Julep Modern Beauty - May 2013 Box

Hey Beauties! Today I wanted to share my Julep May box with you. I haven't done a Julep review in a while but I still receive the boxes every month.  This month's box was a little different, in addition to offering nail polish, they are extending their market into the beauty world and offered beauty products this month.

I'm labeled an American Beauty which I believe was switched over to Modern Beauty. The Modern Beauty receives beauty products in addition to nail polish, or just all beauty products alone. I actually meant to switch my box over this month, but I forgot (as usual).  So the box I received had all beauty products. I was debating on trying the lip scrub, so I was still happy with what I got.

First of all, I loved the packaging this month. I thought it was very elegant.  I received the: New York Jazz Trio lipstick minis, Sugar Smooch brown sugar lip scrub and Volumizing Mascara. I also received 4 cute hair clips (not picture).

Here are the products outside of the packaging. The lip scrub really smells like brown sugar. 

New York Lipstick Trio: 

Tea for Two - nude shimmer lip sheer

 Satin Doll - poppy lip sheer

Lady in  Red - matte crimson

Swatches

I'm still laughing at the fact that Tea for Two didn't show up on me at all! I'll probably use it as a lip moisturizer. Satin Doll is really pretty. Although it's sheer, you can still see the color quite well.  Lady in Red looked very red on me and not crimson. I'll have to play around with these to see how they wear.

I may try to get the Bombshell Box which includes two polishes that I like and the Paris lipstick trio which has a cranberry and bubblegum lip sheer.  Overall I was happy with my box this month. I'm very excited to try out the lip scrub. I think I may have tried one once in my life!

Halloween Week: Scary Pumkins

Dusted off my stamper to make these cute and scary pumpkins. I stamped using Konad White and image plate A37 over Julep orange crackle (Sabrina) and dirty blue (Eloise) combo.  

I tried to sponge the crackle on instead of polishing it on.  It made it look very "industrial".

A quick swatch of Eloise alone. 

All of the contents of the October Box American Beauty Box.  I'm excited to try the Quick Dry Drops. They usually never work for me.  Hopefully these will. 

More Halloween manis to come. Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Nails

My birthday was this weekend and hubby took me out for a surprise night on the town. I would have been happy staying at home, but he forces me to have a good time. We went out for Japanese and had plenty of champagne, so needless to say, I had a great day!

My nails from yesterday were Julep's peacock stickers. I'm always running late so I didn't have time to polish. I thought the stickers were neutral enough to match my outfit and extravagant enough for a Birthday mani.

I heated them before putting them on to help with staying power. The application was pretty easy and I think they held up pretty good. The photo is from day 2. If I had to guess I would say the stickers would last about 2-3 days. They also peel right off afterwards which is great.

I also wanted to share my daughter's digital birthday card. Isn't it adorable =D

That's all for today. Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by :)

Top 11 of 2011, My Favorite Polishes of the Year!

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up string These a few of my favorite things....

My favorite polishes of the year in no particular order

Oh my Megan you're such a gem. Elegant and sophisticated. Although it's not your typical neutral I think it can pass in various environments.

I think I finally figured out how to create the perfect movie manicure. You know the one that Jennifer Aniston usually wears in movies. Mousseline takes a few coats but it's like cushiony clouds once you get there.

The perfect little topcoat to quickly spice up a mani, Nubar White Dots.

The perfect Holiday green Glittering Garland.

I coveted the magnetics from a far throughout 2010 and was thrilled when they made it to the US in 2011. One of my favorites the year, Layla Black Metal.
The Special Effects arrived late this year but just in time to ignite a fire on my nails. Twisted was my favorite from the collection of five. I know a lot of people don't like the density of the polish but I think it's perfect because it allows me to create the look I'm going for. I can be a demure vixen with 1 coat or take it into overdrive with several coats.

Khloe Had A Little Lam Lam. Need I say more?

