The Polish Paradigm has a good view of what tends to happen with this polish. (I'm glad I found the pic, because now I know I'm not the only one!) The second time I put on Chloe, I spent a lot of time and concentration getting it on in tiny thin coats. I was a little more happy when I did it this way, and then I plopped on a top-coat which brought back a little bit of a shine. I would say that it dried just a bit shinier than a satin -- sort of like if you have a really heavy glitter (except of course, Chloe doesn't appear to have once it's on the nail...).
   Although application is ridiculously difficult to control, it looks very nice once the whole process of getting it on the nail and top-coated is finished. It looks very darkat a glance, but not completely black -- almost a very dark chocolate, which is probably a result of black base+purple shimmer. Once the light hits it, it almost looks like the glitter is deeper than the base color, so it has a little bit of a jelly-like finish, but not a lot.
   On the whole, I like the polish and I am glad that I received it. I think it is a good holiday color, but just plan to take a little time putting it on, and focus!

  

Polish Review - Julep "Stefani"

   Today, as promised, I have for you Julep's "Stefani" nail polish. I received this in my September 2011 Julep Maven "Bombshell" box. It is a gorgeous steel-gunmetal base with gold and olive shimmer coursing through it. It's a lovely color, very trendy, but classic at the same time. It is really keeping with some of the olive tones that have been on the runways and in a lot of the Fall 2011 nail polish collections, but the fact that the olive seems to come more from the shimmer than the base is very different than any of the other polishes I have seen.

   I wore this to a business casual-y event a couple of weekends ago, and it was lovely. The application is pretty smooth, and for being almost-a-frost it wasn't too brushstroke-y. You have to pay attention when you put it on, or else it will be a little bit brush-stroked, but it's not too bad overall. I wore it over the Julep base coat I was sent in August, and it seemed to last very nicely. It did take forever to dry. This one is definitely a "apply before going to bed" or you risk gouging it.

   This is a very nice color, and it seems to last well. Although this is not to suggest that it is in any way dupe-y, I spent a lot of time staring at this polish and trying to figure out why it seemed so familiar. For some reason -- and I think it's the dull-gunmetal-turns-greenish-in-some-light aspect, it reminds me a lot of Chanel Black Pearl. Black Pearl is much greener and much darker, but this one is a nice, shimmery sister shade in some ways. It also reminds me of some of the "dud" photos of OPI "Not Like the Movies". The TraceFace Philes has a beautiful set of swatches and macros of the bottle.

  Did you get "Stefani"? Did you get another shade and wish you had "Stefani"? Share!

Three Boxes in the Mail

I have a few goodie boxes to share with you today!

I'm running a little behind, so my first is my September 2011 Julep Maven "Bombshell" box. I'm kind of jealous of some of the ladies who got that gorgeous teal creme this month, but I had some pretties in here too. :)

   This box contained a nail polish -- Stefani, a really pretty gunmetal-steel grey with gold and olive shimmer, the roller-ball essential cuticle oil, the SPF 30 hand cream that Mavens received a small sample of in their introductory box, and a very nice little nail file. I'm very behind on posting, so I admit -- I have already used all of these products except for the hand cream, though I need to try that out soon. I'll have a forthcoming review of Stefani, but I'll say here -- the nail file and the cuticle oil live in my purse now, and are not likely to leave any time soon. I think this was a very costworthy little box -- I think it about breaks even with what I would like to pay for the Julep products, and all of them were very usable, so I was very happy.

   So I broke down. I admit it. I finally bought a bottle of the Vitalumiere Aqua in Beige Rose. It's just slightly darker than my usual preference for foundations, but it looked so nice when I tried it in Croatia that I had to have it. I was originally going to buy Peridot at the same time, but it was sold out, and I'm not positive that I am going to buy Graphite, so I stuck with just the foundation. It did also come with a sample of Blue de Chanel, which I'll send to a (male) friend, and little samples of Mousse Confort and Sublimage Serum. I've hardly had time for my usual beauty routines, so these have gone untested so far. But I'll confess to you, my readers, that there may now be another Chanel box on the way very shortly, because something restocked just as I needed a bout of retail therapy...

   Lastly I have my newest Maven box, for October. This was really a nice little box and it was even nicer because it was a freebie that was released to combat some of the negativity surrounding it. I won't comment on that, since it did not involve me, though I was not too happy to see that any of the other lovely Mavens had been shortchanged at all. In this box are three pretties: Age-Defying Hand Cream, which will be awesome because I have very pale skin that freckles (especially on my hands) very unattractively, and two nail polishes. The first polish is Vanessa, a very pretty snow-like glitter that reflects all different colors and is suspended in a clear base. It reminds me of fake white shiny-snow that you get in a garland. It makes me wish it were Christmastime! The second polish is Chloe, which is a pink/red/magenta microglitter/shimmer that is suspended in a black, jelly-like base. I admit that I nail-wheeled (and wore Chloe) both of these prior to the above photo, so don't judge the bottle content-level!

   That's all I have for you right now. I'll hopefully have a couple of polish reviews up sometime soon, but for now, it's back to football!