Naughty and Nice Julep Mystery Box

Wow, the Naughty and Nice Mystery Box came fast. Usually it takes Julep Mystery Boxes about 2-3 weeks to get here, it barely took one week.

Anyways, after a day full of crazy pre-k students, who were way too excited for Christmas Break, and an exhausted Pre-K teacher, I was more than thrilled to get this in the mail:

[one big box, one crazy orange cat]

[The inside of the box]

These were the three colors that were outside the box, so I assume that they're the Mystery Bonus gift I added on when I ordered the box, but don't quote me on that.

From L to R: Lois, Faye, and Jane

Lois is Boho Glam. It's a creamy pearly shimmering pink. I want to say I have it already, but I'm not sure. Either way it's a pretty color. It's a creamy pink with a kick. Retail Value: $14.00

Faye is Boho Glam.  It reminds me of the color of a cafe latte that I would order from Starbucks, and man do I love coffee. It's not a color that I would've bought for myself, but it's not a bad color. It has a nice shimmer that I also like, but you can't really see it in the picture I took. It's a nice add-on.  Retail Value: $14.00

Jane is a bombshell color. It's a bronze glitter color. I love glitter polishes and I think that the more glitter polishes I own, the better it is. Retail Value: $14.00

So, the "Mystery Add-on" was $10.00, and I got nailpolish worth $42.00 so that's not too shabby.

That brings us to the inside of the box.

Blank Canvas Face Primer. I don't wear face makeup. According to one of my co-workers, I have naturally rosy cheeks, so I don't need blush. I also don't like the feeling of foundation on my face, so really I don't have a use for any sort of face primer. This will probably be gifted to somebody. Retail Value: $28.00

Rock Star Hand Creme. I'm a teacher, and my school is an outside school, so my hands and other parts of my body are exposed to all sorts of strange weather. Hand Creme is a good thing. I put some on my hands, just try it out, and it has a really nice scent, that isn't that bothersome. It also really made my hands smooth. So this will be a nice thing to throw in my bag and keep around. Retail Value: $20.00

Kajal Eye Glider and Sharpener. This is a repeat product for me. I got some in another mystery box. I do like their eyeliner, and I am an eyeliner addict. I just wish this was in a different color, I already have the brown/black stick, and it's the only color they make, I'd love to see other color combinations. This will be added to my eyeliner collection because you never know when you might need some extra eyeliner. The color is nice. I don't really do the smudge or blending thing, I've used the colors separately, and the color does stay and it doesn't smear, as long as I use primer with it. The pencil also has a really nice tip and it glides on smooth. Retail Value: $22.00

Lip Gloss in Timeless. I really like Julep's lip gloss, and I'm thrilled to add a third color to my collection. I tried it on, and it gives my lips a nice shimmer and a nude color that isn't overwhelming. The gloss itself, isn't too sticky, it smells like a toasted marshmallow too, which is always a bonus. Retail Value: $22.00

from L to R: America, Joanna, and Nellie. 

America is red, white, and blue glitter. The base polish is red. I like glittery polish. This is a perfect color for Memorial Day or the Fourth of July, or just when you like to support your country. Retail Value: $14.00

Joanna is Bombshell.  It's sort of a lavender and silver color. You can't really see it in the picture, but it has some nice shimmery undertones. I like it. To me it's sort of a wintery color, and I always tend to like the wintery colors. Retail Value: $14.00

Nellie is It Girl. I've never been much of a pink girl, but this a pink I would wear because it's darker and not as girly as some other pinks. I really like it. It's sort of a cross between fuchsia and magenta, which is more my sort of pink than a girly pink. Retail Value: $14.00

from l to r: Alaina, Brenda, and Aviva.

Alaina is a classic with a twist color, which means I have it somewhere, and this is a double. I think I've worn it before. My camera doesn't show the color to well. It's more like a darker gray/purple, more gray than purple, this picture makes it seem more lavender than it really is. But it's a really nice color. Retail Value: $14.00

Brenda is one of the new colors they promised with the mystery box. I love it. It's much more glittery than the picture shows. It literally looks like when you open a door on Christmas morning, and the ground is covered in snow, and the sun is barely up, and the snow glitters and shimmer and sparkles. This color is why I bought the mystery box.  I can't wait to wear it, it's the perfect winter color. Retail Value: $14.00

Aviva is the other color they promised with the box. It's a dark purple glitter with silver glitter. I like glitter color. I like purple. I just like Brenda a lot more than Aviva.

