8.15.13 NOTD

I finally decided with only 3 more yellow based greens to use I needed a break and pulled out my second favorite color, purple.

This look is actually 3 colors Julep's Billie Jean, Bette, and Chelsea.  Bette is on the sheer side so after the first coat I pulled out Billie Jean which is an opaque creme that has great coverage with just one coat.

This look is 1 coat Bette, 1 coat Billie Jean, 1 coat Bette, 1 coat Chelsea, and 1 coat of Freedom.

8.11.13 NOTD

Today's NOTD is Julep's Mackenzie. This month I'm working on wearing every green polish I own so I can decide which ones are my favorite.

8.10.13 NOTD

It has been a very long time since I posted but I am planning on getting back on track soon.

Today I wanted to share my NOTD since I am actively trying to use every polish I own. This look uses 3 coats of Julep Fiona and one coat of Julep Colbie, finished with a coat of Julep's Freedom Polymer Topcoat.

Enjoy!

St. Paddy's Day NOTD

For St. Patrick's Day I painted my nails with Julep Lucky. They released this for March mainly for the holiday.

Lucky is described as a kelly green and gold coin multi-dimensional, full coverage glitter.

I got great coverage with this glitter polish and it looks really great. When I first got the polish I thought it it was basically Julep Cindy with Vivian but after comparing them I realized they are different.

Enjoy!

Julep Mindy vs Jennifer

When I got my order with Jennifer I instantly thought it looked just like a color I got in my January Maven box. After pulling out Mindy I went ahead and swatched them, they both have some similarities but they are fairly different.

Top- Jennifer Bottom-Mindy

Both colors are suppose to be sheer but it was really hard for me to get a good application with either of these polishes. Mindy is less sheer than Jennifer and lighter in color. Both colors are pink and they can be made more opaque with more coats. 

Mindy- Porcelain pink sheer
Jennifer-Sheer soft pink crème

By the second coat Jennifer is still sheer enough to to see the nail line and it looked okay and probably didn't need a third. Mindy started getting opaque and I could barely see the nail line.

2 coats of each color

The third coat made Mindy completely opaque and Jennifer is almost opaque. After doing these swatches I realized I need to buy some nail wheels for my swatches so that the comparisons will be better.

3 coats of each color

Julep March Secret Store Haul

Revive and Moisturize Survival Set
Retail Value:  $78 on sale $16.99

Julep Facial for Hands Glycolic Hand Scrub (3 oz.): $32
Julep Glow On Age Defying Hand Brightener (3 oz.): $32
Bonus Gift: Kylie - It Girl: $14

Pamper Yourself Beauty Lover Set
Retail Value: $76 on Sale: $21.99

Bonus Gift - Julep Boho Glam Lengthening Mascara: $24
Julep Topcoat For Hair: $16
Poppy Lip Gloss: $18
Julep's Exclusive Make-up Bag: $18

Sofia

Sofia- $14






The first set that I got I already had both the hand scrub and the lotion but since I keep the lotion next to my computer I figured I should pick up an extra of both. The polish really is a bonus since I had wanted it ever since I became a Maven but I joined the month that it was released and it has been out of stock for almost an entire year.

Kylie

The second set that I picked up had two items that are on my wishlist, the makeup bag and the lip gloss. I mentioned in a previous post that I only had one more of Julep's lip glosses to get before I had the whole set. The makeup bag will be the perfect size for my trip to Paris this month, it even has a couple of slots to keep polishes in. The mascara is my go to mascara and this will be my third tube of it. The last item in the set is the Topcoat for hair which is something I haven't used before but it sounds interesting so I will give it a try.

Lip Gloss in Poppy

Boho Glam Mascara

Topcoat For Hair

Makeup Bag

Inside of make up bag

The last item I picked up wasn't apart of the secret store but since I had the free voucher for a nail polish I figured I should include it in this order. Sofia is a glitter top coat that glows in the dark. I already have a polish similar but it is all goopy and smells horrible, so if this turns out to be almost identical I plan on tossing out my old one for a Julep's 4-Free polish. Sofia was originally introduced last March then it was brought back for Halloween where it was revealed to glow in the dark.

In all I spent roughly $15 out of pocket because I used up what was left on my Julep Gift Card and the free voucher for Sofia. For $15 I managed to get a lot of products and add 2 new polishes to my collection which is great.

