Julep Round-Up: Final Post - The Polish

So, I've told you about Julep's hand and foot care products, reviewed their makeup selections, and explained why I think the plie wand is a waste of money.

But what about the thing they're actually about, the nail polish?

Because I was a Maven, and I got a little carried away, I actually have dozens of bottles of Julep nail polish. Possibly upwards of 75, I haven't counted lately. I don't really think anybody wants me to review each and every one so I thought I'd just give a general thought on some of their finishes and the product as a whole.

I'll divide the finishes into the categories they use on their website.

Creme: Sadly we have to start with creme because it's alphabetical. Julep's creme polishes are generally just not that good. Actually, I typically avoid them and have gotten rid of most of mine. Well, to be fair they're really hit or miss, with the emphasis on miss. The ones I have kept, because they're just too good for designs or because I really love them, tend to separate and get goopy looking in the bottle, which I don't think bodes well for the formula, not that I'm an expert. My bottles of Alexandra and Sylvia look terrible whenever I pull them out. They go on okay, with a bit of work, but in general if you like a creme finish don't bother with Julep. You'll just be disappointed, especially for the price they charge. You can get similar colors in the same finish for much cheaper at the drugstore, and they'll be just as good if not better. You can see a look I did with a blue creme called Amy in this pic:

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Glitter: There are a lot of really fun glitters in Julep's store, don't get me wrong. But I've gotten to a point with glitter polish where I want really small and subtle glitter (and usually mixed into the formula instead of a top coat) because of ease of removal and the flatter texture. I don't like bumpy nails. That said, I've got a few I really love that give a color an extra sparkle, but are discontinued now. Autumn and Vanessa were particularly pretty. The glitter in this pic is Autumn, along with the Alexandra creme I mentioned.

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I do want to address the birthstone polishes specifically. The only one I've bought and tried myself was my own birthstone, Martina. I was pretty disappointed really, first because like I said, I like smoother nails and this is a very textured look. But it's also really hard to get a consistent color, and is just a bit messy to use and terrible to remove. The color is very pretty, but I'd rather have a metallic than this texture.

Metallic/Chrome: Speaking of metallic, metallic colors are probably my favorites when it comes to nail polish, I have a lot of them. Again, Julep's are hit or miss, but this time with more on the hit side than the miss. Oddly enough the more it's actually meant to look like a metal, the more likely it is to be streaky and difficult. But polishes like Angela and Boris and Nicole are very nice. If you're going to buy a polish from their metallic section, I would suggest searching for swatches by bloggers, so you'll see how streaky it really is when it goes on. The silvers are especially bad.

Neon: The only neon that I have is Bette, and it's pretty nice in the bottle, I don't think I've actually used it yet. But the neon "finish" is actually just a bright creme, and so it falls victim to all the problems of cremes, which means they're usually just not a good formula.

Sheer/Frost/Pearl: The frost polishes actually are going to be similar to the metallic but in softer colors. A few of these I've gotten in mystery boxes and gotten rid of, but that's because I don't like soft pinks for my nail polish. In general, they tend to be okay, but again, look up swatches.

Shimmer: These are my favorites, and the ones that always tempt me the most when there are sales. I haven't really come across a bad one yet (I'm sure they're out there) and all of my favorites are either shimmer or silk finish. The sparkle and glow is just perfect for what I like when it comes to polish. Some of my favs that you can still buy are Lacey, Greta, and Petra. The swatch on the site for Petra doesn't make it look as nice as it is.

Silk/Satin I have to admit, I own every single silk finish polish that Julep makes. It started with one in my maven box, but the finish is gorgeous, the color was beautiful, and it was just general fantastic. The understated colors are just very subtle and professional and I know I said I didn't like light pinks, but Abigail doesn't feel like a light pink. Especially when I pair it with black tips (like in the picture) or another very dark color. Farrah and Noelle are equally lovely, and I think the only polishes I would say you might find worth the full price (Julep is generally very overpriced). I have not tried any of the satin finish.

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Special Effect: The only special effect polish I have is Casper, which is a glow in the dark white. It's really not a solid coverage white, so if you care about how your nails look during the day, this is more of a white shimmer. It's actually quite nice in the daylight, I enjoy it. Below you can see my Halloween manicure that I just did, with Casper as the base. The glow really does work, and it was really fun when I was going through the haunted houses at Howl-O-Scream, or riding the roller coasters through the tunnels. Casper is a good purchase if you want something fun for Halloween.

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There are a few other things I'd planned to cover before this got long, so if anybody wants to know my thoughts about the fact that they photoshop their swatches, the way half the store is always out of stock, and their really high prices, let me know in the comments and I'll ramble.

But the tl;dr takeaway: Julep does have some very nice polishes, and if you get them on sale then they're well worth it for some of the silk and shimmer ones especially. But don't bother with the cremes for sure, and don't buy most of them full price, they're just not THAT great and there are other similar options for less money or that are better polishes.

And don't sign up for the Maven boxes. Just don't. They're difficult to cancel, they're overpriced, and there's a million reasons why they're not worth it.

