Today is the last of three posts I’m sharing with you around my May 2014 Julep Maven Box. We’ve already looked at the polishes and the Plié Wand system, and today we’re taking a look at the Creativity Kit that I picked up as an add-on this month. Let’s get to it!
The Creativity Kit was something that myself (and a lot of other people) were looking forward to the most when May 2014 selections were made. It contained both a striping brush and dotting tool that could be attached to the new Plié Wand system. Both tools are made in the same format as the Plié Overcap, so you just snap them right on the Wand magnet and you’re ready to go! The striping brush even has ridges in the cap so you could technically use it as the lid for one of your polishes if you wanted to dedicate that polish to striping. Hmm!
The sizes of both these items was pretty good. The striping brush is a bit finer than the brush I use right now (wish is exactly what I was hoping for!) but I feel the tip on the dotting tool is quite large. I put it beside some of the ubiquitous dotting tools that we all get from ebay so you can see that it’s just a smidge smaller than the biggest size from that set. Do you predict Julep putting out a whole line of dotting tips? Because I do.
I wanted to give both of these tools a test run, so I decided: let’s do some nail art!
I started off with a gradient base using Julep Florence and Julep Reiko, and then I went to town with my new tools and Julep Padma. There was no rhyme or reason to the patterns I did. I literally just wanted to try every shape I could think of to see how it would turn out!
It was easy to get the striping tool to maneuver in different angles, and the long Wand helped me to keep my lines long and (fairly) straight. The bristles weren’t too long that they got out of control (which is usually a problem I have). The dotting tool worked best when I let it make the full sized dots based on it’s size (which are the ones on my middle finger – huge!) and it got a bit temperamental when I tried to use it lightly to make different sizes.
I know what you’re wondering: “But Katherine, how does it work for your Cinderella hand?! These are obviously from your swatching hand!” And this is a good question, dear readers. I did try the tool on my dominant hand and I found that while it did help to do my designs a bit quicker/straighter, it didn’t really do it enough to wow me. Just like anything I’m sure it’ll get easier with practice but there was no “Oh my gosh, there’s no way I could’ve done this without the Plié Wand!” moment.
Overall I’m really happy with this kit, mainly because I got it as an add-on for $5 and it has a striping tool that I can actually use. I could’ve passed on the dotting tool. But if you don’t have either a dotting tool or a striping brush already then it could be a good investment for you. (As long as you already have the Plié Wand that is!)
The Plié Wand system is currently available for $25 ($20 Maven) and the Creativity Kit is $10 ($8 Maven) on Julep.com. You can also purchase them together for $35 ($28 Maven), which if you can do math you’ll see isn’t actually a deal. Ohhh Julep.
These are all my thoughts, so now it’s your turn: What do you think?? Let me know! 🙂
Thanks for visiting! xx
