ProcrastiNails: My Julep Maven (January 2015) Customized MyMaven Box Unboxing, Swatch and Review!

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January 2015 Julep Maven Box Unboxing with Shelly, Phyllis, Tilda and Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Magenta Plum
My January 2015 Maven Box with a Plush Pout Lip Crayon, Julep Shelly, Julep Phyllis and Julep Tilda

My first Julep box of the year! Ahhh yes. 🙂 I know that people have mixed opinions about Julep but I truly look forward to getting my box delievered to my door every month. It’s a nice like perk-me-up that I can count on no matter what’s going on.

I fully customized my box this month and went with two soft, dreamy pastel polishes and a lip product. All boxes came with a mystery Metamorphic Top Coat polish as well (currently unavailable outside of this month’s box) so that was a great bonus. Check under the cut for a full rundown of what I got and a look at all the swatches!

Dollops of Julep Shelly, Phyllis and Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Magenta Plum
Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Magenta Plum, Julep Shelly and Julep Phyllis as pictured on Julep

January 2015 Julep Maven Beauty Box The Chrysalis Collection
Unboxing of my January 2015 Maven Box

January’s theme was The Chrysalis Collection. It was supposed to symbolize fresh starts, transformations, and change in the new year… In regards to the theme this was another collection with colours that seemed to have little direction or cohesiveness (I guess they were all soft, fresh shades? Maybe?), but it had some nice crèmes and I didn’t have any trouble choosing polishes I liked.

Unboxing of the Julep January 2015 Beauty Box with quote and coupon code
Unboxing of my January 2015 Maven Box

“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power inside ourselves.” – J.K. Rowling

Junior Mints! A lot of people like Junior Mints. I am not one of them. Thankfully there was no shortage of people at work willing to take them off my hands.

I really liked the quote this month and I think it fit with the theme of the collection. We have the ability to change things for ourselves, we don’t need magic or miracles. As an individual you have more power than you think – so often I think we underestimate that. 🙂

Before we get into the box deeper, here are the coupon codes for January:

  • COLORFUN for one free polish with your next Julep order of $15+, two uses per customer, valid until Jan 31/15
  • TENOFF for $10 off your next Julep order of $20+, two uses per customer, valid until Jan 31/15 (from last month but still valid)

Julep perk gift of Tilda a green shifting Metamorphic Top Coat
January Maven Perk – Metamorphic Top Coat Tilda

As I mentioned earlier, one of the exciting things for this month was that each box came with a surprise Metamorphic Top Coat – an iridescent polish that shifts into green, blue or purple. These polishes are (for now) exclusive to the January Maven boxes (though like Julep Love last year I’m sure they will be in the shop eventually). I got Julep Tilda which is the green shifter. You can see swatches and more of my thoughts further down in the post.

And I just realized I forgot to take a full-box picture this month! Oh no! Guess you’ll have to piece together what that looks like for yourself, based on all the other pictures. Ohhhh well. That won’t stop us from enjoying the swatches. 🙂

Julep Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Magenta Plum

January 2015 Julep Maven unboxing Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Magenta Plum
Julep Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Magenta Plum

Julep Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Magenta Plum

Price: $20 ($16 Maven) for .07 oz

Availability: Julep

Description: A full-coverage lip crayon with a moisturizing treatment core in the middle. Rich, creamy formula glides on and delivers long-lasting color with a semigloss finish. Antioxidant-rich oils, sunflower wax, and vitamin E keep lips hydrated and happy.

I recently decided that I wanted to start wearing lip products more often. I’m always envious of people who rock a bold lip colour and decided “Hey, I didn’t used to ever wear nail polish and look where I am now. I can definitely do the same with lip stick!” I had seen in reviews online that the Magenta Plum shade of Julep’s Lip Crayon looked good on everyone so it seemed like a great place to start. And you know what? I LOVE IT.