Penultimate Julep Round-Up: Plie Wand

As I've pointed out before I'm kind of over and done with Julep, despite being a really happy customer and a Maven for nearly a year. So I've been going over their products that I've tried and reviewing them, but also suggesting places you can get similar or better products, usually for cheaper.

My review of some of their makeup selections is here, and many of their hand and foot care items are here.

Now, if you've been following Julep for any length of time, you'll probably remember when they did their crowdfunding campaign to announce their new product, the Plie Wand.

The wand is a new tool that they say will "bring more accuracy, control, and fun to every manicure—especially when polishing with your non-dominant hand."

Now, I for one had no problem with them crowdfunding this venture for a lot of reasons. Primarily because they were using the term "crowdfunding" because it's a hip thing that gets attention. They weren't crowdfunding, they were offering pre-orders on a new product and some packages with extra stuff in them. Honestly, it wasn't really a thing.

The big deal with the "crowdfunding" though was that it gave their customers a chance to see this new product before it went to market and comment on it. In this case, they'd decided on an ill-advised and frankly idiotic design that would have involved every customer that had been buying polish from them to completely change out the caps for every. single. bottle. Julep gave vague promises that they weren't going to make you purchase a new cap for every single bottle, but everybody saw this as what it was-a hassle, and an expense that was just unneeded.

At least two customers that I saw spoke up on social media and stated the obvious - that Julep's bottles are already designed perfectly to accommodate switching out the top of the caps without a need for a huge redesign. And lo and behold, Julep switched up the design to do exactly that.

So once that problem was solved, I was ready to check out this new product, primarily out of curiousity.

Now, I should point out some important things about me when it comes to nail polish:
1. I've never really had a huge problem painting my nails, even on my dominant hand because
2. I really don't care that much about how perfect my edges are because
3. Cleaning up your manicure is NOT THAT HARD and also
4. Nobody notices your edges anyway. People don't even notice when my polish is half chipped off and I haven't had a chance to remove it yet. Seriously, nail polish, not serious business. Lighten up, it's just fashion.

Honestly, I think half the reason there's this stigma that it's SO HARD to paint your nails because they must be PERFECT is to sell products like the Plie Wand. If you are generally able bodied, then just practice. That's really all there is to it, practice and a smidge of patience. You don't need some $25 tool that only works with one brand of polish anyway.

So okay, you can tell I went into this with a bias - I didn't really think anybody needed this product. If you have trouble with the standard bottle cap or whatever brand you use, there's a very simple and cheap solution: paintbrushes. Just buy a pack of cheap paintbrushes at the craft store. I've been using really cheap paintbrushes to do nail art since the mid-90's.

I tried to give the Plie a fair shake, I really did. Because I thought "I use paintbrushes, this is the same thing." But the main problem is that the wand actually is very uncomfortable for me to hold. It's too big at the base, so I can't wrap my fingers around it the way I would a brush or even a polish cap for pretty much any brand. And honestly I think I had LESS control when I was trying to use it because I was trying to rest the wand on my hand the way they show in the picture, because they say that's why you get better results and that's not the way I hold pencils, paintbrushes, or anything else.

The big deal about the wand is that it bends so that you can try different styles, and they swear that doing this will help you paint your dominant hand. For me, this was a DISASTER. Here's a thing about the way I paint my nails: I rotate the brush as I go. I don't just hold it in the exact same way the entire time, I use the shape of the brush and the way the polish is situated as part of how I control where things are going to end up. Not being able to easily rotate the brush meant that it took me twice as long for poorer results and that's just not going to fly for me.

I saw somebody online say that there's a "learning curve" to using the Plie Wand. I'm not kidding, if there's a learning curve to using the wand it's probably the same learning curve for just doing it yourself in general.

I could see an argument that the Plie Wand is helpful for people with particular disabilities or hand problems. If that's the case for you, then that's absolutely awesome and kudos. I think you probably could still just use some paintbrushes (you clean them off with nail polish remover when you're done, works like a charm) but you do what works best for you.

For the average person though, that $25 could do so much more for you.

Also of note: The Plie Wand Creativity Kit which is $10 extra and includes a dotting tool and a striping tool. I picked this up as an add-on to my Maven box that came with the wand because I kind of wanted a dotting tool just to see if I could do more fun stuff with it.

I've yet to try the dotting tool actually, but I have tried the striping brush and it's RUBBISH. I cannot stress to you enough how terrible this is for what it's advertised to do. The bristles are too long to have any control AT ALL, and when I'm trying to do delicate lines like that with a paintbrush I hold the brush really close to the bristles, because you need CONTROL. But this striping brush is like an inch long, and because it's attached to the wand there's no way to hold it to really get the control you need to do a very good line. I've had better luck freehanding french manicure tips with a regular polish brush.

The worst part is that you can also buy a "precision brush" for the Plie Wand that has a shorter stem and shorter bristles, to allow for even more control. They KNOW that a short handle and short bristles is what makes it easier to control something like this, they've done it on another product, and they still released a striping brush that is unusable for striping because of lazy, poor design.

