Julep: October 2014, Black Magic Collection

Wow, my October Julep box came really early this month! I wasn't expecting it for another week or two. Maybe... they gave me a shipping upgrade because I upgraded to the entire polish collection? Who knows.

I don't really feel like I need to go into detail about what Julep is anymore since I'm pretty sure I only have two readers on this blog, and they both already get their own Maven box. So here's a quick 411, you pay money every month, you get nailpolish and/or beauty products every month. The more money you pay, the more stuff you get. Subscriptions start at about $20.00 and go up to $40.00 depending on what box you choose to receive. The  boxes are completely customizable, so you can swap in and swap out whatever you want, then when you're done doing that, you see all the extras you can get, and you spend more money on those.  That's Julep for you in a nutshell.

This month's theme was "Black Magic", and believe me, when I say, I am such a sucker for anything Halloween themed. I love Halloween. Therefore, I felt it necessary to upgrade to every single nailpolish color.

And of course I added extras... That buy three extras get a free product deal gets me every single time...

My first extra, black cat stickers for my nails... Only because I am a crazy cat person.  Hell, I'm thinking of dressing as the Cheshire Cat for a Halloween costume party that I am going to.

My second extra, the TADA Quick Dry Drops because they work wonders, and totally pwn over sticking my nails on the freezer to get my polish to dry, and I was almost out of them. I don't really have a use for the cuticle softener stuff, but it was sort of a buy one, get the other sort of deal, so oh well.

Lastly, Casper, a glow in the dark nailpolish, that's white and glittery. I don't know if it will glow in the dark, but we shall see. I'm a sucker for white and glittery shit anyways because it reminds me of New Jersey aka home, and how the snow looks after it first falls down over winter.

My freebies were two polishes: Catrina and Karmen.

I know I already own Karmen, but I don't mind, I think it's the perfect fall color. It's an apple red color with a bronze glitter that reminiscent of leaves changing color and fall.

Catrina, I don't own, but it's yellow, and I FUCKING HATE YELLOW, oh well, it was free.

I've also already devoured the candy corn extra that came with the box this month. Yum.

Moving onto this month's colors:

From l to r: Ledi, Nancy, and Dana.

Ledi is a black color. Just plain black. Nothing more to describe. I actually don't think I own a good black nailpolish color, so it'll be a nice add on to my already humungous nailpolish collection.

Nancy is a silver glitter with a hint of green in it that you can't really see in the picture. I am a sucker for silver nailpolish.

Dana is apparently black light reactive, not that I own a black light to test out that theory. Otherwise, it's a white color, with a blue ultraviolet like glow and glitter, and I assume it would turn that color under a black light. 

from l to r: Shailene, DeAnn, and Logan.

Shailene is a brown and gold glitter. I don't think its true color is that apparent in my picture. It's a cool color that sort of brings me visions of a witches broomstick or something.

DeAnn is a dark pink creme color. It's more red than pink, it looks pink in my picture, but to me, it's more of a cranberry pink color. I like it, it sort of reminds me of blood, which makes me think of vampires, which makes me think of Halloween.

Logan is a cool color. It's purple black, and I've never seen anything like it. It reminds me of the night sky during twilight. [not the stupid movie with the glitter vampires, like the real sky.] It's a very much a Halloween/Fall color. I love it a lot.

from l to r: Marla, Briana, and Margarita.

Marla is a crimson color with a purple glitter that's not that apparent in this picture. It sort of reminds me of red wine, and Cayuga wine that I used to bring back from Ithaca back in the days when I used to go wine tasting.

Briana isn't as bright as my picture makes it out to be, it's more navy than cerulean. I love a good blue polish.

Margarita makes that Jimmy Buffet song start playing in my head... wasting away in Margaritaville... It's a bit darker than my picture implies, it's more of a dark purple than a bright purple. I also love a good purple polish. 

Here's every single color I got this month, including the add-ons.

I liked this box a lot, I thought the colors fit the Halloween theme nicely, and they're colors that will definitely get some wear from me.. except that fucking yellow color.

So overall, great October box,

So anyways if you're so inclined, check our Julep, your nailpolish collection will never be the same after you do.

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

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.

Julep: August 2014, The Wanderlust Collection.

