Dallas Julep Maven Meetup!!!

Hey everyone! I’m excited to bring you this extra special blog about the Dallas Julep Maven Meetup! It was so awesome to get to know some online friends that I had originally come to know in Julep Swap but then we formed our own little group called On Fridays We Wear Purple. It was random to have a meetup in the middle of the week but we all rallied and made our way there! Katy came all the way from Austin!

The meetup was at Max’s Wine Dive in Dallas. The setup was really nice. We had the whole back room to ourselves and there was a spread of veggies and hummus and of course, wine. Emily Resling from Julep showed up first because Jane was still traveling from the east coast. It’s like she’s the CEO of a hugely successful company or something. She got there a little bit later.

I got there a little early so I was able to get in and start swatching. I thought I was so smart to bring swatch sticks with me. However, it turns out I don’t really know how to use swatch sticks. Mine look like a sad Pinterest fail. And Emily took a picture of them and posted it on Julep’s facebook page. Ummmm… those are someone else’s swatch sticks, y’all. Luckily, my friend Angela is a swatching PROFESSIONAL and saved the day with her awesome swatches. We won’t talk about mine anymore.

First, let’s talk about the new eyeliner! They are entering the liquid liner game. And let me tell you, they are coming in swinging. Emily told us that they tested out over 40 different tips. Actually she said, “We’ve been playing around with over 40 tips” and I made a classy “That’s what she said” joke because I’m an adult. The felt tip they chose is PERFECT and makes thin to thick lines really easily. And the formula LASTS. It was still on my wrist this morning and took some scrubbing to get it off. This is a selling point to me.

Emily also told us that Julep is creating a new product that I’m not entirely sure exists anywhere else. It’s basically a makeup eraser in the form of a marker called Control Z. (Ha!) So you can fix your eyeliner/makeup mistakes really easily without messing up the rest of your makeup. How cool is that? Genius, really.

They also let us vote to help pick the new eyeshadow stick shades. I was able to swatch this product as well. It looked like Option 1. It was a shadow stick on one end and a sponge on the other for blending. This is another product that had pretty incredible staying power. I’m VERY interested in these and will be interested in picking some up when they come out. 

Julep is also getting into the lipstick game. They’ve been playing around with it for awhile obviously with their glosses and Plush Pout lip crayons but outside of some of the minis they released around the holidays, I’m not sure they have lipsticks yet. So this was cool. The formula feels nice and creamy. One of the coolest things about these lipsticks is the packaging- looks basic black, right? However, the lid is magnetized. GENIUS. (I realize I keep saying “genius” but they are solving so many issues with their products! Julep has earned the genius label.) I have several lipsticks where the lid will fall off when it’s in my makeup bag and then get lipstick all over everything else. It’s a huge pain in the ass. MAGNETIZED LIDS, PEOPLE. All lipsticks need these.

They also had a clear lip liner, which confused a few people at the meeting but I was explaining how this is the only lip liner you will ever need, period. I think people thought it was white but I helped set the record straight. As I do. Clear lip liners are perfect for darker shades that are harder to match and you really need a liner for those darker shades so they don’t bleed all over the place.

Here are two of the lipsticks just so you can see what they look like.

Angela did some nice swatches with the names of the colors. Angela is awesome. I can’t decide which is my favorite. Stepping Out is a little more orange-y red  than the picture shows. I think I might try out Girl Code. Angela also swatched the eyeliner.

All right. We are onto the good stuff. THE NAIL POLISH. HELLO. They had the March collection out in addition to the February collection. We noticed a new finish coming out… Soft Focus! I am all about the matte/satin/silk finishes that Julep puts out so I was immediately drawn to Ali (below) since it’s reminiscent of Shelly which is my jam (and what I’m wearing in the picture) but it has more of an eggshell finish versus a true creme. Also, the Soft Focus sticker looks almost holographic. It’s really neat.

Angela helpfully wrote out the different March 2015 colors with their respective collections and finishes on this card below that you could reference at a glance. Angela is good like that.

Here are her actual swatch sticks with the different March 2015 polishes:

And finally, here are most of them a little bigger:

I wish I had taken more pictures of the event itself… but I was having so much fun. Sometimes I get too documentary-ish to really enjoy the moment but I definitely enjoyed all the moments last night. I left a bigger fan of Julep than ever before. These Meetups are (here it comes again) genius from a marketing perspective. Treat the gals that buy your products to some wine and let them try your new products and then they will not only be fans for life, they will tell everyone about your products. Perhaps blog about them. Spread the word on social media. For a company that’s based on the internet, you really can’t pay enough for that kind of publicity. Not to mention that Jane Park is one of the coolest CEO’s on the planet. She honestly loves her company and her customers and I just respect the hell out of her.

Emily sat with us at our table for a little while and video interviewed us about where we live, our nail polish collections, how extensive they are (Stacee wins) our favorite julep products, etc. It was fun! I wonder if we’ll show up on the blog at some point? At one point Jane was taking a picture for instagram so I fluffed my hair in case I would be in the picture and it turned out to be a video. So you can see me looking all vain if you were looking at Jane’s feed last night.

This was SUCH a fun night and I had so much fun hanging out with my internet-turned-real life friends and making new friends, too! (Shout out to my new Fort Worth buddy, Christy!)

If you are interested in becoming a Maven like all the cool girls, click here!  Jill and I will be writing our review on the February Maven boxes next week so stay tuned for that. If you’re new here, feel free to subscribe to the blog so you can start your mornings with fresh Boxy Lady opinions delivered right to your email box at 7am. There’s really no better way to start your morning.