Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Julep Maven Monthly Box: First Box First Impressions & Swatches


Hello wonderful people that actually read our blog! It's been a long time since we last posted  but it is May now! A Drugstore Makeup Finds Of The Month will be due soon because I plan to be faithful to that segment of our blog. 

Well anyways, this blog post will be about the Julep Maven Monthly Box and my first experience with any type of monthly box. Julep was having an amazing deal for new members where the first box is basically free! All you have to do is pay for shipping which is just a measly $3 considering the box itself each month is $25. You get three Julep products ranging from nail polish, makeup, nail care, skin care, maybe haircare (?), and anything else Julep does. Honestly, I thought the only thing Julep did was just nail polishes and I've seen those at Sephora before. They run for about $14 and I could never justify buying them. I do have Butter London polishes which are I think a dollar more but they were more hyped at the time I was really into nail polish. 

I haven't heard much about Julep but I could not pass up this amazing deal and I've always wanted to try a monthly box like this. When you go on the site you're first asked to sign up and take a "Style Profile" quiz. The results of the quiz will determine your box of the month. I ended up getting Boho Glam and received two nail polishes and one nail care product. It also came with a buffer for your nails and cards and whatnot describing your box. Honestly, you can choose the style box you want but I went with what I got because it was my favorite one out of the bunch anyways.

Let's check out the products I got!


The box came with three nail items, the Julep Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum, Julep Nail Color in Elisa, and Julep Nail Color in Lena.


Claims: Kapow! Peptides- super charged amino acids that build keratin (for your nails) and collagen (for your cuticles)- are our Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum's secret weapon to transform dry and damaged cuticles almost overnight. Plus, get visibly stronger, smoother nails with fewer ridges and less splitting and brittleness in only 2-3 weeks.

The first item I'll talk about is the Julep Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum. I wasn't honestly too thrilled to get this just because I saw that there was another box with three nail polishes instead of two but I didn't really see myself wearing those colors. So, I opted for this. I have my Burt Bee's Cuticle Cream handy and ready for use in my bag and I love the stuff so I thought I didn't have to think about cuticle care that much. 

But this year I moved into an apartment type dorm which means I have my own kitchen, living room, and bathroom. I used to have two roommates but now I only have one so I do a lot of the cleaning. The other roommate doesn't clean up after herself at all like right now there are dishes in the kitchen that haven't been cleaned in weeks because she refuses to use a regular sponge. She needs a handle brush to clean. Which is annoying. Okay, I'm putting that rant away but that basically means I do a lot of the cleaning. If she ever did clean it would still be dirty. So because my hands are constantly in water or using soup, I've been getting "housewife hands" which means my hands have been dry and cracked and my cuticles are looking all types of no. 

I've been trying this now for a couple of weeks and I like it. It isn't my Burt Bee's Cuticle Cream, I just prefer the feel of it, but I do see results using the serum. My cuticles have been feeling so much better and smoother. Plus, I'm not getting those really dry pieces of skin on the side of my nails...what is that called a hangnail? but not a nail? What? TMI? Anyways, I do like this serum. I haven't used this on my nail yet because I've been constantly putting on nail polish so when I decide to let my nails breathe, I'll try it then. I am going to continue using it and we'll see if I love it. 



Next up are the two nail polishes in the box, Elisa and Lena. I absolutely love the packaging of these polishes. They are so compact and are about the size of my palm. I think it's travel friendly because it definitely won't take up space in your makeup bag. 


The first nail polish I have here is Elisa. This is part of the Color Treat line in Julep. 

Claims: Breakthrough Oxygen Technology powers this fast drying, long lasting nail polish to get nails healthy and more beautiful at the same time. Our proprietary 5-free formula also includes strengthening hexanal and antioxidant green coffee extract. You'll never look at nail polish the same way again. (www.julep.com)

What It Does: Dries ultra fast and allows 30% more oxygen to permeate the nail bed than other nail polish. Reveals stronger, harder & more conditional nails in just two weeks (reported by 95% of women in an independent trial). Extends the life of your manicure or pedicure.

Elisa is personally my favorite of the two. It is described as a soft wisteria shimmer with a creme finish. Honestly it looks like lighter than what is applied on my nails. It looks to be a pastel purple color but in some lights it looked periwinkle. Other than that I love the finish of it. You can barely see the shimmer but when it hits the light it is very slight.

The formula of this polish is very creamy. I was happy to see that there was no streakiness and the brush is a good size. The only thing is because the formula is so creamy it can get a bit gloppy. This type of nail polish isn't for a beginner. It took me a while to get the right amount on my nail that either wouldn't be too much or too little...if you know what I mean. It took me about two coats for the polish to be even and opaque to me. I quite like this polish and color. 


The next color I have here is Lena. Lena is a beautiful teal with a golden shimmer. I feel like I'm describing a girl to you guys. Anyways, this is said to be a shimmer finish but honestly the golden shimmer in it is very slight. The color is super opaque and to me this formula was much less gloppy than Elisa.

The one bad thing about this particular polish is that it STAINS SO BAD. Oh my goodness, I never put on a base coat or top coat when I'm trying out new nail polishes so that I can get the full effect of it but please wear a base coat with this one! 

Overall Thoughts:

I'm not going to do a pros and cons list for this review because...I'm lazy, sorry! But for both polishes, the wear is excellent. I each wore both for one week and found no chipping on my nails. I don't normally wear nail polishes on my hands for more than a week so this was good enough for me. I love the shine the nail polish both have and I feel I don't need a topcoat for it. For my first impressions of my first box ever (!), I'm actually really happy. I like what I got a lot and I love trying out new products! I'm very happy with Julep and their service, which I got my box within the week once I had ordered it, it literally took around three days! I'm actually excited to see what the next monthly box will look like for the month of May. I got a 50% coupon off my next box anyways which is amazing to me! Anyways, that's all for me in this post. Let me know if you've tried the Julep Monthly Maven boxes and tell me your experiences!

Price:
What I paid for - $3
The usual price of the box - $20 for a regular subscription, there are other higher subscriptions
The individual nail polish - $14 but $11.20 as a Maven subscriber
The Nail & Cuticle Serum - $28 but $22.40 as a Maven subscriber

Where To Buy:

Written By:
Daisy

2 comments:

  1. Love the nail polish colours you got really like both the shades.
    New follower on Blogluvin
    Carrieanne x

    http://beautiesunlocked.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw thanks so much! We followed you back on bloglovin' :D Love your blog as well!

      Daisy & Jalisa

      Delete