I'm BACK! + March Julep Maven swatches!

Hey everyone!! My hiatus is officially over. I have finally made some time for myself  to start swatching and such and so I should be able to post more regularly, at least for the next couple of weeks. After that, I start doing tech for a musical they're doing at my school so I don't know how much time I'll have when that starts, but until then... I'm back!

Also, in other exciting news... I reached 200 followers while I was away!! I really need to start planning a giveaway for that soon. I promise I will!!!

...aaaaand for those of you that might not know, I started a personal/makeup/randoms/weight loss/Disneyland/etc blog that I try to post in regularly. I've done really well with my weight loss, I have lost 15 pounds since I started at the end of January and I'm loving it. I feel fantastic! Check out my Personal Blog for my own personal non-polish ramblings! haha

Okay, so! On to today's post. I have swatched from the March Julep Maven It Girl box. I didn't do a box opening video because at the time I got my box, I didn't have time and I didn't take pictures of the box itself because it was just their standard packing... black box, crumply paper inside, bubble wrap and ribbon... nothing too special. I gotta say when I got the e-mail about this box, I got really excited because it said something about a holographic effect....... yeah its not so much holographic as a teal shimmer... but I'll get in to that later. So these are the colors I got, described by Julep:

Charlotte: Demure lavender creme. Sophisticated with a twist.
Jodie: Deep rose with a golden shimmer.
Melissa: Sheer opalescent shimmer adds a soft glow when used alone and a high-fashion holographic effect when used over another color.

First up, Charlotte. It is exactly as described by Julep. A lavender creme. Fortunately I love lavender cremes because of how they look on my skin tone so I'm really happy with this color, but its not anything spectacular or new.

Artificial Light

Natural Light - Direct Sunlight

Natural Light - Shade

Next is Jodie. This is really pretty. I actually wouldn't have picked it for myself and that's why I love the Julep Maven program. Anywho its really pretty and my camera is NOT accurate on this. Its a little more pink than its picked up. Also, she had a little accident. Its not broken, it just leaked a little on the way.

:(

Artificial Light

Natural Light - Direct Sunlight

Natural Light - Shade

And finally, the polish that was supposed to be "holographic". Melissa. Its a shimmery teal that gives everything its swatched over a shimmery teal duochromey effect. It is really gorgeous and I pretty much love it but I am annoyed cause its not holographic :/. I swatched this over Charlotte.

All of the above: Natural Light - Direct Sunlight

Artificial Light

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Julep Maven February 2012 It Girl Swatches

Good morning! If you saw my post yesterday about me receiving my julep box, here's the swatches of this month's It Girl box! Make sure to check out that post for a video of me opening my box too!

On to the swatches!

Rachel. 2 coats. Its described as a "warm rich copper shimmer" and that's pretty much what it is. Its really pretty! It applied really well and looks gorgeous in the sun. I was a little afraid of this one on my skin tone but it turned out to be okay!

Elizabeth. 2 coats. Described as "midnight blue with a hint of shimmer". The shimmer is a really like pink and blue from what I can tell. Its really, really subtle. This one also went on without any problems. 2 coats for full opacity. Really like this color, but I hate dark colors like this because they look black in most lights. *sigh*

Oscar. 3 coats. Its described as "ultra chic multi-dimensional gold glitter" I don't think its multi-dimensional... its just gold glitter in a clear base. Nothing too special. The formula was really thick. Thinner might really help this bad boy out, but I really didn't enjoy the application or the way it looked. I'll have to layer it over something to see, but on its own I don't like it.

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Julep Maven "It Girl" February 2012

Heya! I just recieved my Julep Maven box for February 2012 :)

Here's a picture of the contents and below is a box opening video :)

I recieved...
Rachel: Warm rich copper shimmer
Oscar: Ultra chic multi-dimensional gold glitter
Elizabeth: Midnight blue with a hint of shimmer

and an oscar shaped chocolate which I can't eat because I'm allergic to chocolate haha Well that's it for now... off to the gym I go!