I cannot stress enough that this product is NOT AT ALL worth the price. I don't regret getting mine because it was just part of my Maven box that I would have gotten anyway, but purchasing it separately is a WASTE OF MONEY. Just go to a craft store and pick up a variety pack of small paint brushes, and maybe a pack of toothpicks. There are very few nail art techniques you can't figure out with those, especially if you add in some scotch tape or stickers for stencils. You do not need to spend a ton of money on fancy tools, all you need is some polish, patience, and practice.

Julep Round Up: Makeup

So I started this with a "here's how to spend your Jules before you cancel your Julep Maven account" because I didn't realize you can't even spend Jules on regular purchases can you? You can only get "Jule" boxes or your monthly Maven box with them. What a useless bonus program. Meanwhile I got like $80 of products from Birchbox for $3 because of points, a discount code, and extra samples.

Anyway, as much as I complain about Julep, they actually have some pretty good products. So here's some more you might want to look into. Sorry for the lack of pictures, most of my stuff came in boxes and I didn't do individual photos of them.

Blank Canvas Mattifying Face Primer: I got this in a mystery box, I probably never would have picked up on my own. So, it promises to absorb shine and lock in moisture, and reduce the appearance of wrinkles and pores. In general, it does make my foundation go on smoothly and well, and it works perfectly well as a primer, I do notice a positive difference when I use it. However, I don't think it's any better or worse than any other primer I've used and I'll probably try out a drugstore brand after this is up. One thing it doesn't do is reduce the appearance of wrinkles and pores, I've noticed absolutely no change on that front. Meanwhile Benefit's The POREFessional is like dark magic or something.

Sweep Eyeshadow Palette: Neutrals: I'm not really the best judge of if eyeshadow is really high quality or not, to be honest. I know nothing about formula, pigment, and all that stuff. But this a good neutral palette, and I do really like the colors in it. The main problem for me is like most Julep things, price. This is just WAY too much to be charging for the size of this palette. Like most of their photos, they give you no context for the size and it's just smaller than you'd think and not worth $24 for sure. Maybe I'm just cheap. For less money, you can get the 28 Neutral Color Eyeshadow Palette from BH Cosmetics, which has a lot of similar neutral browns. And you wait a month or so, BH has a lot of amazing sales, plus great customer service.

Eye Sheen Liquid Eyeshadow: This is again a thing where I can't say anything bad about it, and since it's the only liquid eyeshadow I own, I can't really compare it to another product. It does go on smoothly and easily, dries quickly, and if I use a good primer it doesn't get creases. But again, the price is a killer because you can't get a sense of the size. This thing is TINY, and maybe I'm cheap but I just don't think I would ever pay $18 for it. Especially because without an applicator, you either have to put it on with your finger, which ew, or get a brush really yucky. Definitely needs new packaging.

Kajal Eye Glider: I got this in a mystery box, and at the time I was convinced I couldn't master eye liner, especially a pencil, because I'd only used cheap ones that were too hard to work well. So I have to point out this is in fact a very good eyeliner pencil, it's actually the best one I have right now. The fact that it's got both brown and black is an extra bonus. I haven't shopped around a lot to know if the price is fair or not, but since I don't wear a ton of eyeliner it's going to last me forever, so I'm really happy with it. It does blend and smudge well, and it stays on all day, and I just generally really like it. It made me go back to liking pencils over liquid eyeliner.

Julep Lip Gloss: I have two tubes of this, in Charming and Timeless. It's good lip gloss, it stays put and looks nice. Unlike other things here, the size is actually great, there's enough of it to last me forever. I think Charming is actually a really excellent color, one of my favorites. I like this just as well as some of my high end samples I've gotten from Birchbox, and the packaging is cute too. $20 seems a little steep, but it's on par with the name brand stuff I've seen. Is it better than some drugstore brand or something way cheaper? I don't know, probably not. But if you're already buying $20 lip gloss, this isn't a bad one to try.

Now, I know I haven't really been giving glowing reccomendations to the Maven program, I still think at this point until they fix their customer service it's a bad buy. But their makeup products aren't bad, I haven't gotten a bad one yet. Are they overpriced? Some of them are, absolutely. The eyeshadow should not cost that much. Their prices are pretty consistent with really high end brands like Smashbox or NARS, and quite frankly I'm not sure they're as good as that. In fact of all of these products the only one I would say I would actually think about actually buying if I ran out would be the Kajal Eye Glider. All of these I got in Maven boxes or mystery boxes, and they've been good additions to my makeup and I'm happy with them.

Julep Round-Up: Hand, and Foot care

As I posted last week, I'm pretty much done with Julep. So I'm going to review their products that I've gotten to try, other than specific nail colors, so that people might know how to spend their remaining Jules and cancel their memberships. Also, hopefully to introduce a few alternate places to get items.

