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| My February 2015 Maven Box with two Plush Pout Lip Crayons, Vivien and Hartleigh |
February! I’m sorry to say there aren’t any of the new collection colours in my box this month. I really wasn’t feeling any of them so instead I got some older products and the polish in the collection that was un-retired for the month (Vivien). I do have the free gift polish for Valentines to share with you (Hartleigh) so there is at least one brand new product.
I’ve been sitting on this box for a while (can you believe it actually got delivered at the end of January? Quickest shipping yet!) so I apologize for the wait! The search terms that led to this blog over the past week tell me that people are impatient for swatches from this box so without further ado here we go!
*Note: I’m playing around with new lens and lighting so my skin colour is a bit off today, but the polishes are all colour-accurate. Hope to have this fixed soon!
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| Plush Pout Lip Crayons in Almond Nude and Aurora Pink, Vivien and Hartleigh as pictured on Julep |
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| Unboxing of my February 2015 Maven Box |
February’s theme was supposed to be bright and refreshed with The Afterglow Collection. The new beauty products were highlighting products to add a ‘glow’ to your skin but since I’m not really a makeup person I passed on those. As mentioned earlier I really wasn’t feeling the polish shades in the collection… There were a lot of rich and deep shades with a few pastels but it didn’t really feel like a Valentine’s month collection in my opinion.
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| Unboxing of my February 2015 Maven Box |
I loooove this month’s quote more than you can know. I think it’s appropriate both for life and my work so you can bet your buns it’s going up by my desk at work! It works with the ‘glow’ theme, too.
Coupon Code:
- TAKE10 for $10 off your next order of $20+, two uses per customer, valid until March 31/15
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| February Free Gift of Julep Hartleigh |
For February Jane decided to give all of us a free Valentine-themed polish (just like Love last year) which this year was a confetti and heart glitter topper with some scattered holo named Hartleigh. I’ll have full swatches of it a bit further down but in general I’m really happy with this gift! The last heart glitter topper I had (I think it’s a Nicole by OPI) ended up having the colour from the hearts split from the base so… That kind of sucked. I hope this one holds up better!
Now let’s look at the beauty products before getting into the polish swatches…
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| Julep Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Aurora Pink |
Julep Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Aurora Pink
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.
So as mentioned previously I really really love Julep’s Plush Pout Lip Crayons. This month since none of the products really jumped out to me I decided to swap out two of my products for previously-released Plush Pouts. The first of these is Aurora Pink (which always makes me think of Sleeping Beauty). Just like it’s siblings it applied really well and was moisturizing without being sticky. The colour isn’t a home run for me but I think that might be because it’s still winter and this is more of a spring/summer shade. So we’ll see if I like it more then. 🙂
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| Julep Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Almond Nude |
Julep Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Almond Nude
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 like the colour of Almond Nude more than Aurora Pink, but it’s so close to my natural lip colour that you can barely see it. Application was good, though like with all the other Plush Pouts you have to reapply periodically as it wears off.
I did a swatch of all three that I own so you can compare:
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| Swatches of Magenta Plum, Aurora Pink and Almond Nude |
Out of all three my favourite is still currently Magenta Plum because it’s such a bold and rich colour. One of the main differences is that where Almond Nude and Aurora Pink wear off completely Magenta Plum wears off and fades but leaves a definite red lip behind (which I really like). The only colour I’m missing right now is Cardinal Red which is a true red.
Enough lipstick, let’s move on to what you’re all really here for… The nail polish!
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| Swatch of Julep Vivien |
Julep Vivien
Price: $14 ($11.20 Maven) for 8mL
Availability: Julep
Colour Profile: Classic With a Twist
Description: Champagne bubbles full coverage multidimensional glitter
Finish: Glitter
One of the things I like is that each month Julep is bringing an old shade out of retirement to include in their new collections. This month the shade was Vivien which is a gorgeous gold glitter that originally came out in December 2012.
Vivien is made up of gold shimmer with small and large gold hex glitter scattered throughout. It’s really sheer with one coat but it builds up beautifully. What you see is three coats with one layer of top coat. I broke my no-top coat swatch rule because the large hex glitters in this one tended to stick up a bit otherwise.
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| Macro of Julep Vivien |
You can see how the glitter built up with each of the three coats in this macro shot, and you can also see that even at three coats it’s a wee bit sheer with some visible nail line. It’s difficult to notice but if you wanted to remove it completely you could use white or gold undies.
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| Swatch of Julep Vivien |
I am so in love with this polish. As soon as I put on the first coat I had to message a friend to talk about it (seriously – that’s how much of a nail nerd I am haha). It reminds me of a gold version of Julep Lucky with those large gold hexes scattered around. If this isn’t one you own I think it’s one you need to add to your wishlist stat!
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| Swatch of Julep Hartleigh over Julep Phyllis |
Julep Hartleigh
Price: $14 ($11.20 Maven) for 8mL
Availability: Julep
Colour Profile: Classic With a Twist
Description: Holographic heart glitter top coat
Finish: Glitter
And here’s a look at that free gift – Hartleigh! First off I want to say how much I love the name of this polish. I like how it’s Valentines-y but still a name, if that makes any sense.
Hartleigh is packed full of a bunch of different glitters: red hearts, small and medium white hexes, and a lot of tiny holo glitter. I decided to swatch it over the soft pink of Julep Phyllis which I got in my January box to make a fun seasonal look. 🙂 What you see here is one coat, though I did have to fish for the heart glitter. I sealed it with two layers of top coat since the hearts tended to stick up a little bit.
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| Macro of Julep Hartleigh over Julep Phyllis |
I like the combination of glitters in this one, even if I don’t think I’ll really use it outside of Valentine season. I guess since the hearts have to be fished out I could use the white/holo base as a general glitter topper though, so maybe it’ll get more use out of it than I think!
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| Swatch of Julep Hartleigh over Julep Phyllis |
In general I’m pretty happy with this box, though that’s more because it let me pick up some older products that I was interested in. The base collection itself I could have passed on completely (and did, technically). I like the trend of giving us a fun free polish in February… I think Julep should do that every month! 😉
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!
Thanks for visiting!
