Julep Cupid Mystery Box

Hello!  I wanted to show you all what came in my Mystery Box from Julep.  I do think that Julep is expensive to pay for full price even at their discounted Maven price it is expensive.  But they always have specials going on and earlier in February they had a Cupid's Mystery Box grab bag type deal.  I'm such a sucker for these deals.  They reeled me in stating that we would get $70 - $200 worth of products for $19.99.  Oh man!  Of course the $70 value is probably their full retail (expensive price).  I thought they guaranteed like 5 polishes or something but my memory fades me.  So 5 polishes for $20 with the hopes of getting more?  Not bad.  :)  

Well...like usual I did not get the bigger box worth $200.  Bah humbug.  At least at first glance I think I love all the polishes I got!  I got 4 polishes and a coupon code to pick any polish I want from their website.  I picked  a really nice looking green creme Emilie!  I'm stoked because I don't have many greens in my collection.  So I got 5 polishes and a lip gloss!

From the left:  Petra, Carrie, Maria, Morgan and a lip gloss Camellia

They are all so pretty.  I'm happy with my box.  My favorite just from looking at the bottles is Morgan.  I love a purple polish!  

All in all, I thought it was pretty fun to do this Mystery Box.  I would probably do this again the next time they offer it.  Which apparently is several times a year.

KBShimmer's Oh Splat!

Hello again!  I'm actually pretty bummed tonight.  I wanted to apply to a seemingly amazing job opportunity in the city which I reside and apparently when they say the deadline is February 15, they mean you have to submit the application before that.  Not anytime that day.  :*(  I'm a chronic procrastinator, however, I did do almost my whole resume on Tuesday, but I have not applied for a job in such a long time that wanted to research how to write a cover letter and didn't get a chance too.  So since it was almost the end of the 15th I was just going to submit what I had, and I missed it!  I'm actually crying right now.  I don't hate my current job really.  I just hate that I work so far, and I hate that I'm stressed, and I hate that I don't feel like I'm good at my job.  This all just snowballs and my kids suffer.  Ugh!  Love them so much, but man can they bug when I'm moody and grumpy from work.

Anyways, enough of my whining.   Why yes, I will have some cheese with my whine!

I wanted to showcase my first indie crush.  KBShimmer's Oh Splat!  This is the first indie polish that I really really really wanted.  I'm so happy to have it in my collection.  And it is actually the first time I'm wearing it.  It is so fun to wear!

Application is the same as most of these milky glitters.  The polish is a bit gooey and while there is no fishing for glitters with this polish, you probably have to strategize (is this a word?  My spell check says not) where you want the glitters and maneuver the brush to place the glitters.  I used three coats in the pictures below.  There was one curling glitter you can kind of see it on my pointer finger.  But it was only one and it was hardly noticeable after my coat of Gelous and Wicked Fast.

This looks like candy on my nails!  I want to eat them.

Isn't this polish so awesome?  Sorry for my dry hands and cuticles.  

Julep's Sally and Joan Half Moon Mani Nail Art

I'm attempting nail art.  It has not gone well for me at all today.  I'm not disappointed with the end result. Just disappointed with the whole process!  Ugh, I always respected the ladies who did awesome nail art knowing that I'm not one for nail art.  But this put that respect on a whole new level.  I was inspired by a youtube video made by the brains behind the Let Them Have Polish blog.

I used the two polishes that I recently got in my February Julep Maven box.  The colors were Sally, described as an antique ivory, and Joan, described as a raspberry plum with rose gold shimmer.  They were inspired by the great actresses Sally Field and Joan Crawford!

I have to say Sally was being very very very tempermental.  I love love loved the color.  I thought it looked so delicious in the bottle, like vanilla ice cream!  But when I applied it it was streaky, thick and goopy.  It wasn't leveling out and it was making me sad.  Plus it took forever to dry.  I had no choice but to add thinner.  I believe I added like 12 drops of thinner.  Which is a lot considering this is a smaller bottle!  But after that Sally was behaving so much more nicely.  The color is just amazing on my nail!