I'm just going to use their shop categories to organize it. So first is Hand, and Foot Care. These are just reviews of the items I've tried in the time I've been a Maven. If I reviewed a product before (like as part of a mystery box) I'll just be copy/pasting my review and also noting that.

Vanish Cuticle Softener and Remover: I've only used this once, and I can say that it definitely softened my cuticles more than other things I've tried. I still don't exactly see the point of messing around too much with my cuticles but I wanted something for when they get a bit out of control. This definitely does the job and does it exactly how it says it will. You follow the directions and you get the results they say you will.

Update 10/8/2014: I have since stopped using the Vanish cuticle remover after a huge disaster with my nails about a month after I posted this. I don't know if it was the Vanish or the Oxygen base coat treatment, or a combination, but strips of the top keratin layer of my nails started to peel off. They're only just starting to recover a few months later, and I'm not risking it happening again. If anybody liked this product, I will sell you my bottle for cheap.

Cuticle Pusher: So, this is in fact a very nice cuticle pusher, and I'd been wanting a good metal one because the orange sticks I have never seemed all that great. It's very well made and well balanced, I'm just not entirely sure it's as good as the price tag suggests.

Both items received as part of the Memorial Day Mystery Box #4, full review here.

Doublestep Foot Treatment and Friction Stick: I had been thinking about buying this before, but I read a few negative reviews on the website and hesitated. I'm kind of glad I did, because I got one in this box. And also, because the reviews were right and I wouldn't want to have two. Honesty, there's no way this is worth even the $17.60. As soon as you apply any pressure (you know, like by actually using it like it's meant to be used) it rolls right back into the container, so you have to hold the dial at the bottom to actually use it. It doesn't go on particularly smoothly, and I haven't noticed it really doing much to prevent blisters though I admit I don't wear shoes that regularly cause blisters. I also haven't noticed it being particularly moisturizing or nourishing. There are much cheaper products that do the same thing, this is the first major disappointment I've gotten from Julep.

Moisture Mask Trio: I've only tried the nail and foot masks so far. The nail masks are interesting, and they're not lying when they say you can still use a touch screen through them, which surprised me. I wasn't going to bother but I got a phone call the second I finished putting them on, so I'm glad they worked! The foot masks were a little awkward, but they stayed on and everything did what it said it would. I didn't notice any particularly amazing difference in my skin after each one, but it was a nice way to relax and pamper myself for a little while.

Both items were part of my first mystery box, the Diamond Mystery Box, which I review (and complain about the shipping) here. Since then, I finished up the Doublestep Foot Treatment Stick and only grew to dislike it even more as time went on. And there's at least several days worth of product at the bottom that becomes unusable because of the way the stick functions, and product waste due to packaging really gets me cranky. The Moisture Mask Trio, it's worth noting that I haven't bought another one since this one even when they were on pretty drastic sales, because while I enjoyed the nail mask a lot, the hand and foot masks were only so-so and I just never felt inclined to do them again, so not really a strong recommend there, because you can't get the nail mask on it's own.

Mint Condition Pedi Creme: I got this in my very first intro Maven box, and I've been pretty happy with it. I don't really know how much it's created any kind of "soothing moisture and gentle exfoliation for rough, dry skin" or anything, but it's a good lotion and I liked that it was a little bit less thick for something that goes on my feet. I don't know why but I prefer thinner lotions that rub in more quickly. Because I haven't noticed anything miraculous over it, now that my bottle is almost empty I wasn't planning on replacing it, but partially because I'm also just trying to use up all the lotion I have right now so I can buy something awesome from Birchbox as a treat.

Instant Warming Foot Scrub: This is one item that I really, really liked. The instant warming action is no joke, and it feels fabulous. It's a great scrub, it smells good, and I really like using it. My only problem is the packaging, it's actually really, really difficult to squeeze out any amount of scrub from the bottle onto my feet, I have to use both hands to do it, so you can't put some scrub on your hand and then use it, you have to put it straight on your foot. But otherwise, I really liked this product. Replacement: I'm just going to go back to using The Body Shop's Peppermint Foot Scrub (which I reviewed here). I love it, it works just as well, it's not as expensive and at least The Body Shop has good customer service.

Luxe Care Hand Creme: I only got one sample of this and to be honest I hated it and I can't even remember why. I seem to recall it smelling funny and being a weird texture, but all I know is I've avoided it since. Sorry I can't be more helpful on this one.

Glycolic Hand Scrub: I hate this stuff. I had two small samples of it and it gets so many good reviews I tried it twice because I thought maybe I was crazy, but it smelled. It smelled weird and it made my hands smell weird and it didn't really do anything at all for my hands, and definitely was not as good as advertised. I have no idea what I'm missing here. Replacement: Any scrub from The Body Shop probably, their shea butter scrub is pretty nice.

