Julep: Jewel Heist Mystery Box

Last week, I ordered another Julep mystery box.

The theme was "Jewel Heist", and 50 random subscribers would get a box filled with all the birthstone nailpolish colors, and some sparkly earrings. 

I ordered the box, knowing I wouldn't win, but hoping maybe I could score some of the jewel birthstone polish, since I don't own any of it.

This was the first look at the box.

Ajani wasn't impressed.

I added one "mystery polish" add on, and these were the three colors I got. 

From l to r:  Kristen, Emilie, & Kam.

Kristen is a combination of blue and silver glitter. I want to say I have it, but if I don't, I have one just like it, but either way, it's a pretty color, and if I do have it, I don't mind a second bottle of it.

Emilie is a turquoise green color. I really like it a lot.

Kam is a pastel mint color. I also really adore this color.

Each nail polish retails for 11.20 with maven prices.

So the total retail value for those three polishes was $33.60 with maven prices. I initially paid $9.oo-$14.00 for the add on, I don't remember which, but either way, the value of those three polishes was far more than what I paid for it, and I really love all three of those colors.

This was the inside of the box.

Julep mascara, in brown, worth $5.99, since it's currently on sale.

Eh. I have several Julep mascaras that I've acquired from various mystery boxes throughout the years. It's not the worst mascara I've owned, but it's nothing awesome either. It's also brown, and I tend to only wear black mascara. This is a fail.

Julep Mask Noir, $25.60 with maven prices.

I love facial masks. In college, my best friend B and I would buy all sorts of face masks in hope of making our skin look better. 

I'm excited to try this because I do love masks, and I tend to love what they do for my skin. So the verdict is: win.

A bronzer brush, worth $22.40 with maven prices.

I don't wear bronzer, I have no desire to ever wear bronzer. I wouldn't have minded an eyeliner or eyeshadow brush, but a bronzer brush?

Verdict: Fail

Green tea facial blotting papers, worth $5.00ish. It's not listed on the website, I based this over similar products on the internet.

I love these. I live in Texas, land of humidity and sweat, and man does my face get oily. I love when Julep sends me these in boxes.

Verdict: WIN

Julep ink gel eyeliner in black, worth about $14.40 with maven prices.

I already own this, I got it in the February Julep box, I believe.

I'm indifferent to this, I tend to prefer pencil eyeliner to liquid or gel, but I don't hate gel eyeliner, and I do like black eyeliner.

Verdict: Indifferent

Nailpolish in Alma, worth $11.20, with maven prices.

Verdict: HATE IT

I hate yellow. I hate yellow, and I hate orange. This nail polish is the fucking color of mustard and disgusting. 

Total value: $84.59

Not even close to the $120+ value that they promised.

Verdict on the Box: Meh

This wasn't a special box. If it wasn't for the three add-on colors I got, I would've been very disappointed with this box.

There were no stand-out products for me.

I was satisfied with some of the products I got, but not wowed, at all.

I also don't understand how they advertised this as a "jewel mystery box", yet didn't send even one of the birthstone colors.

So this was a so/so mystery box, not the worst I've ever gotten, but not the best either.

On another note, October Reveal opened today! The October collection looks good, very much Halloween themed :)

I may or may not have upgraded to the entire collection

Ipsy: Street Style, September 2014

I love September because my birthday is in September. 

So, this year, for my birthday, I asked fiance to get me a joint birthday/Christmas present of a fancy DSLR camera because my DSLR is way out-dated, as in I got it in 2007, and with our wedding, in exactly six months from today, and our road trip honeymoon up the west coast, I wanted a camera to capture it all.

So yesterday, he gave me this:

A Nikon DSLR, so maybe my pictures for this blog will be better now ;P

This came in the mail on Friday... Only I've been way too busy to actually open it and check it out. Gotta love the school year. Oh and then, I knew that I was getting my new camera this weekend, and wanted to wait till I had it to open it :P

Ipsy  costs a measly ten dollars a month. For that ten dollars, you get a brand-new makeup bag filled with 4-6 products based on a style profile that you make when you sign up for it.

It's a mixture of full-size and sample size products, and you always get a good value for your dollar. The bag itself is pretty useful to, I've used them to travel, for pencil and pen cases, and they have a myriad of other uses.

This month's Ipsy theme was "street style."

I like the color of the bag, I do like silver, but I would've liked it better without the silver studs near the zipper.

This is what was in my bag. Mind you, I hadn't bothered to check out spoilers or anything. So I really had no clue, nor do I know why I got two of the same product. I think it was just a lucky extra? Because when I checked my glam room, there was nothing missing from it that it claimed I was going to get but hadn't in the bag. 

Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair, deep conditioning mask, worth about $5.00, based on the prize of a full-size product, which is about 5 ounces, and this one is 1 ounce, and the full-price is about twenty-six dollars.