Thanks for reading/watching, until next time!

Julep - Leah

Good morning! Happy 3rd day of 2012! Its back to regular life for me... today I have to run a million errands, no fun!

Today I bring you the last color of my January Maven Box from Julep. This is definitely my favorite from the box although I'm in love with all 3 colors.

Leah. 2 coats. This color is described as "a vivid and refreshing grass green with a hint of shimmer" and its description is dead on. The shimmer is a hint of pearly white, you can see it pretty decently well in the first picture. Coverage, formula and dry time were all fantastic. Julep's formula is pretty good, I haven't had any problems with it so far!!

Also, as a bonus, I decided to review the Julep nail polish remover pad that came in my January box. **Warning** Naked nails ahead!

The claim on the packaging is "one pad will clean or remove polish from all ten nails" so I chose to give it a real challenge and remove glitter polish. I was wearing Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, and I thought it would be the perfect thing to remove. Now this remover pad is a piece of felt soaked in remover. First of all, the remover smells terrible to me, which is saying something cause I usually don't mind the smell of polish or remover... even Seche Vite I don't mind!

It did pretty good up until finger 6. After that, it was starting to dry up up and I had to add pure acetone to the pad to finish removing my nail polish. Overall, I think it would work pretty decently if it wasn't glitter polish. All I can say is that I'm not really impressed. It would probably be cheaper just to buy a sheet of felt, cut it in to squares, and soak it in polish remover and it would probably work better, but that's just my opinion!

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Julep - Megan

Happy Rose Parade Day!!! I live in Pasadena, CA and today is the day my city invaded by tons of people to watch the parade and the football game. I live a little ways from the end of the parade route so thankfully my side of town isn't too jam packed with people. I did see a Stealth Bomber fly over my house about an hour ago at the start of the parade, though. That was pretty epic! I think I might go check out the floats tomorrow. They do park them walking distance from my house after the parade and they stay there for a few days for people to come see them so I think I may just walk up and go check them out. There is a giant flower-covered Bumble Bee (from Transformers) on the Paramount Pictures float and I did wanna see that in person! Do any of you watch the parade from other parts of the country? What do you guys think about it? Anyways, enough about the parade... on to the polish!

Today's color is another one that I got in my January Julep Maven Box!

Megan. 3 coats. This color is described as "a playful and sultry Mediterranean aquamarine shimmer" on the card that came with the box, and I agree. Its really pretty, its almost metallic. The formula on this was pretty good. First coat was really sheer, but it built up very nicely and dry time was pretty fast. This is gonna be an awesome summer color! I can't wait, although it feels like summer in so-cal right now! Its supposed to be in the 80s today... and I'm going to take advantage and go to Disneyland after the parade is over! yay!!!

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Julep - Hayden

Good morning and happy first day of 2012!! I'm kind of bummed that its Sunday because that means the Rose Parade isn't until tomorrow. I live in Pasadena, CA and most of the city is a buzz on Rose Parade day! Its kind of sad, but I actually missed the loud and rude awakening by the military fly over... but I will be getting it tomorrow! They usually fly directly over my house and windows rattle and all that fun stuff. I think I may go to the Rose Parade in person this year (though I'm not sure), but if I do I'll be sure to post pictures! Anyways, enough about parades and fly overs... let's get on to the polish!

Today's post is a color I got in my January Maven Box from Julep (please excuse the messy cuticles).

Hayden. 3 coats. This color is described as a bold and bright neon peach creme. Bold and Bright? Yes. Neon? YES. I was nervous about how this color was going to look on my skin tone because I normally can't pull off colors like this, but it looks great and I love it! The formula was a little tricky, but I think I just don't have the hang of the long bottle/brush yet haha. I'm really glad I got this color in my box, its definitely not a color I would have picked for myself. That's one of my favorite things about Julep Maven. I get things I would not have otherwise tried!

Thanks for reading, until next time!

January Julep Maven "It Girl" Box

Good evening! Today I recieved my second Julep maven box!! Check out pictures and the video below to see what I got!

