Julep’s on the ball this month! My box got here the first week of the month, which is awesome. Usually I have to wait longer and end up seeing everything that everyone else got on instagram before I get to see mine in person (damn you for being based in the states, Julep!), but not this month! 🙂
It was a tough call this month when it came to what box to choose. The collection was called the Right At Home Collection, and most of the shades were deep and subtle fall colours (which I love). In the end I went with the Boho Glam box which contained lip gloss in Charming as well as Aisha (the lovely deep wildberry) and Alexandra (the white blonde). I also picked up Lola (a deep blue satin/matte finish) and Sheila (the cherry red) as add-ons. I love all of these colours!!
One last note before we get on to the full post: as you’re going to notice, my nails are back to nubbins. I debated if I wanted to swatch now or wait until they grew back, but decided in the end to screw it and just swatch anyway. And I’m surprised at how much I don’t hate them this length. They might stick around for a while! :3 Also: don’t forget to enter my first giveaway! It’s open until midnight on Friday!
“There’s no place like home.” – Dorothy
The free gift this month was a sample size of Julep’s Luxe Repair Skin Serum. The full size retails on the site for $28 ($22.40 Maven price) and if you want to give it a try you can use the code LUXE at the checkout to get 30% off. The website says it “delivers deep hydration and essential nutrients to help rebuild skin structure from the inside out,” and it can be used on face, hands or body. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve heard good things from others!
Since I didn’t choose the It Girl box this month I ended up with two nail polishes and a full size product. The product this month was lip gloss, and the one that came with the Boho Glam set was Charming (a “sheer mauve gloss”). It isn’t available on the site yet, but says it will retail for $22 ($17.60 Maven price) soon.
I don’t wear lip gloss because I find it sticky and get annoyed that it wears off so quickly, so I ended up giving it to my friend Jill who enjoys such things. She was nice enough to swatch it for me on her hand (as seen in the inset picture above) before removing it from my house. It seemed like a nice shade, and she said the shade was just a hint darker than her natural colour (which was a good thing).
Nail polish time!!
Aisha
Aisha is described as a “wildberry purple crème,” and it’s a nice deep shade for fall. I would actually call it a bordeaux crème, since it’s a smidgen more red/maroon than purple. It went on well, though I needed three coats to build up to full opacity. I think it will look nice in some Christmas designs, maybe with some quilting/sweater-inspired images in white on top. 🙂
Alexandra
Alexandra is a “blonde crème,” and I love it as much as I love Julep Florence (which was the last neutral ivory/cream shade that I got in one of my boxes). There’s just something about these types of shades that makes me think of maturity and class. 🙂 Subtle, but still interesting. Ahhh, love it. Haha. Pictured here is three coats without topcoat.
Lola
Lola was one of the featured add-ons, and came in the It Girl box. It’s described as a “moonlit night blue satin.” It has a gorgeous matte finish, though when I only had one coat on it kind of looked like I had just drawn all over my nail with a marker. :/ It looked more like a stain than polish. It was weird. Anyway, with a second coat that wasn’t a problem anymore (as you can see – two coats is pictured here) and I think the finished look is very nice. The bit of bumpy texture you can see coming through in these pictures is too fine to come through in real life, so don’t let that throw you off.
Sheila
Sheila is described as a “cherry pie red crème” and was in this month’s Classic With A Twist box. I’m normally pretty ‘meh’ on red polish, but for some reason this one jumped out at me. And you know what? I LOVE it on my nails. The colours here aren’t quite accurate (I tried to adjust them as much as I could), though they’re more accurate than the fire engine red that shows up on the site. Rather than being a bright (and tacky) red, Sheila is a moderately deep cherry red… It’s a subtle red, if that’s possible. It’s a very warm red, and is going to be gorgeous on my new short nails for fall.
All of these polishes retail for $14 ($11.20 Maven price), though Aisha is on sale right now for $5.99 Maven price. The entire box for November will also be up as a Maven Exclusive in the coming weeks for $19.99.
In general, the monthly box program is $19.99/month and you get either three polishes, two polishes and full size product, or two full sized products depending on which beauty profile you choose. If you’re interested in signing up for the Julep Maven program you’re welcome to use my referral link, and remember to use the code FREEBOX at the checkout to get your first month free! 🙂
Overall I love all of these colours, though my weakness for matte has Lola near the top of the pile. I’m also surprised by how much I enjoy Sheila! What about you, any favourites jumping out of the box?
Thanks for visiting!!! xx