Here is Sally alone on my nail.  So pretty!

This is Sally without the flash of my camera.  Makes my
fingers look nicer. 

Then I attempted the second color Joan.  It is such a beautiful color.  The gold shimmer look like gold flakies.  I can't tell you how many times I messed up this mani.  I wanted to cry.  I kept smudging everything and gouging chunks of polish off.  And the top coat picked up a little bit of the color and spread it all over my nail.  I had to do a bad paint touch up on the half moon part.  You can see it on my middle finger.  Well kind of.  If I had blown up the picture you would have been able to totally see it.

Here it is without flash.  I really liked the end result.  

With flash.  This picture is a little more color accurate.  

I also used the new Polymer Freedom Top Coat that I got in my Julep box.  This top coat claims it is like a gel manicure, and it even uses light to cure.  I was really excited to use this top coat.  I used it on my mani when I first got my box because I was so excited and it was great!  It dried a whole lot faster than I thought it would considering that I just used the light from my lamp.  It was easy to apply and very glossy!  It definitely gives my all time favorite Seche Vite a run for it's money.  

For this particular mani, I needed to be a little more careful with application because it did pick up some of the red and spread it across my half moon section.  That was a such a buzz kill, but typical of most top coats.   Also, it does seem to have a little shrinkage like Seche Vite.  I was hoping that it wouldn't, but I'm inpecting my nails as I type and I can see the polish retracting ever so slightly.  I  still really like this because it is 4-free whereas Seche Vite does have a harmful chemical in it.  So I've been searching for a 3-free fast dry top coat that comes close to the action of Seche Vite.  So far, Julep's Freedom comes really really close and I'm definitely going to be getting back ups of this!  Keep in mind this might not be best for sealing in nail art, I think Seche Vite is still the best for that.    

I'd love to know what you think of my attempt at nail art.

Julep Maven 2013 February Box

Hello all!  I wanted to show you what I got in this month's subscription box from Julep.  I've been a Julep Maven since about last September, but only got like two boxes.  You can skip any month that you don't want, which is totally awesome!  To be honest my two boxes were my 1 cent box and a box I forgot to cancel.  I didn't think these were a great deal.  It is a really expensive polish @ $14.95 a pop (cheaper if you are a maven), and it is a small bottle 8ml of polish a typical bottle has 15ml of polish.  

So if you subscribe and are a Julep Maven every month you get 2 polishes for $19.99 plus a bonus item which is a great deal if you love high end polishes.  They will also send you deals on their stock of polishes from time to time.  Every month they send you an e-mail that the period to change your monthly box is open.  It is usually open from the 20th-24th then you can't change it, so if you don't want the box that would be the time to skip.  Instead of cancelling my subscription I like to see what they are offering so I log on every month.  When I saw what they were offering for February I seized the opportunity!

Here is what they offered
2 - Polishes

1 - Oxygen Nail Treatment
1 - Freedom Top Coat - a polymer topcoat that cures under the light in a minutes!

So that is like 4 polishes for $19.99.  I had been looking for a nail treatment, and I'm always down for trying new top coats, and this top coat sounded buzz worthy.

What my box looked like when I opened it!

The nail treatment.

The UV activated top coat.  You just hold it under a lamp for two minutes.

Here is Sally (Field) and Joan (Crawford).  Look at that pretty gold shimmer!

I couldn't believe that there was something else in there.  They added a cute
eyelash curler.  This is perfect for traveling instead of bringing the bulky one.
And of course I tested it out and it works perfectly!  Oh and chocolates!

Well, that was my exciting Julep Maven box for February 2013!  I have already used the top coat and I really like it!  It will be in my next post!  I can't wait to see what other goodies are in store for me in the coming months.  If you'd like to sign up to be a Maven then click here!  I've used my referral link.  Use the code "PENNY" to get your first box for a penny!  ;)