Julep Abbie

Hi you guys! Hope your weekend has been relaxing and fun so far! I'm a little late with today's post because I've been trying to catch up with swatching for the last few hours. Of course it was dark and rainy while I was at it, and then as soon as I was done, the sun came out. *grumbles* :D

Today I've got another of the pretty bright colors from my April Julep Maven box to share with you. Abbie is a bright sunshine yellow with a creme finish.

This color looks brighter and more neon in the bottle, but dries a little darker and not nearly as eye-searing on my nails. The formula is as expected for a yellow. The first coat is quite streaky, but the second coat helps to even out a lot of that. What you see in the swatches is two coats, and while it's still a little patchy, I thought it was sufficiently good to stop there. You can definitely add a third coat if you want it to be extra even. The formula is a little runny and has a tendency to drip down Julep's long stem and brush, so be sure to wipe off the excess real well to avoid the polish pooling onto the nails.

You can find Abbie as part of the April Julep Maven Box, as well as on Julep.com for $14 for 0.27 fl oz. If you are new to the Julep Maven program, you can get your first box free. More info HERE.

Julep Mackenzie

I'm super excited to show you guys Julep Mackenzie, one of the bright polishes from my April It Girl Maven Box. Mackenzie is a bright apple green with lots of green shimmers in a metallic finish. I was most looking forward to this color, and it's the reason I chose this box. :-)

When I saw Mackenzie in the lineup for this month, I knew I had to get it, and I'm happy to report that it definitely lives up to my expectations. It's such a bright and happy green, really fantastic for summer! :-)

Formula-wise, it was good, but a little tricky to apply. It's nice and thin, but has a tendency to be runny. I found the trick for a good application is a thin first coat to define the borders, followed up with a medium second coat done with a soft touch to fill in for coverage. Be sure to wipe off excess polish between strokes, as it tends to run down the length of the stem and brush and deposit onto the nails. 

You can find Mackenzie as part of the April Julep Maven Box, as well as on Julep.com for $14 for 0.27 fl oz. If you are new to the Julep Maven program, you can get your first box free. More info HERE.

Julep Maven April 2013

Hiiiii there! Happy weekend! :-)

I haven't shown you guys my Julep Maven boxes in a while, and I'm particularly thrilled with this month's, so I thought I'd go ahead and share what I got. The theme for April is "turn on the brights", perfect as the weather is getting warmer. This month, I went with the It Girl box. 

Everything arrived nicely wrapped in the usual black Julep box. The nail polishes for It Girl this month are Eden (bright violet creme), Mackenzie (sour apple green metallic), and Abbie (sunshine yellow creme). As a fun little treat, this month's boxes also come with a piece of rock candy. I'll have some swatches and reviews of the colors in my upcoming posts.

If you are wondering about Julep Maven, it is a subscription program that normally retails for $19.99 monthly with free shipping. Over at Julep.com, you can take a style quiz to determine your personal style. Every month, you will receive a Maven box that best fits your style filled with over $40 worth of Julep goodness. The program is flexible, allowing you to skip any month free of charge, send a box to someone else, or switch your box to a different style. And you can cancel anytime.

To join and get your introductory Julep Maven box for FREE (!), just click HERE, select the Become a Maven tab, and use code FREEBOX at checkout. The code is available for a limited time.

** This post contains my referral link. If you click on the link and sign up, I will earn credit towards free Maven boxes.

Julep Ivy

Happy Friday, you guys! I have Julep Ivy, one of the polishes from my December Maven It Girl Box to share with you today. This is my favorite from the maven box, and I couldn't wait to try this after I got it. Ivy is a sapphire blue with tons of duochrome shimmers that change from blue to pink/purple depending on the angle and light.

Looking at it from straight on, the color of the shimmers in the center of the nails is predominantly blue, while the edges show just a bit of the pink/purple. The more you tilt your hand, the more you will see of the pink/purple. The duochrome shimmers are hard to capture on camera, but they are less shy in real life. This color is absolutely beautiful, but I did run into some issues with the formula. This turned out to be quite sheer, and I needed 3 to 4 coats to get the coverage that you see. Dry time is also a little slower, typical for this number of coats.