Swatch of Julep Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Magenta Plum Creme
Swatch of the Julep Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Magenta Plum

The product is like a cross between a lipstick and a lip balm. The colour is bold and gorgeous (and looks great on me) and the moisturizing factor is perfect and doesn’t feel dry or overly sticky. Because of the moisturizing core this product does keep a glossy finish and wears off over time. I wore it for a few hours last night without any issue but I imagine if you wore it a full day you’d have to reapply a few times. I also found it easy to apply (even with my minimal lip experience).

And you know what? I love this product so much that I’m already planning to pick up the other three shades that currently exist! If that doesn’t speak to how much I love it I don’t know what does. 

Now, on to the polishes!

Julep Shelly

Swatch of Julep Shelly from the January 2015 Julep Maven Box
Swatch of Julep Shelly

Julep Shelly

Price: $14 ($11.20 Maven) for 8mL

Availability: Julep 

Colour Profile: It Girl 

Description: Wintermint crème 

Finish: Crème

Let me just say right off the bat that I completely love each of the polishes I got this month. I’m a sucker for a good pastel crème polish, and Shelly did not disappoint. It’s a gorgeous soft blue that reminds me of a sunny sky, bunnies, babies, and all things soft and sweet and lovely. It applied wonderfully with two coats (pictured with no top coat).

Swatch of Julep Shelly from the January 2015 Julep Maven Box
Swatch of Julep Shelly
Julep Phyllis

Swatch of Julep Phyllis from the January 2015 Julep Maven Box
Swatch of Julep Phyllis

Julep Phyllis 

Price: $14 ($11.20 Maven) for 8mL   

Availability: Julep 

Colour Profile: Classic With a Twist 

Description: Soft petal pink crème 

Finish: Crème

Phyllis is a soft and creamy baby pink. It applied a bit streakier than Shelly did but I think if you put a layer of top coat over it (or let your layers dry evenly between, oops!) that would even out. Pictured here is two coats without top coat.

Swatch of Julep Phyllis from the January 2015 Julep Maven Box
Swatch of Julep Phyllis
Julep Metamorphic Top Coat Tilda

Swatch of Julep Tilda Metamorphic Top Coat over black from the January 2015 Julep Maven Box
Swatch of the Julep Metamorphic Top Coat Tilda over black

Julep Metamorphic Top Coat Tilda

Price: N/A   

Availability: N/A

Colour Profile: Bombshell (I think) 

Description: Green Chameleon Effect Top Coat

Finish: Iridescent top coat

The name of this polish makes me think of Tilda Swinton… Why? Who knows. Maybe because she’s awesome and so is this polish! 😉

Tilda was one of three possible Metamorphic Top Coats that Mavens could get, and to be honest it was the one I was hoping for. I have a few polishes like this from different brands but I think most of them lean pink or purple so this is a nice change!

This polish has a gorgeous white-to-green iridescence in the bottle and that green comes through on the nail to different degrees depending what you layer it over. Here I layered it over black (Rimmel London Lasting Finish Pro Black Satin) so you could see the colour strongly. I tried it over both Shelly and Phyllis as I was swatching (no pics, sorry!) and it added a gorgeously different green shimmer in the right light. I’m going to play around with this one some more, so keep an eye out for a Tilda-centric post coming up soon.

Swatch of Julep Tilda Metamorphic Top Coat over black from the January 2015 Julep Maven Box
Swatch of the Julep Metamorphic Top Coat Tilda over black

I’m really happy with this month’s selections. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten nice soft pastels from Julep, and I’m EXTREMELY happy with my Plush Pout Lip Crayon and the Metamorphic Top Coat. Definitely a good month for Mavens!

About the Julep Maven Program: The Julep Maven program costs $24.99 a month and is fully customizable, or you can pre-pay for 3 months and receive each box for $19.99. You can also upgrade to the Maven Luxe program for $39.99 a month ($34.99/mo if you pre-pay for 3 months) which entitles you to a fully customizable box plus one additional product per month. And you can skip or send to a friend whenever you want!

Julep has a number of special welcome boxes available if you’re interested in becoming a Maven. Here’s the ones I’m currently aware of:

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this box. Did you get a box from Julep this month? What did you think? 🙂

Thanks for visiting!