Change your Holiday vision. Blue is not a color that comes to mind during the Holidays but Snow-Man of My Dreams was the perfect mate this year.

The Lovely Gayle. This muted one coat-er won me over.

My first neutral glitter, or should I say a neutral based. Glitter in the Air makes me happy :)

First Mate. A stunning cobalt blue that's sure to turn heads.

The return of DS polishes. We were all hoping for holographics but were gifted with glitter instead. With the mix of purple, blue and pink used to make DS Temptation, I'm not complaining.

Perfecting a Dupe. This may be one of the most popular Revlon's of the year. A duplicate to Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance, Facets of Fuschia, was definitely a favorite of mine.

While the excitement over crackles has died down there were a few stars amongst the bunch. Clean Break was one of my favorites from the plethora of crackles that were released in 2011. It was one of the few that cracked wide enough to allow ample room to visualize the base color. Go Color Club for mastering this formula!


And there you have it. A few of my favorites. Yes I know, I went well over 11 polishes but I just couldn't narrow it down!

I hope you enjoyed my selections. Until next time, Happy Polishing!

Get A Julep Maven Box for 1 Penny!!!

Julep is celebrating the launch of Share On and the first 1000 New Mavens will receive their introductory box for 1 cents. Take the quiz and enter code: SHAREON to receive the penny offer!

I believe this applies to US and Canada residents only as they do not ship Internationally :(

The Lovely Gayle

I'm still wearing the Butterfly mani from yesterday, but for today, I thought I'd share the lovely Gayle with you. Gayle is a luscious smokey aubergine creme that goes on in coat and dries to a perfect finish.

A closer view to show detail.

It appears more grape in direct sunlight.

Gayle is definitely one of my favorites by Julep. I like the fact that it's vampy indoors but still obviously colorful. I think Gayle will go well with different outfits and provides a subtle burst of color without being too flashy.




Until next time. Happy Polishing!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you have a lot of fun planned for today! I was up late last night cooking and decided to remove my glitter mani. I went with Julep's Boris & Nicole, a reddened brown. Then stamped with China Glaze Hi-Tech. I used Revlon's base and topcoat because it's supposed to prevent chips and so far so good. I made it through at least 20 hand washings and 5 side dishes!

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the Holiday :)

NOTD: Julep Maggie with Spectraflair Holographic Topcoat

Today I'm sharing my nail of the day, Julep Maggie. Maggie is a deep blue-purple with blue and purple shimmer. It appears more blue indoors and the purple is more obvious in the sunlight. I only needed 2 coats to make it opaque. The formula is great on this one and the colors are very concentrated.

Here's a pic indoors. It appears more blue and the shimmer is not as obvious. I have very slight tip wear because this is day 2 of my mani.

For fun I decided to take it up a notch and added a Spectraflair topcoat (1/2 bottle of Wet N' Wild clear polish and a pea size of Spectraflair). I love the result! I've been lemming DS Glamour since forever and surprisingly this came out really close. There is a trick to applying Spectraflair. If it's applied too thickly it changes the color of the base to more appear more silver. Only a very thin layer is needed to create the holo effect.


Here you can see the thicker layer of Spectraflair on the index finger changed the base to appear more silver. I used a lighter layer on the other fingers which added a holo without overwhelming the base color. So the other nails remained blue after the topcoat was added.

This was a fun and easy way to jazz up my mani. So far I've only tried it over blue but I would imagine it would look great over several colors.

What Spectraflair color combinations have you tried?

Julep Boris & Nicole + Nyx Gilded Glitter Topcoat

Happy Thursday! Are you ready for some footballlllll??? I know I'm not, lol. Every year I promise Hubby I'll learn the game but I never do. I'm so silly because I know I can learn the game if I actually put forth effort, or at least I hope I can if a 7 year old can learn the game. I'm not ready for football but I'm ready for more great performances and commercials :)

Tonight I'm sharing the polish from my September Julep box, Boris & Nicole. I was excited to get this polish because it's named after a glamorous Hollywood couple but I was a little disappointed once I seen it in real life. It was not as red as I had hoped but my disappointment was immediately relieved after I applied the polish because it's quite gorgeous. Boris & Nicole is a warm brownish-red with dark golden shimmer that gives it a slight glow. I used 2 coats to get it opaque.