Cute packaging!

Leah, Hayden, Megan, Nail Therapy

This is the January "It Girl" box. The colors (and the description on the card) are:

Megan: A playful and sultry Mediterranean aquamarine shimmer
Hayden: Bold and bright neon peach creme
Leah: A vivid and refreshing grass green with a hint of shimmer.

I also decided to upgrade this box with the "complimentary" upgrade and I got the nail therapy after hearing great things about it. I also got a nail polish remover pad which claims to remove color from all 10 fingers with just the one pad, excited to try it out! I'm loving all these colors. I don't have anything exactly like any of these, especially Hayden. I'm hoping Hayden looks good on my skin tone... peaches look weird on me but *crosses fingers*.

I also uploaded a video of me opening this box, if you're like me and like watching these kinds of things!:

I will have swatches of these colors very soon! Can't wait to play with these. I'm loving my box this month!!!

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Julep - Kim

Hello! Sorry for the late post, but today I have the last color I recieved in my first Julep Maven box :) 

Kim. 2 coats. Its described as a dark gunmetal grey, but when its in the sun it looks way more silver. I really love this color, my only issue is its kind of brush-strokey. I didn't apply topcoat, and I don't know if that would have made a difference. I really need to try it out next time. Either way, I really like this color. I'm so glad I became a Maven, I'm so impressed by their polish so far!

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Julep - Chloe

Today's color is my favorite from my first Julep Maven box!

Sunlight

Sunlight

Chloe. 3 coats. Black base with magenta glitter. This color is so pretty! It looks a little dull because I didn't put topcoat on. I wanted to show what this color was like without topcoat. This color reminds me a lot of Revlon Facets of Fuchsia except without the hex glitter, so I'm definitely in love with this color! I really love this for when I want subtle sparkle! This was the color I immediately was drawn to when I opened my Maven box even though Helena was the loud, bright one. I'm so excited to have this color! The formula was pretty good, it was just a tad bit thick, but nothing too major. I might try layering this over black next time so I can conserve polish.

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Julep - Helena

Today I bring you one of the colors from my first Maven box!

Sunlight

Helena. This is only one coat of this polish (hence the VNL). I wanted to show this as just a one coater because this  was my first experience with Julep polish and its awesome. I can't believe how crazy saturated it is. This color went on so smooth and like all neon-ish colors this dried kind of matte so I used the Julep Fast Dry Topcoat (that also came in my box) on top and it brought back the shine! The whole thing dried so fast! I'm really impressed with Julep so far! I'm so excited I became a Maven.

If any of you are interested in becoming a Maven, check it out here (Yes, I get referral points, but if I get any points I'm planning to do a giveaway!)

Thanks for reading, until next time!

My First Julep Maven Box!!

I am so behind because of the holidays, but I"m finally catching up. So yesterday I worked from 7:45-3:45 yesterday and when I got home, my first Julep box was waiting for me. It was an awesome early Christmas present :)

This is the penny box that I got from The Trace Face Philes link. I really wanted to try Julep, but I was always not willing to try it for the price so the one cent deal is awesome! I will be gladly paying for my box next month. The preview email is amazing!!!

Check out what I got:

I'm loving the cute red box :)

Once you open it, There's my style profile card (I'm an "It Girl") detailing the polishes I got.

The polishes came bubble wrapped inside a cute little snowflake paper bag :)

And finally, here's the polishes. I got:

Kim: Gunmetal grey, 

Helena: BRIGHT Magenta (and I love the name... Helena Bohnam Carter, anyone?)

Chloe: Charcoal base with magenta glitter... holy crap its so pretty!!

I also got the Julep Fast Dry Topcoat, A silver glitter pot, and samples of Hand Brightener and Hand lotion.

I haven't tried these out yet, but I'm so excited to! I'll make sure to make a post about the Julep colors when I do try them! :) I'm so excited I became a Julep Maven. I love it. Very, Very much!!!

Thanks for reading, until next time!