I've been gone for a week. I went to New Jersey, to do tons of wedding stuff... like say yes to a dress... picking out flowers for the centerpieces. Picking out bridesmaid dresses... And while I was gone, my fiance apparently never checked the mail, so I'm not sure how long this was sitting in my apartment complex's office,.

My August Julep box.

Julep is a makeup subscription box. They send nailpolish and beauty products to you on a monthly basis. They also have also sorts of mystery boxes and warehouse sales, and sometimes you can score stuff for dirt cheap. There are two subscription options, My Maven, which is $19.99 with a three month subscription and allows you to customize a box full of products and Maven Luxe, which is $40.00 a month, and allows you to customize an even bigger box. 

As for me, I'm still grandfathered into the old subscription, which is where you pick a style profile, and you get whatever products are in that without customization except for say an eyeliner or lip gloss color.

This month was the Wanderlust Collection. I really loved a lot of the colors in this month's collection. I didn't love all of them enough that I wanted the ultimate upgrade or anything, but I loved them enough that I added on three other colors.

This was the inside of the box.

This was the extra. A cell phone screen cleaning thing. I got something similar from Birchbox once, and never used that one either. 

This was what was under all the wrapping. 

Since I had three add-ons, I got a bonus beauty gift. They send me an eye makeup primer. As extras go, that's really not a bad one. I do wear a lot of eye makeup and I do use primer, sometimes, so I don't mind having an extra primer lying around. It's a lot more useful to me than say something like lipstick or foundation. 

Anyhow, I actually kept my usual classic with a twist box this month.

The beauty product this month was a gel eyeliner pencil.

Classic with a Twist came with the black one, and I saw no reason to switch that to another color. The other choices were a brown color, a purple color, and a taupe color. The pencil went on my hand well, it had a nice point, and it's really waterproof. I took a shower after testing it on my hand and I still have hints of the color on my hand. 

I'm actually very excited about this product, I find Julep really does make excellent eye liner pencils. I love their Kajal eyeliner and I also bought some mini eye liner pencils back during their Christmas sale, and those go on great too.

from l to r: Avni and Katie.

Avni is a bright purple color with a hint of pink shimmer. I really like the color a lot. I also don't have many purple polishes, oddly enough, so I'm very happy to add a purple to my nailpolish collection.

Katie is a mulberry pink color with a purple shimmer. It's sort of the opposite of Avni. It's a really nice shade of pink. I don't think I have many pink colors similar to it.

from l to r: India, Waleska, and Neha.

India is a bright blue color with a green shimmer that you can't really see in my picture. It reminds me a lot of Caribbean Ocean water with the contrast of the blue and green, and I really like it a lot.

Waleska is gorgeous. It's a turquoise color with gold glitter. My picture doesn't do it justice.

Neha is actually not as red as it looks in my picture. It's a dark cranberry with a neon pink shimmer. It's more pink than red. It's also a gorgeous color.

I was very pleased with  Julep this month. The color selection was great. I'm excited to see what September brings from them. They totally made up for the July box that I hated.

So check them out, if you're so inclined. 

AND OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE SCHOOL STARTS ON MONDAY.

I don't know if I'm ready for another year yet!

Julep: July 2014, The Poolside Collection

 I would like to preface this entry, but saying, I'm very annoyed at Julep this month, which as most of you know, is quite unusual for me.

I'm not that angry about the box coming 8 or so days then usual... Perhaps a little confused? I know people, who got their boxes, when they normally got their boxes, so why did they get their box on time, and mine took about two weeks to deliver? 

Maybe it's because I added extras? I'm not really sure. They did change their shipping service this month, so maybe that's why it took longer to get to me? 

Normally, I wouldn't be so concerned with how long something took to get to me, but I've had Julep for over a year, and ALWAYS got my shit by the first of the month, sometimes even earlier. So I'm just wondering? I mean if they can't ship nailpolish by air, how did I get mine before? Is this a new law?

I do feel bad for the people who ordered the 4th of July nail collections that were extra this month. They probably didn't get those by the 4th, and maybe some of them were really looking forward to wearing America to celebrate the holiday.

Well whatever. 

We'll get to why I'm upset later.

Julep is a nailpolish/makeup subscription box. They've changed their subscription policy over the past few months, so for new members, there are now two options:

My Maven, which is about $19.99 with a three month subscription, and $25.00 per month without a subscription, and it allows you to fully customize what you receive in your box... So instead of just changing profiles, and getting like the IT Girl box instead of the Classic with a Twist box, you could customize a box and remove things in and out from all the different selections this month.