Julep Maven December 2012

Hi you guys! Hope your holiday season has been festive and fun so far. I'm currently off from work and that mood of relaxation has seeped into all I do, making me extremely lazy. As a result, I'm falling a little behind on my blog posts. Let's see if I can catch up a bit. :-)

Today, I'm excited to show you my December Julep Maven box. This month's theme is glitter and glow, perfect for this time of the year. For this month, I went with the It Girl box instead of my default Boho Glam because I wanted the extra polish instead of the warming foot scrub.

Everything arrived nicely wrapped in the usual black Julep box. The nail polishes for It Girl this month are Harper (full coverage mermaid blue glitter), Ivy (sapphire micro-glitter metallic), and Vivien (full coverage champagne gold glitter). As a bonus, this month's boxes also comes with a create-your-own cabochon ring and a peppermint candy. I'll have some swatches and reviews of my favorite of the three colors up shortly.

If you are wondering about Julep Maven, it is a subscription program that normally retails for $19.99 monthly with free shipping. Over at Julep.com, you can take a style quiz to determine your personal style. Every month, you will receive a Maven box that best fits your style filled with over $40 worth of Julep goodness. The program is flexible, allowing you to skip any month free of charge, send a box to someone else, or switch your box to a different style. And you can cancel anytime.

To join and get your introductory Julep Maven box for only ONE CENT, just click HERE, select the Become a Maven tab, and use code PENNY at checkout. The code is available for a limited time.

** This post contains my referral link. If you click on the link and sign up, I will earn credit towards free Maven boxes.

Julep Minka

I'm super excited to show you Julep Minka, one of the suede polishes from my November Classic with a Twist Maven Box. Minka is a reddish, brownish copper with lots of silver shimmers that dries to a matte finish.

This is a gorgeous fall color and I fell in love with it the second I put it on. As with all mattes I have used, application can be just a little tricky. It dries fast, so you need to work fast. Use thin coats because there isn't a lot of time to smooth over any extra polish once it's on the nails. You can tell exactly when this polish is dry to the touch because the finish changes from the initial wet metallic finish to the matte finish once it's dry. It's nicely pigmented, and I needed just two thin coats for opaque coverage.

Julep Maven November 2012

Hi, lovely readers! Hope you guys are having a great holiday weekend! I'm a little behind on my posts. I thought I would get a chance to work on the blog over the long weekend, but I should have known better. I could not concentrate in the midst of so much turkey and shopping. :-)

Today, I'm excited to show you my November Julep Maven box. This month's theme is suede polishes. I've been hoping Julep would include their suede polishes as part of their Maven boxes ever since they introduced them to Sephora a few months ago, and I'm happy they finally did. This month, I chose the Classic With A Twist box instead of my usual Boho Glam.

As usual, everything came nicely wrapped in their signature black Julep box. The nail polishes for Classic With A Twist this month are Minka (a copper red suede) and Brit (a graphite silver suede). This profile also came with a jar of Pink Grapefruit Body Frosting. It smells lovely and fresh, and I can't wait to try it. As a bonus, this box also contains three individually wrapped polish-remover pads, which will be super useful when traveling. I've already tried one of the polishes and will have swatches and reviews of that up shortly (assuming I don't get side-tracked with more shopping lol).

If you are wondering about Julep Maven, it is a subscription program that normally retails for $19.99 monthly with free shipping. Over at Julep.com, you can take a style quiz to determine your personal style. Every month, you will receive a Maven box that best fits your style filled with over $40 worth of Julep goodness. The program is flexible, allowing you to skip any month free of charge, send a box to someone else, or switch your box to a different style. And you can cancel anytime.

To join and get your introductory Julep Maven box for only ONE CENT, just click HERE, select the Become a Maven tab, and use code PENNY at checkout. The code is available for a limited time.

** This post contains my referral link. If you click on the link and sign up, I will earn credit towards free Maven boxes.

Julep Leslie

Today, I've got another polish from my October It Girl Maven Box to show you guys. Leslie has a black base with tons of silver shimmers peeking out.

The silver shimmers in here remind me of stars twinkling in the night sky. They look chunkier than usual shimmers, and they stand out well against the black base without getting lost in it. The formula is great. It goes on pigmented and smooth, without any pooling or dragging. And I needed only two coats for opacity. The shimmers do have a tendency to clump together and make the texture slightly lumpy, so a top coat is useful if you like a smooth and shiny finish.