Rock Star Hand Creme: I admit, this is a nice hand lotion if you don't need something heavy duty, so maybe not for the dry winter months. It rubs in quickly, it's not greasy, and it's just a nice lotion. It's not full price wonderful ($16 for 3 oz is far too much for something that's just "good") but if it's in a package deal or on sale, or you're using Jules, this could do. Replacement: Once the sample size I got in a mystery box is done, I'll just go back to my standby hand lotion, Look Ma, New Hands from Bath and Body Works. It has parrafin built into the lotion and there's nothing I've found that can handle my super dry winter-time hands as well as it does. And because it's so moisturizing a little bit goes a LONG way and a bottle lasts forever.

Spend Your Jules: If you're looking to spend your Jules, then the Moisture Mask Trio is a good treat, the Rock Star Hand Creme does the job it says it will do (though it's a bit pricey), and the Mint Condition Pedi Creme is a good product. I'd suggest the warming foot scrub but it's usually out of stock these days.

Julep: A general note

So, basically last month Julep had a huge "Red Marker Sale" and the experience of both the sale and the shipping of my box was so terrible that at this point I'm past "I can't really recommend this service" and into "no, you should probably spend your Jules and get out."

It doesn't help that I got this note today with the shipping notice for what will likely be my last Maven box:

Hello Maven,
I'm so excited for July's Maven Box, and hope you are too! I wanted to reach out and let you know that your box is on its way, but it might take a little longer than usual to arrive.
I know how much it matters that you get your box as quickly as possible, so we're working to expand and improve our shipping system ASAP (including opening a new fulfillment center very soon). As a token of our thanks for your patience (and with our apologies for any delay), we've added 100 Jules to your Maven account.

Dear Julep,

I'm not actually excited for July's Maven Box, because it will probably be my last one and I only ordered it to use up my Jules and to get the Secret Store for my birthstone polish this month, as a present to myself that I used to be excited about seven months ago when you announced the birthstone collection.

Despite my better judgement after how badly you presented yourselves and how terribly you treated customers (and how awful your communication was) during the Red Marker Sale, I placed an order on the first day. I got a shipping notice for it two days later. As usual, the "estimated delivery day" window was nearly five days, which is too large a window to be useful, but I just assume with your typical terrible shipping that it would be the last day possible.

An entire week after I got my tracking number, otherwise known as the first day of my estimated delivery window, I checked the tracking again and saw that my box had only just left the warehouse. One week after I been told that it had been shipped. ONE WEEK. My box was "transferred to the shipping partner" on the last day of the delivery window. What this means is that my box always sits in Maryland for three days for no reason I could ever figure out. And that's what happened this time. I placed my order on June 12th. I received it on June 26th, three days after the estimated delivery window was over.

I wrote you about the shipping issue in November of last year, after the order of my first mystery box became so messed up that I was no longer excited to receive it after it came in. Instead of the promised "3-4 business days" it took a week for me to hear back from a customer service representative, who said, "We take in all the feedback we can and we are working hard to roll out new and improved shipping options in the near future." And then it only got worse.

In other words: I have long, long ago given up hope of getting my box "as quickly as possible" and this note of "we're hoping to do something sometime soon nebulously in the future" is far too little, far too late. To give you a bit of context, I signed up as a Maven in September. It took you less three months to start souring my experience as a customer, and less than a year for me to be done. You've known about this problem for so long that I can't even imagine how it's taken you this long to switch shipping companies except that until now you just weren't losing enough money or customers to care.

You and I both know that 100 Jules doesn't actually amount to anything. It takes 20 times that much to get a free box, and it takes nearly ten times that much for a free polish. 100 Jules is insulting. Your entire Jules system isn't really worth anything, as a rewards program I've found it inadequate from the beginning.

So for the next few posts on my blog, I'm going to be reviewing some of the products I've gotten from you so that maybe a few readers will find a way to spend their Jules and cancel their memberships. I'll check back on the forums and beauty blogs every once in a while to see if you've fixed your shipping issue, and maybe started to prioritize customer service in any useful way.

As you'll probably see from the posts, I don't dislike your products (well, some of them I do) and there were some that had become staples for me. But I get better customer service and communication from other companies, and usually better prices too. So I'll just be looking elsewhere for now.

Julep Memorial Day Mystery Box

Hello!

I know, it's been an age. What can I say? I released the movie I've been working on for the last three years and life has been INSANE the last few months. But I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm going to reassess my schedule though, try to do something I can keep to. But who cares about that, you're here for a review!

I've not gotten a Julep mystery box in a long while, because my experience with the last one I ordered was a big hassle because of awful shipping. Which was what prompted me to actually write their customer service to complain. Since then they've added a different system for tracking boxes. Plus, their Memorial Day mystery boxes were kind of fun. There were ten of them, at different price points, and they each told you one or two items in the box and a "clue" for the contents. I liked the idea.

So I picked up box #4, which said it came with the Vanish cuticle remover and a cuticle pusher and the clue "a healthy high five." Plus a promise of $102 worth of items for only $25.