I'm truly tempted to change my subscription to that. I've been very "meh" about a lot of the beauty products shipped with my usual classic with a twist box, and then I'll like colors from IT Girl and another profile, but will have to settle for one over the other because I'm still grandfathered into the old subscription service. So, I do think, I'm beginning to truly embrace the concept of a fully customizable Julep box. That way I can swap out colors I don't like or beauty products I am not interested in for colors I will enjoy wearing.

The other subscription service is Maven Luxe, which is $40.00 a month, and is also a fully customizable box with more products, so you get more bang for your buck. I personally wouldn't be comfortable spending $40.00 on a Maven Luxe box. 

 This is what was inside of my big white box.

This is why I am annoyed. I added on three "Mystery Polishes" for my add-ons. I know you have a chance for repeat colors if you add random colors... BUT SERIOUSLY JULEP YOU SENT ME THREE OF THE SAME FUCKING COLORS!!! I mean are they idiots? Did they NOT realize that they were shoving three of the same colors in my fucking box? I AM SO PISSED OFF. I WASTED FUCKING MONEY FOR THREE OF THE SAME FUCKING COLORS, and to top it off, THEY'RE THREE COLORS I OWNED ALREADY!

The patriotic tootsie rolls don't even come CLOSE to making this better for me!

See, three of the exact same colors.

I AM ENRAGED!

It's not even worth contacting them because they'll just give me some bullshit about how they've already said that mystery colors and boxes and such can be product repeats.

I'll probably give one to Audrey, the daughter, of a friend, who loves her "Jamie" manicures. As for the other two... who knows.

However, because I filled up all my add-ons, I got two free polishes with my order. So from L to R: Farrah and Alexandra.

So that sort of makes up for my three fucking Cynthia polishes because I don't have any of those two colors, but I am still angry.

Farrah is a beautiful color. Only I wish it had a different name because it totally reminds me of Farrah from Teen Mom turned Porn Star and Erotic Author.

But it's a Silk Finish color, not that the different finishes really matter to me. It's a very light lavender with a silver sheen in it, and I like it very much.

Alexandra is a whitish fleshy type color? It's not a bad color. It's just not something I would have chosen for myself, but it's a nice nude color and will probably look good under some glitter finishes.

This months theme was the Poolside Collection, it had some pretty nice colors. I liked June's colors  a lot better, and hope the purchase some of those in the semi near future, but July's colors were also nice. There were at least two or three other colors I wanted aside from the ones I got.

Here's the box within a box.

I went with "It Girl" this month because it was the ONLY box that didn't come with the body milk, and I had seriously no desire to get the body milk which was the big beauty product this month.
 

Was IT GIRL my favorite? Oh hell no, I really liked some of the other colors in the other boxes better, but it was the only one that didn't come with the beauty product, and that's the ONLY reason I chose it.

SEE THIS IS WHY I WANT TO SWITCH TO MY MAVEN.

from l to r: Linden, Braiden, & Dawn. OH AND MORE TOOTSIE ROLLS!

Linden is my favorite color out of the colors I got this month. It's a bright summery blue and it reminds me of the color of pool water at a swimming pool... Though technically the water only looks a certain color based on what color the bottom of the pool is painted combined with the reflection of the sky... BUT ANYWAYS, IT LOOKS LIKE POOL WATER, I LOVE SWIMMING, AND I LIKE THIS COLOR. 

Braiden is a stardust finish silver glitter. It's a silver glitter. I mean I like silver glitter. My twitter name is @silverglitter, and it's really sparkly and shiny, but I've also gotten other silver glitter polishes from Julep that are very similar to Braiden. So, it's nothing unique or special, in my opinion.

I don't like Dawn. It reminds me of yellow mustard, and I hate mustard. I'm also not a fan of yellow nailpolishes, at all, unless they're bright neon yellow, so meh to Dawn. It's just too yellow. 

So there we have July's box. I wasn't very thrilled with it. I'm angry about the three repeat colors I got as my add-on. I didn't like Dawn. And Braiden was just meh.

However, I do very much like Linden and Farrah, and I can find uses for Alexandra, so this month wasn't a loss, overall, but not an OH MY GOD AWESOME month either.