Julep Caroline

Hi, you guys! :-)

Today I have for you Julep's Caroline, one of the polishes from my October It Girl Maven Box. Caroline has a deep burgundy brown base with tons of mostly red shimmers.

In the shade, away from direct light

If you are a lover of dark vampy fall colors, Caroline is totally for you. It comes from a similar inspiration as OPI's German-icure by OPI, although they are not dupes. German-icure's base is more red while Caroline's is darker and more of a blackened brown. Like a lot of other dark vampy shimmer polishes, the shimmers in Caroline are most noticeable with direct light shining on it. In the shade without direct light, you will see predominantly the base color. This has a fantastic formula. It is buttery and pigmented, and goes on opaque in two coats.

Julep Maven October 2012

I'm excited to have received my October Julep Maven box in the mail last week. I had a bit of trouble deciding which box to get this month. This month's theme is Halloween-inspired, and many of the boxes had crackle polishes. I'm not a big fan of crackles, but I finally settled on the It Girl box because even though it has a crackle polish, the other two polishes that came in the box are beautiful.

Everything came nicely wrapped in the usual black Julep box. The nail polishes for It Girl this month are Caroline (a burgundy shimmer), Leslie (black and silver specked shimmer), and Glenda (a silver crackle). The box also contains two pots of glitter and a small bag of candy corns in the spirit of Halloween. I'll be trying out the colors and will have swatches and reviews for you guys coming up.

If you are wondering about Julep Maven, it is a subscription program that normally retails for $19.99 monthly with free shipping. Over at Julep.com, you can take a style quiz to determine your personal style. Every month, you will receive a Maven box that best fits your style filled with over $40 worth of Julep goodness. The advantage of the Julep Maven subscription program is its flexibility. It allows you to skip any month free of charge, to send a box to someone else, or to switch your box to a different style. And of course, you can cancel anytime.

To join and get your introductory Julep Maven box for only ONE CENT, just click HERE and use code COLORS4ONE at checkout. The code is available for a limited time.

** This post contains my referral link. If you click on the link and sign up, I will earn credit towards free Maven boxes.

Julep America

Today, I'm wrapping up the Julep polishes from my July Boho Glam Maven Box with America. It is a glitter polish filled with blue, red, and silver colored and multi-shaped glitters in a sheer base.

There are so many different glitter colors, shapes and sizes in here. There are fine red glitter flecks, small round silver and blue glitters, medium-sized blue hexagon glitters, and large silver star-shaped glitters. The base is quite sheer, so it's best to wear this over a complimentary base color. In the swatches, I have America over Julep Mischa.

As with all glitters that contain large pieces, application can be a little tricky. You pretty much have to fish out the star pieces and manually place them to ensure one star for each nail. Then you put a medium-thick layer of polish over the whole nail, and lightly spread out the polish to ensure the star stays where you want.

Overall, I think the glitters look gorgeous in the bottle, but they look messy once they are on my nails. A large reason is that the silver stars end up with lots of the other smaller glitter pieces all over them. Also, I could not get some of the star pieces to lay flat due to their size and the curvature of my nail bed. It's not a polish I would normally wear, but it's still cute and fun for July 4th. :-)

Don't forget to enter my current giveaway for a chance to win a Zoya mini trio, featuring three colors from the Zoya Surf Collection! <3

Julep Mischa

Hello everyone! :-)

Today, I have for you Julep's Mischa, another polish from my July Boho Glam Maven Box. Mischa is a juicy scarlet red with hints of orange and lots of sparkly shimmers.

Julep really hit it out of the park with this month's polishes for the Boho Glam profile. I thought Mischa would be another typical red (lots of those around), but it turns out to be a most interesting color. Depending on the lighting, Mischa shifts from a bright red to a more fiery orange. It also has the most fascinating silver and gold shimmers in the bottle, which then translate clearly onto the nails.

The formula is excellent, and I am able to apply even coats without any problems. Although each coat is a little sheer, they build up to a good level of opacity with two coats. I love this type of micro-glitter/glass fleck finish because it is the best of all worlds. You get shimmers and sparkles without the brush strokes of a metallic finish or the removal problems of glitters.

Don't forget to enter my current giveaway for a chance to win a Zoya mini trio, featuring three colors from the Zoya Surf Collection! <3