Now, if you buy a bottle of Vanish and the cuticle pusher for normal Maven prices, that costs $25.60, and I'd been considering it for a while so it seemed worth it, even if like most mystery boxes the $102 value was very inflated and went with the "value" of everything being absolutely full price, when most of it is on sale or at least available for less at a Maven discount. I also assumed that the "clues" were telling you something ELSE that was in the box, not that the clue was a reference to what you already knew was there. So I thought that since they were saying "a healthy high five" and you already knew there was Vanish and a cuticle pusher, then there would be maybe some Rock Star hand cream, or the hand scrub in there.

I really wish this review was going to end up being a glowing and positive one. But as you can probably already guess from all the times I've mentioned my assumptions, you know where this will end up. To start with, their shipping is still abysmal. Their shiny new tracking system is useless, and only solves one of the problems I had with their shipping on previous boxes, and doesn't really do that. Before, there was no estimated delivery date available, and that annoyed me because there was no way to know if a box had been lost in the mail or was just taking forever. Now you get an ETA, but it's a time span of THREE DAYS. I can predict a better time frame than that for most deliveries just by guessing based on hunches and educated guesses from years of ordering things. A three day time frame for an estimated delivery is useless.

On top of that, they don't even actually meet that delivery estimate. I almost never have gotten DHL shipped boxes within that three day window since they've started this new tracking, it's usually within those three days that it switches to being "transferred to the USPS" where just like always, it sits for 2-3 days with no updates or information. Which is a major part of the problem, Julep. DHL is a terrible shipping company who does a terrible job and your customers are tired of it, you just need to take a glance at your social media comments to see it.

Then, icing on the cake, I ordered this around the same time that my monthly Maven box shipped. I got my Maven box the day before I got the shipping notice that it was going out and that the tracking info was available. And I've seen several other Mavens say the same thing. Which makes me think that the DHL tracking info isn't emailed out until a few days after it ships, which makes it even slower and more ridiculous than it originally appears. Is that being done on purpose so you don't know how long it actually takes? I don't know, I just know that Julep needs to get it together on their shipping issues.

And on top of that, after I wait ages for my box, and after it arrives a day after the three day estimated delivery window was up, it wasn't even worth it:



The "clue" turned out to be nothing, and looking at blogs where they revealed the contents of all the boxes, it seems like all of the clues were really just talking about the product that you already knew was coming in the box. Honestly, there seemed like little to no "theme" at all to most of them.

Now, I still got the two products I wanted, obviously, because they were listed as being included. But instead of other hand products the box contained five more polishes, which would be kind of great I guess, if they were polishes I wanted.

To the individual products:
Vanish Cuticle Softener and Remover: I've only used this once, and I can say that it definitely softened my cuticles more than other things I've tried. I still don't exactly see the point of messing around too much with my cuticles but I wanted something for when they get a bit out of control. This definitely does the job and does it exactly how it says it will. You follow the directions and you get the results they say you will. $18/$14.40 Maven

Cuticle Pusher: So, this is in fact a very nice cuticle pusher, and I'd been wanting a good metal one because the orange sticks I have never seemed all that great. It's very well made and well balanced, I'm just not entirely sure it's as good as the price tag suggests. $14/$11.20 Maven

Barbara: This is one polish I'm pretty happy with, it's a full coverage purple glitter (Julep calls it a "multidimensional magenta") and I actually have thought about getting it before. Definitely a plus, and I'm happy to have gotten it, especially because it's currently out of stock. $14/$11.20 Maven

Tania: This is another glitter, not as full coverage, and is called a "mermaid teal" by Julep. I thought about buying this one before too, when it was a featured add-on one month (I think), but it was out of stock and I talked myself out of it. So again, this one was a good thing to get. $14/$11.20 Maven

Ava: This is where this box starts to go south for me. Not only is this a duplicate for a color I've already gotten in another box, but it's one I'd already decided to sell instead of using. I'd only just gotten rid of the previous bottle and now I have another. The color is a "ballet slipper pink" and I already have something similar and don't do pink nails anyway. This isn't a bad color, actually it seems really pretty if that's your thing. But it's not mine.$14/$11.20 Maven

Lois: This one is a "dusty rose frost" that goes in the same category as Ava, I'd actually just managed to sell another bottle of this I'd decided not to use because I don't need more pink. And also because Julep's frost polishes tend to be a bit streaky and fussy to apply (probably not a great sales pitch for my eBay listing but the truth). If it's a color I love then it's worth the extra effort to get a good, clean look from it. But that's not worth it for pink, for me. $14/$11.20 Maven

Fiore: This one actually really bugged me, because I know that this color has been on sale a LOT in the last few months, and at one point was only $1 as an add-on. It's been really easy to get, and easy to get cheaply. To the point where again, I already had one bottle of it and sold it because I realized I had a nearly identical color already. I've already sold this one too. $14/$11.20 Maven

Now, Julep apparently has wised up a bit and none of these polishes were currently on sale, which is what almost always tanks the estimated value of the box when people add them up after they get them. Smart move. So everything being currently full price, the advertised value actually holds up. Well, except for the fact that if you're a Maven everything is cheaper, so it's actually only worth $81.60 rather than $102. But that's a nearly 70% savings instead of 75%, so really, only a slight difference. And in the end, well worth it, financially. There is no denying it was a good bargain if you just compare money spent to value of goods received.