 Retail Value: $14.00

Green Tea Blotting Papers. I love blotting papers. My skin  seems to be naturally oily, maybe because the temperatures in my class are bipolar, and I always feel like my face is sweaty or oily, so I'm excited about getting these. I'm estimating the retail value to be around $5.00.

Tons of Lux Skin Serum and Hand Serum samples. These were free, so I'm not going to calculate a value for them. But I got a lot of them. I got two samples of each, which is pretty nifty.

This brings the totaql value of my box up to: $181 dollars, and I only paid about thirty for it. So I think I did well. No iPad Mini, but I'm very satisfied with the products that I got. I didn't have many doubles, and it's mostly stuff I would use. 

I love Julep. 

The Naughty and Nice Mystery Box was a hit.

December Ipsy Bag

This month was my first ever Ipsy bag. I had heard so many things about Ipsy, and it was all good, that I thought I'd add it to my makeup by mail obsession.

First of all, I love the packaging of it, it's pretty :) and it's small enough that it fits into my tiny apartment mailbox.

I was especially happy that it came today, after a very stressful day in PreK, when my students were driving me nuts because they were ready for Christmas vacation [as is their teacher]. 

I also love that it comes with a makeup bag, and I'll be getting a new one every month, which is great storage for what they send me, or when I go on vacation,and need things to stuff my eye makeups in.

I also really liked this bag because it was black, and it has a texture like bubble wrap.

I got this Julie G Textured Nail Color in Sugarplum Fairy. I love the color. It's purple and blue textured glitter that reminds me more of a twinkling night sky, than the second act of  Tchaikovsky's ballet, but it is such a gorgeous color. I cannot wait to wear it!!! It's also full-size, so score, and it retails for about four dollars.

I got these Pop Beauty eyeshadows in Smokin' Hot, and I LOVE IT!!! They are the perfect colors for me, I am slightly OBSESSED with smokey eye makeup style, and I love silvery shimmery eye color because it brings our my eyes [which are blue-gray], and I could not be happier with this trio. Retail value is 24 for 10, so that's about 2 or so dollars per color, so this is worth about 6 dollars.

A J. Cat Big Lip Pencil in Red Rose. I'm not really a lip color person, so I'm sort of meh about this just because I don't wear lip color, let alone red lip color. But it is full-size. It retails for $3.99. I can probably donate this to some of my more gutsy friends, who are into that red lip look.

A Be a Bombshell The One Stick in Girl Crush, also full-size. I'm meh about this, I don't really wear lip color or blush, and I can't see this as a color I would use as an eyeshadow. It's a pretty color, it's a very pale pink, which is the sort of color that I like, but it's not the sort of makeup I would wear. It's worth $16.00.

So I paid ten bucks, and got products worth $30.00, so that's pretty good. I also liked 50% of the stuff they sent me, which is pretty good odds, so I'm excited about future Ipsy Bags.

Julep has a mystery box for sale, it's called Naughty or Nice, and it's about $25.00 for a box. It promises two new colors: Aviva, which is purple with silver holographic glitter [and Aviva is a palindrome, sweet] and Brenda, which is white with silver glitter, and I'm excited about because it reminds me of how freshly fallen snow sparkles in the moonlight back home in Jersey, and that's the color that sold me.

It promises $125 worth of products, and one lucky winner, who I'm sure will not be me, will get an iPad mini.

I was very happy with the selection of products that I got in my last mystery box, so I do recommend them, and there was free shipping :)  Just an FYI if you're interested :)

Julep: December Secret Store

Nothing makes me more happier than seeing a gigantic black box in the office of my apartment complex with the words JULEP on it.

This contains all the things I bought from the secret store back on December 1st, and considering it's rather cold, by Texas standards, and even for me, or maybe it's the fact that my kitten peed on my North Face fleece and I was forced to wear a hoodie, but all the ice-themed colors seemed appropriate to get in the mail today.

I ordered three sets: Edgy Neutrals, Ice Queen, and Trophies.

