I'm sure you know that I've been absent since 'round about the time of my little sister's graduation. It's been absolute madness for me in the last six weeks as I've been rehearsing a show! We just opened on July 6th, it's an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland during which we travel throughout Lincoln Park here in Chicago. For more information on the show (which is free, btdubs!), visit
Nothing Without a Company. </end plug>
On to the beauty bits!
I haven't taken a
Julep Maven Box in aaaaaaaaages. Probably not since December or January. I just hadn't been too intrigued by the offerings, and the formulas can be so hit or miss, and I figured that I could use the $20 on something more useful, like food. #realtalk But I had enough Maven Jules (their fancy term for points), so I figured I'd check out July's offerings. I selected the It Girl Box from
July's The Poolside Collection, and added on a glittery America-tastic topcoat. 'Tis the season, ya feel?
The box included the colors
Dawn, a "citron creme,"
Linden, a "pool blue creme," and
Braiden, described as "graphite stardust," which is Julep's textured glittery finish a lá OPI's Liquid Sand and Zoya's PixieDust. It also had some Tootsie Rolls in American flag wrappers, but I ate them before I took pictures. Duh. So far I've only had the chance to give Dawn and Linden a try, here are some of my thoughts.
Dawn is as true a yellow as I've seen yet among polish offerings. This leaves me a little disappointed, as I was kind of hoping it would lean a bit to the green side of the spectrum, but I don't mean it as an actual criticism. Application was a bit annoying, streaky and a little gloopy on the first coat, but things leveled out with the second coat into a wholly opaque finish. Above is two coats with a topcoat. Wear was good, but not exceptional, lasting two days on me without chipping (that's normal for me though, I'm doing a very physical show and my hands get banged around quite a bit).
Linden is a dusty true blue that's fully opaque in one coat. I did two for good measure, and there was no staining with a base coat, so that was nice. I don't know what kind of cracked out pools Julep checked out when it decided to name this, but "pool blue" it is not. Wear was good, not great, again two days without chipping. Liked it, didn't love it, but the good opacity will make it a nice addition for nail art, I think.
Overall, a good batch, I think. I'll report back on the other two, when I get around to it, but with the 4th having already come and gone, not sure when I'll get around to that glitter topper (thanks UPS, for pretending my house doesn't exist). If you feel moved to become a Julep Maven, you can use my referral link
HERE.
Hope you all enjoyed!
