...Julep?! (With swatches of Caroline!)

You might have noticed that I've been on a Zoya kick lately. I love Zoya. I really do. But I think I've found a new brand to fall in love with...

Julep.

Haven't heard of Julep? They're the kinda tiny, long, rectangular bottles of nail polish that you stay away from at Sephora because...well, they're kinda tiny. And they're fourteen bucks each.

(HEADS UP!! THERE'S A DISCOUNT CODE AT THE END OF THIS POST!)

But I've heard so many great things about Julep formula (from all of my time, well, essentially stalking other nail polish blogs) that I HAD to try it out. And when I saw an ad for an AMAZING sale that was going on...well, how could I say no?

I can't begin to describe my excitement when this came in the mail today. (Well, really, I'm this excited every time I get new nail polish. It's almost sad, really.)

What is this "Maven" thing? Well. It's Julep's special membership program. Every month, they put together a special Maven Box that gets sent out to all of their...Mavens (I guess that's what they're called). Each box contains two polishes that match the current season and either another polish or one of their other beauty products! The boxes are $19.99 per month, which, if you think about it, is a great deal - I mean, just the two nail polishes alone would regularly be $28.

Anyway, for my first box I didn't get one of their regular monthly boxes - somehow the discount code that I found online got me a box of five polishes for something like six bucks!

Do you recognize the bottles now? Yeah - they're always hiding next to the other really high-end nail polishes, so you may have overlooked them in the past. I'm still trying to figure out what's with the side of their bottle - it looks like it's supposed to be black with a streak of the nail polish running down it or something like that, but I just can't tell for sure.

With their monthly boxes, you can also do add-ons - other products at REALLY reduced prices! I added another polish, Caroline, for only $4.99! She actually came a day before all the others did, and, naturally, I couldn't wait to try out the supposedly amazing Julep formula, so Caroline's my first Julep swatch for you.

Julep Caroline

Caroline is a dark reddish brown, with a metallic almost-shimmer. Ahem. Sorry about that description - I'm pretty sure I must have been sick that week in second grade when they taught how to properly use good adjectives.

 

I don't usually use brown nail polish because, in my mind, brown is kind of a "yuck" color. But Caroline, rather than remind me of "yuck" in general, makes me think of chocolate or coffee - she's a really nice, rich color that way.

When I was putting Caroline on, I almost didn't believe how perfect the formula was. Really. Perfect thickness, perfectly smooth, perfect coverage. There's something about the brush - which really doesn't SEEM all too special - that makes application super easy. And get this: Caroline was almost perfectly opaque in one coat. I did two for a little extra depth...but I'm pretty sure I could have gotten away with just one.

But wait! There's more!

 "But they look exactly the same!"

...exactly. This is after a day and a half, including a swim practice. Any swimmers out there know that the pool absolutely KILLS nails, but Caroline got out of the water completely unscathed! I've only had her on for two days, but I'm pretty sure she'd have some pretty rockin' staying power if I ever left nail polish on for more than a couple days.

Unfortunately, my camera didn't get the reddish-duochromey-ness that Caroline has. It shows up a little better with flash:

You might not be able to tell, but you'll have to take my word for it: Caroline is GORGEOUS.

Interested in trying Julep? You can! And with literally no risk - unless you consider a penny a risk. Just visit the Julep website, go to "Style Profiles" under the "Become a Maven" tab, and pick one of their five style profiles. Add that month's Maven box to your bag, and when prompted, enter "PENNY" into the discount/promo code box. Your bag total should change from $19.99 to $0.01! (Not gonna lie...it's really exciting just to see $19.98 taken off your order...)

(As a side note, the Julep rewards program is AMAZING! That said, when you're visiting the Julep site to get your first Maven box for only a penny, it would be great if you could use this link.)

If you like your box and you'd like to keep getting your Julep Maven boxes on a monthly basis, just keep your account and every month you'll get an email with a preview of your new box! You can then choose to have that box sent to you, select a different style profile's box, send your box to a friend, or skip that month's box. If you don't like your box and don't want to pay twenty bucks a month for over forty bucks worth of nail product, just cancel your Maven subscription and that'll be the end of that!

I love Julep already! From the pictures above, which would you like to see next? Let me know if you end up trying the Julep Maven program yourself!

Stay happy :)