Unfortunately I don't really remember what belongs with what, so I do apologize, but I do have colors :)

Logically I suppose I should've kept things rubber-banded together, but that still wouldn't help me know what belongs with what.

The one non-nailpolish item I bought was mascara. I have an obsession with mascara. Therefore, I am eager to try Julep mascara. I like the fact that their tube is clear, so I can actually see how much mascara I have left.

From l to r: Alaina, Gabrielle, and Stevie

Alaina is a repeat for me, I've gotten it before. It's a gray lavender like-color. It's nothing special. But it's not a disappointment either.

Gabrielle is a medium toned purple. I like it. I like purple colors.

Stevie is awesome. It's a shimmery gray-blue color, it reminds me of black ice [and the time I fell on black ice, in Philly, waiting outside a My Chemical Romance/The Used concert]. Stevie will get a lot of use.

another Stevie and a Joanna

I've already fan-girled over Stevie, but Joanna is pretty. It's the color of shimmery icicles. Like a gray white shimmer. This will also get lots of wear.

Icey/Wintery colors are the bane of my nailpolish existence.

from l to r: Sylvia and Missy [and one of my three cats, Ajani, greatly obsessing over my nailpolish collection] 

Sylvia is a repeat for me [I suppose that's what happens, when you go to a website, and just fangirl over pretty winter nailpolish collections without actually reading what colors they contain], but I do like it. It's almost like a dark neon purple, sort of. 

Missy is as silver, as moonlight cascading off of a sidewalk in the middle of a winter night, I love it. 

from l to r: Zelda and Oscar

Zelda is silver polish with silver glitter. Again, I like silver polish, so I can't really complain about having another shade of silver to add to my nailpolish collection.

Oscar is another repeat. Gold glitter. I'm pretty sure these came from the new neutrals.

from l to r: Clio and Missy

Clio is blue/gray/silver glitter, when put together, somehow it has a sort of purple/pink tone, I really do like it. Very winter-like. Very glittery. Two thumbs up.

And I've already talked about Missy.

So overall, I wound up with quite a few repeats, but the new colors that I got, I really do like, and I feel like their the perfect colors for the upcoming wintery season. As for the doubles, I can always gift them. 

Mmm winter... My favorite ever season.

December Birchbox

I love the Christmas season. I always seem to have things in my mailbox, and I love all the glittery and shiny sparkly Christmas lights. I also love the two week winter vacation I have coming up from School, as of next Friday, woot.

The mail came late today. So fiance and I ran to run errands. We got cat food for our three furbabies, I got pony beads and pipe cleaners for my students because next week,  I'm going to set up my mini Christmas tree in the classroom, and my students are going to make these:

I also ran to Target because I need ingredients to make peppermint bark for a White Elephant party on Saturday, as well as a thirty dollar gift card for my school secret santa, and we went to Sonic, where I got this wonderful frosty  strawberry masterpiece:

In the mail, were a lot of happy surprises. Some more Christmas cards:

And some yummy chai tea samples from Twinings:

And this:

In my birchbox were the following:

This is some kind of hair powder. I'm not sure what hair powder is. Apparently it makes your hair less oily, which I suppose isn't a bad thing since my hair tends to be on the oily side, so I may try this.

Hand Therapy. It has a lovely scent. As a teacher, whose school is primarily outside except for the classrooms, except you walk outside to get to other classrooms, so I'm always battling the crazy Texas weather elements, I'm not really opposed to a hand lotion of some sort.

Another skin product, this one is another thing that works for dry skin. My face tends to get really dry, so I'll be interested to see if it helps my dry skin as well as my moisturizer that I typically use does.

This horrendous lipstick. YUCK, I will seriously NEVER wear it. I don't like lipstick, in general, and a color this bright and this red, is just going to be gifted to somebody who may actually want to wear it because I don't and won't.

I like chocolate. Therefore I approve of this.

So. I wasn't disappointed with my BirchBox, but I wasn't super pleased either. Skin products are okay, but I prefer makeup to skin products. But I find, at least with me, Birchbox is always a hit or miss. This one was meh. Maybe next months will be better.

On another note:

That's my nails painted Celia from Julep, mind you, they've been painted since Sunday night, and it's Thursday night, but doesn't it look pretty? The polish lasts very nicely too. I've had it on for awhile now, and it hasn't chipped, at all. I love Julep polish.