To add a little more glam I added 1 layer of Nyx Gilded Glitter a golden glitter-flakie topcoat. I love the combination.

That's all for tonight. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the game if you're watching :)

Julep Maven American Beauty Swatches - Alfre and Cameron

Happy Monday! I had a chance to swatch my new Julep Maven's over the weekend.

First up is Alfre. A smokey purple with a slight shimmer-frost. I definitely would not have chosen this one for myself but I really like it. The formula was very smooth and required 2 coats. The only thing I don't love about it is the slight lines you see in the polish. It does blend well and I was able to smooth the lines but couldn't remove them completely.

Here's a pic in direct light. It almost looks metallic here, like a frosted metal. (Please excuse my dry hands. That's what a month at the hospital did to them.)

In the shade it looks more purple.

Next up is Cameron a bright fuchsia pink. The formula was really thick on this one and it also required 2 coats. Cameron is not so unique to my stash but its still pretty and I think it just might work with Konading because of the thick formula.

Direct sunlight.

Indirect light.

I also played around a little with stamping. The formula on Alfre is thin but I wanted to see what it looked like paired up with Cameron. It's a subtle yet pretty combo.

Both polishes had great application and only required two coats. Alfre is unique to my stash and my favorite of the two although it requires some blending to minimize lines. It's definitely a stunner and a great option for the Fall. Cameron is pretty but not all that unique to my stash since I'm a pink lover. With Cameron I would suggest very thin coats to prevent thickness on the nail. Overall these polishes are sweet and a great deal for the introductory box.

The Julep Maven membership is $19.99 a month. Right now there's a $10 off coupon for the introductory box using code smh9oxu.

Julep Maven Introductory Box

Happy Saturday! Hope you're having a great day so far. Today I wanted to share my Julep Maven introductory box with you guys. I heard about the program from a friend and I'm a sucker for great deals so I ordered ASAP. If you haven't heard of the Julep Box by now, its an online ordering program similar to BirchBox but features monthly nail polish and nail treatments, instead of various makeup items.

The box is tailored to your specific style. You take a fun quiz and they choose polishes to fit your nail polish personality. My nail personality is American Beauty. The other personalities are: Boho Glam, Bombshell, Classic with a Twist and It-Girl. Each personality has different polishes.

The great thing about the Julep Box is that you can request a new shelf pull if you're not happy with the items selected that month or you can send your Box to a friend or even skip a month. That's pretty cool because now that I'm a nail fanatic I'm somewhat finicky about the colors I like. Next month, I'll receive Boris & Nicole which is named after a cute Hollywood couple so I'm excited about that one.

In my introductory box I got:

Alfre ($14) a purple charcoal and new release for Fall 2011

Cameron ($14) a bright pink cream

Nail Therapy with Vitamin E base coat ($16)

Facial for Hands glycolic hand scrub ($32)

Overall not bad for $19.99 a month and free shipping. For a limited time use code smh9oxu to get $10 off your intro box! The bottles are 0.27oz (8mL) which is smaller than other polishes but I don't mind because I never finish an entire bottle anyways. Another good thing about the prescription is that you can cancel at any time if you decide you're not happy with the box but changes must be made by August 25th every month.

I'm really excited about my new goodies, especially Alfre and the glycolic hand scrub. My hands are so dry from working at the hospital and washing them all day long. I hope the scrub can help out my moisture situation.

These are just extra pics to show how it was packaged. It comes in a cute bag with a bow. My own personal gift to myself, lol. You can order your Julep Box tailored to your nail polish personality at Julep.com.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll post swatches soon :)