To be honest, today I'm feeling a little under the weather, so I don't have the energy to pester you with a [not-so] exciting detailing of my day...so here's Julep Joan, from the February "It Girl" Julep Maven box!
Joan is a dark raspberry (not red, not purple...but not actually magenta) almost-jelly shade with little coppery-golden flecks in it. (If you're wondering, yes, that is the full extent of my descriptive skills....please don't judge me.) Her formula is literally PERFECT - shown above is two normal coats. In either January or February, Julep introduced new brushes to their polishes that were flatter and wider than the old ones - and let me say these brushes are also...literally PERFECT. The polish spreads perfectly and evenly, and...AAAH! I'm just so in love with the Julep formula and brushes and opacity and...yeah. Everything.
Anyone who ended up getting their February Maven box also got a free gift - Julep's new topcoat, Freedom. Freedom is a quick-dry polymer topcoat that's supposed to give polishes a gel-like finish.
Because UV light can do funky things to nail polishes (at least that's what I'm assuming), Freedom comes in an opaque black bottle.
Freedom is kind of a weird topcoat for me. Sure, it was dry to the touch in a couple minutes and it's fairly un-dentable now a few hours later, which is exactly what a fast-dry topcoat is supposed to do...but Freedom has an EXTREMELY thin formula. I'm not just talking it feels thin compared to, say, Seche Vite; I'm saying Freedom is SO thin it's practically like...water? It makes Out the Door topcoat look thick, which, if you've used OTD, you'll know is pretty preposterous.
Because Freedom is so thin, Joan kind of ate her up. (Wow...don't read that one out of context; it looks a little psychotic!) The gold flecks in Joan aren't even that prominent, but their texture still shows through a coat of Freedom. You can actually see in the first picture of Joan on this post that Freedom doesn't leave a completely smooth finish! For some people, that's all fine and dandy; for me, though, I need my manicure to be perfectly smooth...I'll probably use Freedom more over creme finish polishes because she does dry nicely and have the same great brush as the other Julep polishes, but I can't see myself using Freedom on anything but a creme.
Interested in becoming a Maven? Sign up on the Julep website here! Each month is $19.99 for a box full of goodies - my last one included three nail polishes, Freedom topcoat, an eyelash curler (no joke!), and chocolate (also, no joke!!). It's an amazing deal if you like the nail polishes in your box, considering one Julep polish regularly sells for $14. The great thing about the Maven program is that it's not binding at all - you can skip or cancel any month you like with no penalty!
Have you tried any Julep products? Let me know!
Stay happy :)
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