But once you put together the terrible shipping, the fact that the "theme" didn't exist, and the fact that only two of the five polishes were fun or interesting, then I'm not really thrilled. Since this is two disappointing experiences in a row with mystery boxes, then I think it's time for me to hold off on getting any more for a long while.

I realize that this less than glowing review isn't going to help me get any Julep referral points, but I've got to be honest, I'm just not a very happy customer of theirs right now. I'm planning to get next month's box, but probably no more mystery boxes, and after the next Maven box I'll probably be skipping for the foreseeable future unless they overhaul a few things. Starting with their shipping.

Edited to add: in Julep's recent Red Marker Sale (which is a customer service fiasco if you ask me) they've put at least two of these polishes up on sale for $2. So soon after them coming in my mystery box as such a "great deal." Yup, that's the perfect way to convince me that this box was full of polishes they just wanted to get rid of and not a great deal. Technically, I have no problem with that idea, that a mystery box or a grab bag is a bunch of things the company couldn't sell at normal stock prices and they'd like to clear out. That's a pretty normal and expected marketing strategy. It's the "worth" calculation that's so sketchy about this and makes me so grumpy. Don't tell me it's worth $14 if you can't sell it at $14 and you have to mark it down to $2 to get rid of it.

Julep: Diamond Mystery Box Review

I joined Julep on a whim a few months ago and I've been very pleased with their products so far, and their ability to convince me to buy more because of how many sales and specials they have. I've slowed down a lot recently but it's time for me to start reviewing all my purchases! If you want to see how my various manicures look, you should follow me on Instagram, I always post a picture there.

Anyway, I had resisted the mystery boxes that Julep does for a while, but then they came out with the Diamond Mystery box, which automatically came with two gorgeous glittery top coats. I am a complete sucker for glittery top coats, they're my primary nail polish weakness (along with anything blue and/or metallic).

The add promised that the mystery box would contain at least $120 worth of items, and the add on would be worth $48. The box itself was only $24.99 and then the add-on was an extra $9.99 so I decided it was worth it and went for it. Now, one thing that's important to note is that Julep always calculates that "value" at the list price of each item. If you're a Maven you already get a discount.

The mystery add-on was the Moisture Mask Trio ($20 list/$16 Maven) and then Adele and Lois were the polishes. Julep always says their polishes are worth $14, but I've never paid that for a single one. Both of these colors have been on sale since the box came in, but they're currently both full price at $11.20 for Mavens. That puts the add-on value at $38.40 for Mavens, though like I said, both of those polishes have been much cheaper since I purchased this box.

Moisture Mask Trio: Retail $20, $16 for Mavens. I've only tried the nail and foot masks so far. The nail masks are interesting, and they're not lying when they say you can still use a touch screen through them, which surprised me. I wasn't going to bother but I got a phone call the second I finished putting them on, so I'm glad they worked! The foot masks were a little awkward, but they stayed on and everything did what it said it would. I didn't notice any particularly amazing difference in my skin after each one, but it was a nice way to relax and pamper myself for a little while.

Adele and Lois: $14 list/currently $11.30 for Mavens. Both of these have been on sale at least once since I got this box, and were on sale when the box arrived as well. Adele is a "golden reflective top coat" and it's gorgeous. I've been wanting it for a while, it goes wonderfully over other polishes and I love it, I'm very happy that I got it in my box. Lois is a "dusty rose frost" and honestly it's not my style and I've developed such a huge collection already, so I've listed it on eBay instead of keeping it. It does look quite beautiful, I just usually go for blues or reds rather than pinks.

At the time that the box came in, I added the value based on prices on their website as $33.19, but if you bought it today it would be $38.40. So no matter what at least a $20 savings.

The actual box!

Along with the seven polishes, which I'll get to in a second, there was also:

Pink Grapefruit Body Frosting: List price is $18, but it was on sale already for $9.99. This body frosting smells wonderful, and it's a really interesting and fabulous texture. It really is whipped and airy like frosting, and I really liked it. Since winter started, I've been switching my regular body lotion up with body butter and this is similar. It rubs in quickly, it feels nice, and it smells good. It might have been discontinued already though, I had a very hard time finding the website for it.

A pink scrub mitt: Retail $5 but on sale for $2.99. I admit, I haven't used this yet. But I've used similar products in the past and they're quite nice. I'm sure it's good.

Doublestep Foot Treatment and Friction Stick: Retail $22, $17.60 Maven. I had been thinking about buying this before, but I read a few negative reviews on the website and hesitated. I'm kind of glad I did, because I got one in this box. And also, because the reviews were right and I wouldn't want to have two. Honesty, there's no way this is worth even the $17.60. As soon as you apply any pressure (you know, like by actually using it like it's meant to be used) it rolls right back into the container, so you have to hold the dial at the bottom to actually use it. It doesn't go on particularly smoothly, and I haven't noticed it really doing much to prevent blisters though I admit I don't wear shoes that regularly cause blisters. I also haven't noticed it being particularly moisturizing or nourishing. There are much cheaper products that do the same thing, this is the first major disappointment I've gotten from Julep.

