Julep Maven – February 2015

Julep Maven is jointly one of my and Lauren’s favorite boxes. We both get it, and rarely do we overlap on the products or polishes. For the unfamiliar, Julep’s thing is primarily nail polish but they also produce some great beauty products. Julep Maven is Julep’s monthly subscription box. For $25 you get to choose between different pre-styled boxes containing various combinations of new polish colors and beauty products. You can pick whichever style box you’d like or even customize the contents yourself. Plus there are always fun add-ons available. Lauren and I both look forward to that time of the month – Maven time.

February introduced us to The Afterglow Collection! This collection is meant to pulls us from our mid-winter slump. With brighter colors, shimmering neutrals, and soft pastels, this collection does serve up some fun colors and textures. Both Lauren and I customize our boxes now, and as a result had some overlap in our products. The rest of the colors in the box seemed to be too similar to colors I already have in my polish collection, so I stuck to most beauty products for my February box. As a nice little bonus, Julep threw a free bottle of Hartleigh into each Maven box. Unfortunately both Lauren and I hate Hartleigh, but more on that later. Here’s a glimpse of the entire February collection:

Jill: Lots of shimmering colors, and some products to make your face shimmer as well. The new beauty products this month included an Illume Eye Brightener in pink or champagne. Honestly, the only reason I didn’t pick this is that I couldn’t figure out if I should get pink or champagne. It’s meant to be an under eye treatment that covers dark circles and overtime helps treat fine lines and darkness. I’m sure at some point I’ll get one on sale or in one of Julep’s many mystery boxes. The lip glosses looked nice, but I recently took inventory of all of my lip colors and it was a humbling experience.

Now for what I did get. I was intrigued by the Glow Highlighting Powder because I don’t wear much makeup so a little brightening touch here and there is really all I am in the market for. Julep boasts that the “diamond powder” has rosehip seed oil to soothe skin, malvaceae lipid extract (the hell?) for retaining moisture, and green coffee bean oil to invigorate skin. I think half of that is lip service, and I don’t plan to smother my face in it, just dab a bit on my cheekbones. Either way, I took the bait. I also grabbed one of the fan brushes because I figured I might as well use the proper brush for it while dazzling up my mug.

The powder is shimmery. It’s not a bad shimmer, but it definitely delivers what it’s supposed to. I don’t wear makeup on my skin, so it feels a little weird to suddenly have shimmering cheekbones, but I think I will brush a little on my collarbones during the summer because why not. I should mention too that the powder is really sizable. I think I might be jaded for beauty product size standards, because I was actually shocked at how much powder was in the case. It’s going to last a really long time. The fan brush is also gigantic. I don’t have a brush anywhere near its size, so it’s a welcomed addition to my makeup collection.

I added Keiko to round out my Maven box. Julep describes Keiko as a “charred olive shimmer” which is exactly how it looks on screen in its giant dollop form. In person and on your nails, it looks more charred and less olive. This stuff is practically black. This is not a problem for me, because I actually like dark neutrals, but I would imagine if someone wanted an actual olive colored polish they would be pretty disappointed.

The free Hartleigh included in each box this month was, in my not-so-humble opinion, a complete waste. It’s so hideous. My absolute least favorite polishes are clear coats with glitter. They are really hard to get off with remover and they make you look like you’re reminiscing over your kindergarten years. Hartleigh is a clear coat glitter….. WITH HEARTS. Hearts. Hartleigh. Oh my god I just got it. I will literally never wear this polish. If I knew any children I would have already given it to them. Apparently Julep was treating certain Mavens to the ultimate worst Valentine’s Day gift ever – five free Hartleighs. Five bottles of the worst polish ever created. I am so glad I didn’t win that contest. Still, I’m not one to look a free polish in the mouth, so it is pretty cool that Julep snuck this treat into our boxes.

That’s all I’ve got for the February Maven box, so take it away Lauren!

Lauren: 

I’m still reveling in my Dallas Maven Meetup experience. As if I didn’t love Julep enough, they now have my undying love and loyalty. I had considered skipping a some Julep boxes in the next few months because money is kind of tight but now after hanging out with Jane and co. I can’t throw my money at them fast enough. (So long, Sunset 45.)

Here is my February box! 

This month I received three polishes: the aforementioned icky Hartleigh (I ended up mailing mine to a friend who actually did want Hartleigh but didn’t get a Maven box this month– I seriously could not mail it fast enough. AND THEN I GOT ANOTHER HARTLEIGH IN MY FEBRUARY GLOSSYBOX. I still need to rid myself of that one), the wild violet and bronze duochrome Hazel, and the oil slick duochrome silk Becky.

I really love Becky… it is very similar to Blakely which is one of my very favorite polishes but Becky has a Satin finish! I LOOOOVE the nontraditional finishes like Satins/Silks/Mattes so this polish combines two of my favorite things. Also, I have a dear friend at work named Becky so all around this polish is my favorite of the month.

I also added the lipgloss in Vivid, since I am such a fan of their glosses. I seriously cannot get enough of Posh. Vivid is sort of a grape-y shimmer. I like it a lot but it still doesn’t replace my love for Posh. (I couldn’t find a link for Posh directly but it’s part of this set here.)

Like Jill, I got the Glow Highlighting Powder and Fan brush and I have been using it every day since.

I wanted to show y’all how BIG the Glow powder and fan brush are so I put some of my polishes in the picture for scale. They are seriously huge. I feel like the fan brush is like half the size of my face. This is definitely NOT a brush for targeted highlighting, my friends. But I like using this powder almost as an all over finishing powder. While it is shimmery, I don’t find that it makes my face look shiny. Just more… glow-y. I guess they named this product correctly.

Final Grade:

Jill: A

Lauren: A

Jill: I am rating this box an A. The glow powder is a reasonably large size, the fan brush is pretty awesome, and I love Keiko (even if she is a little dark). I may not have loved Hartleigh, but at least it was cool that Julep gave us a freebie.

Lauren: I’m also rating this box an A. I love both of the polishes I chose, I love Glow and the Fan brush, and I’m always glad to have a new lip gloss. (I really don’t need new lip gloss. I might actually have a hoarding problem with lip gloss. But that will not stop me from buying more lip gloss.)

To check out Julep or sign up for Julep Maven like us, use my referral link and earn me some points! 

xo,

Jill & Lauren