More Julep Polishes

Julep is constantly having promotions and I finally caved on one of them. The promo was for a free bottle of Jennifer with any purchase over $5. I took this as a chance to pick up a new polish that I had on my wishlist and I used my gift card so I didn't pay much at all for these two.

Jennifer

Sheer soft pink crème

Melissa

Sheer opalescent shimmer.





I was really hoping that Jennifer would be similar in color to the Oxygen nail treatment and they are close. Melissa is a beautiful opalescent polish that will be great by itself or on top of a creme color to completely change the look of a polish. 

lila Wolken NOTD

Using Julep's Helen, Charlotte, and Morgan I created a purple gradient inspired by one of my favorite songs that found over here in Germany.

lila Wolken translates as purple Clouds. I love this song and I always play it when I need a pick me up and I wanted to do something that was inspired by the song. 

This was a really simple nail to do I just have a huge issue with the clean up but I'll let you judge how well I cleaned it up.

Before clean up

After clean up and some editing

Julep Helen Swatches

Saturday my husband and I went out to dinner with his squad and I was torn between keeping the Julep Oxygen nail treatment on or switching to a color from the February box. I chose the second option and I finally chose Helen.

Helen is a wonderful smoky pastel lavender creme. It is subtle enough that it worked with almost every outfit I picked out for dinner. The color is a little girly but the smoky color makes it work for me.

I tried out the Freedom top coat and it loved that it dried so quickly since I was literally putting it on 10 minutes before I got bundled up and ran out the door.

Julep Neons Set

So a couple of weeks ago Julep was offering 50% off on their gift certificates, $25 for a $50 gift certificate or $50 for a $100 gift certificate. I went ahead and picked up a $50 one (paying only $25) and then I turned around and bought one of four sets that Julep had for $15.

The four sets were offering were apart of their SHEfinds giveaway/partnership. Each set had 3 colors in it and out of all four sets there was only one set that I didn't have a single polish in was the Neons set. It turns out that I should have just upgraded my January box because now I really want all the colors for my collection. I got lucky and this set has Fiona, Madison, and Nina. I still need to get two more of the neons form the January box which I will eventually buy but for now these will hold me over until now.

Fiona

Madison

Nina

Personally Fiona is by far my favorite out of this set because it is the definition of the favorite color ever. I plan on rocking Fiona on my nails all summer long...er...well as long as my husband can tolerate it or before I empty the bottle.

Julep Evangeline Swatches

This is Julep's mystery holo called Evangeline that they sent out in the Cupid mystery boxes.

So far this is the first holo that I have ever used and I was kind of disappointed that it doesn't have a bigger holographic effect.

I am sure that I might have gotten a better look at the holo effect if there happened to have been some sun out but I am in Germany and it isn't a very sunny place right now. Maybe I'll try taking more photos later in the year when the sun comes out of hiding. 

Overall I love the orange color and it actually dried quickly and it sort of resembles Julep's Minka.

Enjoy!

Julep's Cupid Mystery Boxes

I jumped at the chance to order a couple of the mystery boxes since they guaranteed that you either get a mystery holo or a coupon for a free polish. They also guaranteed at least 4 Valentines Day themed colors. I have so many polishes now I knew I would have some dupes with my current collection. So here is what I received:

Box #1

Box #2

In box one I got four polishes in Rose, Niecy, Molly and Lynn, one of Julep's lip glosses in Camellia and a voucher for a free polish of my choice.

Rose

Molly

Niecy

Lynn

Camellia

Box number two had Carrie, Maria, Lynn, Molly and Evangeline, another lip gloss in Camellia.

Carrie

Maria

Lynn

Molly

Evangeline

Camellia

 Between the two boxes I only received 3 new colors for my collection (Molly, Niecy and Evangeline) but the others will go into my dupe collection and they will be given away as presents later on. I am glad I got a lip gloss in Camellia so now I have 3 of the 4 lip gloss colors they released last summer, now I just have to get the last one. The extra gloss will also find another home in the future. Now the biggest question is what color to order with my free voucher?! Or I could just mention the value of both boxes, both boxes are valued at $88 each, each polish is worth $14 and each lip gloss is worth $18 making the grand total value of the both boxes $176. I paid $20 each for the boxes so I think it was worth it, even though I now have 3 Lynns, 2 Mollys, 2 Marias, 2 Roses (I did have 3 but one found a home already) I tend to think of it as stocking up on Birthday and Christmas presents so I don't have to spend a ton of money at once on everything.