Travel Eyelash Curler: You actually can't buy this product on it's own, but I calculated the value based on the set linked here minus the cost of the mascara, which basically made it worth $6 list or $2 on sale. I've tried to use this a couple times since I got it, and honestly I have no idea if it's really doing anything. I've always found eyelash curlers a little silly, I'm just not that kind of girl I guess. I suppose this one is good for what it is, I wouldn't know the difference.

and pink rock candy, which looks delicious but I haven't tried it yet.

Now for the best part, the polishes!

First, the ones that were sold as "exclusive," Geo and Antonia. Now, I took "exclusive" to mean you could only get them in this box, but Antonia is now on sale at their website. But that's okay because Geo was my favorite anyway. They're both holographic diamond glitter top coats, Geo is blue and Antonia is pink. I absolutely love them, though I haven't used them yet. I'm giving them both a full value of $14 list or $11.20 Maven.

My other polishes:
Candace: A "golden chocolate microglitter" that looks so much fun in person. I wouldn't really describe it as chocolate, more of just a really dirty bronze, but it's still very pretty.

Eva: a "raspberry creme," which made me happy because I've been craving more berry reds in general and really wanted this one. I haven't really used it yet though.

Karen: a "peach bellini frost" and really pictures don't completely do it justice. I don't have a ton of colors like this, so I like it for the variety and that it's a bit more subtle and "classic" than most of my colors, while still being a bit fun.

Karmen: a "golden crimson microglitter" and this one is just really beautiful. I have so many slightly different shades of red, but this one was so wonderful I actually got rid of a similar one because I knew I would always prefer this one instead.

Lucy: a "modern, dark burgundy creme." I have no idea what makes burgundy modern, but sure. I actually have an older polish from a different brand that's just called "red black red" that is very similar to this color, and I never do anything this dark as a base color, only as accents, so I decided to keep my half finished bottle and sell this one on eBay.

All of these colors are currently $14 regular price or $11.20 Maven pricing on the website, except Lucy which is $7.99 on sale.

Overall value
Now, when I actually got my box I did the math based on the prices listed on the website that day, and I came up with the box being worth $107.77 using Maven and sale pricing, because that's what the value would be to ME, since I'm a Maven. Obviously, this is kind of a far cry from $120+. Going by list price plus sale prices (because non-mavens can get the sale price) then you come out around $140. Now, I knew this would be the case going in, and honestly when you only pay $25 for something worth $100, then you're still getting 75% off.

So the Diamond Mystery box was absolutely worth buying for me. I got no duplicates, I got several polishes off my wishlist, and I got a few items I had wanted too (even if one of them turned out not to be that great). I do think that the boxes come off a bit of "let's get rid of a few things" because so much of it was on sale at the time that I got it, but that's okay because it's still nice stuff.

However, then we come to the glaring problem with Julep that I've discovered:

Shipping
Okay, so you get what you pay for and Julep does free shipping on most of their items, or if you're a Maven. Maven boxes ship out USPS, and they're always very quick to arrive.

Everything else ships out DHL. Which means it slowly meanders it's way across the U.S. before the tracking number states that it sits in a shipping facility for at least one week, usually two, before it's transferred to USPS and then delivered a day later. That's IF you're lucky enough to get a correct tracking number.

The number I got for this mystery box was not correct, and so I had no tracking information to work with. For all I knew, the box had never even actually been shipped because it always just said "invalid number." I waited for the tracking info to show up and it just never did. I finally got upset enough to write Julep an email, and they replied with a valid tracking number the day after my box arrived.

It's difficult to complain about something free, but I will say that the horrible tracking, the lengthy waits, and the general lack of any response from Julep on the matter on ANY of their social media sites (it's a constant refrain from customers everywhere and they never say anything in reply) means that I have greatly reduced my purchases from them.

That's great for me, it's saving me a lot of money. It's helped me resist nearly all of their Black Friday and Christmas sales, it means I've barely glanced at their holiday shop. I've been seriously coveting a particular holiday duo and it's been part of I think four sales since I added it to my wishlist and I've added it to my cart twice, each time to think about the shipping, which leads to thinking about what I've been spending, and then clicking cancel.

So while I'm saving money, Julep is losing money and sales, and my goodwill solely because of their shipping partner being so terrible. I'm sure they're able to offer free shipping because DHL makes them a great deal on cheap services, but they're cheap because they're AWFUL and that's not really the best way to run a business. And it's especially bad to be blatantly ignoring your customers when they complain about it.

Again, I'm still very happy with my box so there's a decent chance I'll purchase the next mystery box depending on the theme or what "exclusives" come with it. I'm just irritated that something I was so thrilled about getting eventually became a disappointment because it got tied up with terrible shipping and lack of tracking information.

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.