We’re taking a break from the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art for a good old fashioned swatch post. Specifically, we’re going to look at the swatches from my December Julep It Girl Box. Yaaaaay! This is a funny box for me because I HATED these shades when we saw them in the sneak peak mani (to the point where I almost skipped the box), but in real life oh my gosh they are stunning.
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| Ceila, Shoshanna and Evelyn as pictured on Julep.com |
“Personality is the glitter.” – Mae West
The theme this month was “The Glitterati Collection,” and considering this is the time the decided to use the word glitter in the title Julep didn’t do anything too exciting… They could have done any number of shapes and sizes and colours of glitters, toppers and full coverages and aahhhhhh…… But they didn’t. Missed opportunity, imo. Anyway, the quote this month ties in nicely to the theme. The free gift was a set of cute twistbands (which I can’t use because I cut my long hair off into a pixie a couple of weeks ago). It also had a code for 25% off the Twistband Club 2014 @ TheTwistband.com, which is TWIST4JULEP if anyone is interested.
Ceila is described as an “icy green metallic” with a chrome finish. Personally I would call this more of a foil than a chrome, and I think I would call the shade a cool icy green and blue. This was the only polish I was really looking forward to in this box, and I wasn’t disappointed. Lovely. Pictured here are only two coats, and this is one you can get away with using only one coat if you’re in a rush and don’t mind a bit of visible nail line.
I also want to comment on the fact that this is a different finish for Julep! I mean, they’ve had metallics and foils in the past, but they’re usually shades of silver. And now that I have this, all I can think is “why don’t they do more coloured foils/metallics?!” We get sooooo many cremes that it would be nice if they broke it up more often.
Shoshanna is described as a “full-coverage yellow holographic glitter,” but in the swatches online just looked like another full coverage gold glitter to me. Wow was I wrong. This is a stunning linear holo glitter that is just shy of being full-coverage (you can see more of the holo in the shot above which used only one directed light; the one below has full light). What you see here is three coats, though I think if I had made them a bit thicker it would have been full-coverage. I can’t wait to use this in more designs in the future… I think it’s going to add just that extra bit of pop to nail art and stamping when used as a base!
Evelyn is described as a “magenta purple crème,” and when I got it I was worried it was going to be similar to Nellie (which I love but which I don’t really need a dupe of). But then I actually compared them and thought they are in the same family they are nothing alike. Which is awesome, because now I can enjoy both of them. 🙂 This polish went on gorgeously with three coats for full coverage, and if you check out my instagram you can see a pic of it with Shoshanna layered on top. I like this shade because it’s deep enough for fall but bright enough for spring. Double duty! 🙂
These polishes retail for $14 each ($11.20 Maven price), and the entire box for December will 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! 🙂 They also have a new sale on every day this month for Christmas, so check out Julep.com to see what’s going on!
I was surprised how happy I was with this box, considering I was planning on skipping it when I first saw the swatches. I was also pleasantly surprised with how close these shades all were compared to the swatches on the site, unlike last month. Good job, Julep!
I’d have to say my favourite this month is Shoshanna, with Ceila coming in a close second. They’re all gorgeous though (as I’ve said repeatedly!) so I’m not disappointed in any way. 🙂 What about you, and stand-out favourites?
Thanks for visiting!! xx