Julep: December's Glitterati

There's nothing better than coming home from a day with crazy four year olds [although they've been much better since Thanksgiving break, I think it was good for both of us] and finding out I got a package, especially when I'm not really expecting anything aside from Christmas Cards of my cats from snapfish.com since it's early early December.

So I was thrilled to find this in my apartment office:

I opened the box to see this:

I especially liked the glitter. It was a nice touch.

This is the first month, I've upgraded for the entire nailpolish collection. I just couldn't help myself, I mean seriously, IT'S NAME WAS GLITTERATI AND I LOVE GLITTER.

Hello, my name is Lyssa and I am a sparkle-a-holic.

I didn't even pay that much for the upgrade because even though I think my Montrose neighbors stole my September and October boxes since I forgot to change my address on the website, I still got the Julep bucks, so I used them to upgrade, and didn't have to pay much extra. Yay me.

This is the inside of the box.

This is the neutral pallet for eyes. My camera doesn't really do the colors justice, so from l to r: a very peachy color, a spray tan color, a light brown color, a darker brown color, and then a pretty dark brown color. I'm excited to try the neutral colors. I don't really wear much eye makeup, unless I try to rock the smoky eyes look, but then I suck so bad at it that I just look like a reject goth girl with too much black.  So I think neutral eye-shadow colors may give me eyes a pretty decent pop... as long as I pair it with black or dark eye liner.

BTW, I LOVE JULEPS EYELINER PENCILS!!! They're seriously almost as awesome as my Urban Decay 24/7 pencils and the colors are waterproof, and they're easy to apply because the tips are thicker like crayon or marker, and they're awesome. They get a 10/10 from me.

I also got this:

silver and purple hair-toes. They may be Christmas presents for my kitty, who is OBSESSED with hair ties and literally steals them from the bathroom to play with. They were a freebie.

Onto nailpolish:

from L to R: Mia, Jillian, and Cara.

Mia is a shiny thick silver color. I like thick silver colors because they tend to go on in one coat. It's not a thin silver like some of the other silver polishes I have that take like 3-4 coats to show.

Jillian is more red than my picture shows, sort of like this:

That's my attempt at a better angle. It's a very dark reddish black color. [And the color on my thumb is Karmen, which I've gotten a lot of compliments on. I have an extra and I'm giving it to one of my co-workers, who loves the color.]. It's shimmery and dark. I haven't decided if it's too dark for me yet. But it's a much prettier color than my camera gives justice too.

Cara is hot red. It reminds me of a "sleep with me" color that you would wear out to the bar looking for a one-night stand. I have nothing against it, I'm just not really one for most red polish colors, but I have friends, who are... HELLO STOCKING STUFFERS!

From l to r: Misti, Audrea, and Joelle.

I'd also like to add, if I ever have future children, who are daughters, and I can't think of a name for them, I'm totally going to look at my Julep nailpolish bottle colors.

Misti is a dark pastel icy blue color. I actually like it. My mother keeps insisting I need to have pastel colors in my March 2015 wedding, and I keep on telling her I hate pastels and I want shimmery blue and silver.... but if we had a color like Misti, I may not be so opposed to pastel blue.

Audrea is holographic gold glitter. It reminds me of gold dust. I like it.

Joelle is holographic silver glitter, that reminds me of the electromagnetic spectrum because it's silver... but then you see ROY G BIV. It's very much a sparkly winter color.

 from l to r: Evelyn, Celia, & Shoshanna.

Evelyn is one of my future children's names. I want to name a girl Evelyn, so I can call her EeVee like the pokemon!!! No lie. Anyhow, it's a magenta color. A nice dark magenta. I'd wear it.

Celia is a teal shimmer color. It's very pretty. It reminds me of what the ocean looks like in all those fantasy paintings of the ocean containing mermaids and rainbow seahorses that people post all over facebook. I dig it.

Shoshanna is a very Jewish name, however it's not a very Jewish color. It's a lime-green glitter with a hint of gold. I like it. It sparkles.

Next up... I spent way too much money on the Julep Cyber Monday sale, so much, that my fiance probably should've dragged me away from the computer. So that's coming.

I get my first Ipsy bag!

And Birchbox.

Now off to address my photocards  and decorate them with pretty stickers.