Ummm. You can't win them all? 

Julep: June 2014, The Three Wishes collection.

School's out for the summer, which means, I spend at least two hours of my day, sitting here, and reading books on my kindle. The latest summer read is The City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare... The entire Mortal Instruments series is one of those book series that's so badly written, but quite enjoyable to read, especially at the pool. Though, I do admit, The Infernal Devices series, which is sort of the prequel to the Mortal Instruments series is an enjoyable read. 

After my tryst at the pool with my kindle, I went and checked the mail, to find I had to pick this up from the office:

I wasn't quite sure what it was. I ordered one of the Memorial Day Mystery Boxes from the sale over the holiday weekend, so I thought it might be that.

I opened the box and under layers of brown paper was this:

My monthly Maven box from Julep alongside with some random extras I added. I didn't pay a cent for the box, I just used some Jules I stored up since I have nothing better to do with them since they can't apply towards mystery boxes.

Julep is mainly a nailpolish subscription box service. I've been a member since last March or April, so I'm grandfathered into their old subscription service, which is I pay $19.99 for a monthly box of products based on the profile I choose for that month.

They've recently vamped their service for NEW members. There are two options now: 

My Maven, which is $24.99/$19.99 [with a three month subscription] and you can customize a box for $40+ of products.

My Maven Luxe, which is $39.99/$34.99 [with a three month subscription] and you can customize a box of $60+ of products.

I don't know anything about their new services, but I do like the idea of complete customization, and have thought of converting over, but haven't since I still like the box I get every month.

I have a special relationship with Julep, they were my FIRST ever subscription box.  I'm very attached to them.

A closer look at what was inside my box.

I did add on three products this month. So, let's start with those. 

Julep also had a promotion, if you added on three products, they would send a fourth product, for free.

Mae, was my free product. It's from the bombshell collection. It's sort of purple gray periwinkle color with a satin finish. It sort of reminds me of the color of the sky during a stormy summer afternoon in Texas. 

from l to r: Hope and Cameron

Cameron, Boho Glam, is a repeat for me. I got it in my February box. It's a silver purple glitter color with a stardust finish. I've worn it. My prek girls loved it. 

One problem I find with duos that I add on is that they nickname the duos... Something like: Winter Lights, and I don't actually look at the colors that are in that duo, I just think it looks cool and order it.

But...

I don't really mind repeats. I either give them to friends, or the daughters of friends.

Hope is IT Girl, and a satin finish white color. I don't really wear white nailpolish, that much, but I think in winter, with a shade of silver or gold glitter, it would look quite festive.

from l t r: Sienna and Tracy

These are actually both repeats for me. But again, it's my own fault for not actually looking at details of sets before I place orders.

Sienna, Classic with a Twist, is the color of silver mirror glass with a gold tone. It's a pretty color.

Tracy, IT Girl, is blue silver sparkle.

from l to r: Veronica and Marjorie.

These were both new colors for me.

Veronica, classic with a twist, is a darkish rose pink color.

Marjorie, IT Girl, is dark orange.

They both remind me of the colors of a pretty sunset.

Onto my Maven box.

This month was the Three Wishes collection, and I really wanted to upgrade to the entire collection of nailpolish, but my FMLA ass couldn't afford it. I'm hoping some of these colors will go into future secret stores, and I can get them then. 

The add on this month was Pixy Stix, which are one of my favorite childhood candy, so I was quite pleased with this. I just wish I had gotten a blue one, instead of two purple because the blue flavor is my favorite.

I went with IT GIRL this month because I really liked the colors moreso than my usual profile which is "classic with a twist." I also had no reason to want the Base Coat or Top Coat that came with my usual.

from l t r: Phia, Jennine, and Savoy.

Phia is my favorite. I don't even know how to describe it. It's a light purple silver orchid glitter color. I can't wait to wear it.

Jennine is also gorgeous. It's a turquoise Stardust finish polish with light green and dark blue glitter in it. I also can't wait to wear this one.

Savoy is a silver gold chrome color. 

Overall, I am very pleased with this month's box.

Granted, I got a lot of repeat colors, but that was mostly my own fault.

So anyways, I love nailpolish, and their polish is very high quality and very good lasting ability, and this comes from a completely hands-on prek teacher.

So if you're so inclined, check Julep out.