Julep Maven - February Edition + Some Extras

Hello! A quick post (with tons of pics!) detailing what I received in my February Julep Maven box. This months theme was based around the Oscars and leading ladies. Both, past and present. The upgrade this month was $35 instead of $30.  That is in addition to the $19.99 Maven monthly club price.  I of course, jumped at the chance this month to update for $54.99!  Why? Because it included the jewelry box! And "Oscar" which I didn't have yet but did want!  So, if you upgraded it didn't come packed in all the gold and glitzy tinsel that everyone else's did...but that's okay.  Inside the shipping box was another box, kind of like a shoe box.

This is what the jewelry box looks like. It feels like melamine and is a nice modern looking box.

It includes the product card with your personal selection. As you can see this shows my upgrade to the Glamour Nail Wardrobe.  It also includes the quote card that comes every month. I'm sure the picture is big enough you can read it. :)

Julep loves to throw in extra goodies! This month was this nifty little eyelash curler! (There were 2 chocolate hearts too, I didn't photograph them, even though I purposely didn't eat them so I can include them in the photo - DOH!)

It has a little handle you flip down and squeeze.  Just a quick try and it seemed to do a decent job!

In case you didn't notice, the bottom of the curler has an extra rubber cushion for the curler!

The first of two products received is the Oxygen Nail Treatment. Retails for $18.00.  The bottle is a little empty because I've done two treatments with it now... and at first I thought I was happy because the nail looks gorgeous when it's applied.  But, after the second treatment my nails started cracking and separating in layers! I just took it off today and I'm not impressed at the state of my nail tips.  I'll leave it off for a day and keep trying to see if it just needs to work on the new growth.  But, as of this point I'm angry that my nails are WORSE! Just a note this stuff goes on like white school glue, I find you have to work relatively quick with it.

The product is supposed to make your nails stronger, thicker and smoother. It's supposed to make your nails less prone to breakage and splitting.  So far, NOT impressed.  You're supposed to use it once or twice a week and you are not supposed to put polish on top of it.

The second product is the Freedom Top Coat. Retails for $18.00. This isn't something that I've tried yet, so I can't comment.  I was really hoping to get a good use out of the above product, get healthier nails and then move on to this product.

The Freedom Top Coat is supposed to make your nail polish chip less.  It's designed to give it a gel nail like finish but without the hardness.  To cure it, you have to hold it under natural light 3-5 minutes; a 60 watt lamp will do. It claims to last twice as long as other top coats.  I guess I'm a little skeptical after using the Oxygen Nail Treatment. You do have to reapply it every couple days to get the best results...

The boxes are really cute...not only are the fronts embossed with the Julep logo, the sides of them are decorated too.  The top coat has little words depicting the product and Oxygen Treatment has little O2 symbols.  Too cute not to share!

Alas...here is inside the jewelry box! It holds 12 Julep polishes.  Considering I have about 130 colours now, I couldn't store them this way! They do look super cute in the box though! The dividers come out so you can use the box for whatever you like.  I don't think you can see but on the bottom right of the lid is the Julep name and logo. Let's have a look at the colours in the box...

Oscar - ultra chic, multi-dimensional gold glitter. (Not a new colour)

Ellie - a seashell pink shimmer. (Not a new colour, not currently available on the site)

Julianne - smoky grey-blue creme.

Laura - olive khaki creme.

Helen - smoky pastel lavender creme. 

Sally - antique ivory creme.

Ingrid - burnt orange creme. (Think 70's sofa more browny than it appears here.)

Claudette - smoky brick red creme. (Sorry! I deleted my photo because when I was editing I thought it was a double picture of Ingrid above! Photo: Julep.com)

Marion - smoky blue with silver shimmer.

This is a more accurate picture of the colour.  It's gorgeous!  You can see the silver swirled throughout!

Joan - raspberry plum with rose gold shimmer. 

This is a pretty accurate picture as well. This colour is gorgeous!! It's my favourite of the bunch. I can't wait to try this one on. :)

Ginger - sand holographic.

This is a gorgeous holographic.  You can see it on my last nail of the day.  It is more of a sandy colour than a silver. Hard to photograph! :)

Rebel - silver holographic.

I haven't tried this holographic yet...but I'm super excited to! :)  I'm so happy that these were included in the boxes!

So, that's it for my Julep box!  I was really happy with this one, mostly because it included the box, Oscar and the Holographics.  Sadly, there are 3 or 4 colours that I don't think are my style. :/

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Ok, now on to something else by Julep. I didn't really feel like making a whole separate post about this, so I thought I would include it here, since I'm already doing Julep!  About a month or so ago, Julep did a two for one deal.  So, because I wanted Jane (the glitter) I decided to scour the site for another colour that I think would be a must have.  I came up with Marisa (the blue.) We were able to buy them both at the Maven price, so $11.20 for the pair shipped.

Marisa - dark, rich cobalt blue shimmer. I know it looks super blue here but it's one of those colours that transforms green to blue in the bottle.  It's SOOO incredibly gorgeous! I'm glad I picked it up and it wasn't what I was expecting, so I was pleasantly surprised!

Jane - rose gold multi-dimensional glitter. Full coverage. Well, I should have known better!  When Dakota came out they claimed it was a metallic rose gold..and it wasn't.  Well, this glitter isn't either. There are two sizes of glitter...the larger hex ones are pink and the teeny ones appear to be copper. So...it's not quite what I was hoping for.  It is pretty though, so can't complain.  It no way looks like it appears on their site, though!

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So, one last little side post. :)  I have a wishlist of Julep polishes and my friend Polish Jinx had some dupes, so I bought the following from her, top to bottom: Gwen, Maya, Stella. 

Gwen  - glamourous deep red shimmer.

This is the perfect red colour.  It's a blood red and it has red micro glitter.  I have a feeling this will become a favourite for me!

Maya - peachy pink seashell, like a shimmer pearl.

This colour is sooo pretty! I can only hope that it translates the same way to the nails! :)

Stella - mustard yellow creme.  Well, I was expecting it to look a little more like in the picture..but well, it really is mustard coloured!  I'm not sure I like it yet, I'll have to see it on my nails.

Also, since I skipped the February box, Polish Jinx also gave me the hair ties from her January box.  Not only that, she gave me some she picked up at Dollarama.  As you can see they're similar.  The dollarama ones are just slightly smaller.  I've tried finding these on my own and haven't been able to!

Here is the comparison of the dollarama and Julep ones. The dollarama ones have more stretch to them, so it may not matter that they're smaller.  But, they are basically made of the same thing as you can tell from the centre line of the band.

Annnnd...that's all! I'm Julep'd out for one night! :) Stayed up way later than I should...but I started my  Squash Soup a little later than I should have. :S

Have a great week!
XO
~A