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.