Friday, October 11, 2013

Julep Maven: Review and Manicure

I've been so thrilled with my Birchbox, and I saw an ad for Julep the other day. I've been wanting to do more manicures as well, so it seemed perfect. On top of that, they offer you the first intro box free. So of course I signed up.


When I took their style profile quiz, they said I was "Boho Glam" and when I saw what came in the intro box I figured that was probably pretty accurate, so I stuck with it. When you sign up, if you don't like what comes in the box you get you can select a different one, so take the quiz and see what you get, you can change it.


I also opted to get a mystery polish as an add on, so that's why you see three polishes in the picture. So I got this fabulous Pedi Creme, which I absolutely love, a sample of the instant warming foot scrub (which is also wonderful), and three new colors to experiment with: Marion, Courteney, and Charlotte - pictured left to right here.


I had also just gotten my order of the Ruffian extras from Birchbox, so I decided to use the Gesso Base Coat and Varnish Top Coat along with Charlotte and Marion for my first Julep manicure. I decided to go for a very typical look but with fun bold colors, so french tips, using the same drafting dots that I used for my Ruffian Manicure (check out the tutorial for details).


Overall, I think it came out great. I'm not sure if it was because of the gesso base coat, or the Julep polish in general, but I did have some trouble with the Charlotte polish peeling off in large chunks when it chipped, especially when I was cleaning up my cuticles after I was done. So I had to fix a few spots.

I'm a big fan in general, and Julep has so many fantastic deals and ways to save that while their prices are a little high, it works out well and it is high quality polish. I've ordered a few more, and can't wait to show them to you.