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!