I've never tried a hair mask before, but my hair is dry and damaged, especially since I swim almost every day as a workout... gotta get in shape for the wedding... and chlorine is a killer to my hair. So I'd like to see if this does anything to my hair to make it healthier. 

If it does, I may consider picking up a full-size.

Nyx Hot Singles Eyeshadow, in Asphyxiation, full-size, worth $4.50.

I like eyeshadow. I like this color. 

This is the color on my hand. It's a nice matte color with the right amount of sparkle, and the color sort of reminds me of Tardis blue. Blue is a good color on me because I have blue eyes.

Pacifica Natural-Proof Eye Pencil, in fringe, worth about $6.00 because it looks like it's about half the size of a regular eye-liner pencil.

On my hand.

Eyeliner is my favorite type of makeup. I could use a good brown pencil. It isn't a color I would have chosen for myself, I prefer blacks/grays/blues, but it's a welcome addition to my eyeliner collection :)

Crown Brush, infinity Shadow/Crease duet brush, worth $7.00.

I like eyeshadow brushes. Lately I've been seeing how useful they are to apply to eyeshadow with, so I'm eager to have another one to play with.

Cailyn Art-Tinted Lip Gloss, in Basic instinct, times two, worth a total of $38.00

Like I said, I have no idea why I got two of them, the exact same product and the exact same color.

Here it is on my hand.

It's a nice nude pink, and the color looks nice on my skin tone. I don't really wear lip gloss too much, but if I do decide to wear it, I do think that's a good color for me.

So the total worth of my bag is... about $60.00

Not too shabby.

For the most part, I think this was a great bag, it had products that I may not always use, but if do chose to use, they're good for me.

Gotta love Ipsy, always a great bang for your buck :)

I'm already looking forward to the October bag, especially since I LOVE HALLOWEEN.

Julep: September 2014, The Art Walk Collection

And it's September again, aka the school year has re-started itself. This year, I'm just hoping for a peaceful year. I've finally got pretty close to my dream position, I'm a special education teacher, this year, which is WHY I wanted to become a teacher, and I'm just hoping I can get through my third year, as a teacher, without any sort of medical emergency like sleep apnea forcing me to get a tonsillectomy [NOT FUN AS AN ADULT] or Uterine cancer. 

I've already got my usual back to school head cold, in the third week of school, so I would say this year is officially underway.

My Julep box was sitting in my mailbox today.

In case I have any new readers, or people randomly find this blog in a google search or whatever, Julep is a subscription box service that consists primarily of nailpolish and makeup and skin products. 

I'm grandfathered into their old subscription service and feel no desire to change. 

But for newcomers, they have My Maven and Maven Lux, $19.99/$34.99, which are fully customizable boxes, where you can pick and choose the products of your choice.

I have to say, I'm not as interested in subscription boxes, as I used to be. I don't get as excited when the 20th of the month rolls around and I get to pick the products for my month, and I don't really feel a desire to add new subscriptions. After being broke for several months after my surgery, money seems to have more of a value to me, and I still have medical bills and credit card bills to pay to make up for that time when I didn't have a paycheck.

However, that didn't stop me from ordering a Jewel Heist Mystery Box today.

And I am still content with my Julep and Ipsy subscriptions.

This month's theme was "Art Walk."

The beauty product for my usual profile was a lip crayon, and I had no interest in getting a lip crayon, so I went with "It Girl" and added on a few colors from the other profiles and because I had three extras, I got two bonus colors.

Art Walk Colors from l to r: Mahima, Kirby, Fifi, Ryan, and Quinn.

Mahima, IT GIRL, is a matte gold color that sort of reminds me of mustard. That's not a bad or good comment, just a comment. 

Kirby, Bombshell, is a salt and pepper glitter color. 

Fifi, IT GIRL, is a very very very pale pink, almost white color. It would look good with a french manicure, in my opinion. 

Ryan, IT GIRL, is my favorite of the new colors. It's a very dark turquoise color. I like it a lot. 

Quinn, classic with a twist, is a cross between purple, dark blue, and smoke. I really like it. It's a nice dark color. I prefer darker and cooler colors to bright colors. 

from l to r: Candace, Daria, and Queen Anne.

Candace, I may have, or I may not have, I find a lot of the golden glitter colors sort of look alike after awhile, and if I don't have it, I definitely have a color that's similar to it. This was one of my free extras.

Daria is a slate gray color. I like it because it's not glittery. It's nice to have a darker gray color that I can wear as a base color, or just alone. I find I lack gray colors. This was my other free extra.

Queen Anne, was made in honor of Julep's 3rd birthday methinks, hence the 3 and the candle. I like it. It's a nice rose glitter with some magenta and purple.

And that concludes my September Julep box.

Overall, pretty happy with the colors and extras I got. 

Though, I'm more excited about October since Halloween is my favorite time of year.

Anyhow if it interests you, feel free to check out Julep.

 Ajani approved.