Hello! Lovely to see you again :)
I have officially given up on trying to catch up with my reviews. It would've been nice to not have any gaps in my subscription box write ups, but worrying about being behind hasn't helped me one bit. Moving forward, as school has started up again last week I won't have as much time as I would like to for reviews, so I'm just going to take it one week at a time and see what kind of posts I can put up.
Today I have for you a review of the Julep Art Walk Collection for September 2014, which was a fantastic set of autumn colours that you can check out here.
After going back and forth on my selections I finally decided to go with the It Girl box, which I customized to include: Ryan, Mahima, and a Plush Pout Lip Crayon (feature product for September) in Magenta Plum. I also added on the Boho Glam box so that I could try the Almond Nude Plush Pout, Erin, and my favourite polish from the online swatches - Mary Lee.
Let's take a look at how everything worked out...
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Julep Subscription
Frequency: monthly
Subscription Plans:
My Maven: $40+ worth of polish & products for $24.99/month, or $19.99/month
with a three-month prepaid subscription.
Maven Luxe: get $60+ worth of polish & products for $39.99/month, or
$34.99/month with a three-month prepaid subscription.
Customization: boxes are fully customizable for Mavens who sign up after 4/29/14
Add-ons: available at checkout and with monthly Maven boxes
Products: at least two nail polishes and one beauty product
Promo Code: use code FREECITY to get your first box free! ($2.99 shipping fee applies)
Shipping Cost: FREE (7 - 10 days)
Thank you kindly if you decide to use my referral link when signing up.
Previous Maven reviews:
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With the second (or is it third now?) month of delayed shipping, I have now come to expect my Maven box to arrive at my doorstep between the 2nd and 3rd week of every month. As far as I know there has always been some sort of compensation in the form of Jules for the shipping delays.
EDIT: so it turns out that even though I received my Maven box a week later (on Sept 12) than I would've typically received it, it was clearly not enough of a delay for Julep to offer me any kind of compensation. I received my regular 350 Jules this month simply because that is how many Jules you get for taking a My Maven box (regular customizable subscription of $24.99/month). My mistake. I'm glad that Julep has the good sense to compensate my friend, who is still waiting for her box to come in even though it's already Sept 19th.
Moving onto more positive things - I really like the Art Walk Collection!
There was a quiz a few months ago which hinted that Julep might be creating some sort of lipstick product in the future. So we knew it was coming - we just didn't know when! With the September collection Julep unveiled their new Plush Pout Lip Crayons - available in 4 shades - which I think are pretty awesome. More about these below.
* Please note that all of the prices are in US dollars.*
I absolutely love how good these 4 colours look together. I honestly can't think of a better colour scheme to take me into the first month of autumn. Let's dissect these colours one-by-one:
Mahima is described as an "amber gold crème."
I fell in love with Mahima right away when I saw it in the bottle. I would describe the colour as an antique shade of liquid gold (move over Savoy!). There is unavoidable streaking with Mahima; however, I personally don't have any problem with this as I don't think it takes anything away from the colour itself.
Mary Lee is described as an "oxblood satin."
I don't know why, but I was under the impression that Mary Lee would a burgundy polish. I was definitely wrong and slightly disappointed. This polish has a dark fuschia base that can be seen with only one coat. With the second coat Mary Lee does get dark enough to pass off as burgundy (which I understand to be dark red) at certain angles, but ultimately there's no denying that the colour resembles this shade of maroon more so than it does this burgundy. Le sigh...my search for the perfect burgundy polish continues.
Erin is described as an "oyster grey crème."
This is a classic shade of grey - not too dark and not too light. This will be a good addition to my collection since I have nothing quite like it.
Ryan is described as an "overcast teal satin."
I really liked the swatches of Ryan online and, for the most part, this shade of teal is exactly what I expected it to be in person. However, I was surprised that this was the lightest of all the polishes with only one coat. You do need about 2-3 coats of Ryan to make it look like the swatch below (whereas the other polishes needed only two coats). Also, the formula is a bit watery...ish and it may be a bit fussy in leveling out. I'll have to try it out further.
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| Two coats of each polish were used for these swatches. |
I happen to notice that Mahima was the only polish that didn't have the little O2 symbol at the top:
The O2 symbol indicates that the polishes use Julep's "Oxygen Technology," which is basically a fast-drying formula that is supposed to allow 30% more oxygen to reach the nail bed. It is also supposed to help strengthen the nails and help your manicure last longer.
I'm not sure why Mahima is the only polish to not have the O2 symbol since its product description mentions that it has the same Oxygen Technology. It's probably just a mistake.
Edit: Julep got in touch with me a couple of days ago to see if I wouldn't mind putting up a link to their brand new polish page. If you would like to check out what other nail colours Julep offers (including ones with Oxygen Technology), you can do so here.
2 || Plush Pout Lip Crayon in Almond Nude & Magenta Plum
|| $20.00 (Non-Maven) / $16.00 (Maven) each
I'm a fan of lipsticks, so I was pretty excited to try these out. Although I knew that the safest pick out of the four available shades would've been Cardinal Red, I decided to go with Almond Nude because I'm always on the lookout for the perfect nude lip product, and I went with Magenta Plum simply to try something new.
In terms of their size, these lip crayons are fairly small, but not much more so than the typical lipsticks you would find elsewhere. The crayon is roughly the size & length of a Julep polish:
So this is where the really neat part comes in - each of the lip crayons have a white centre that functions as a moisturizing treatment. Not only does it look unique, but this is also great since I find that I often have to put a lip balm on before putting on a lipstick. Here, you've basically got a 2-in-1 (colour AND moisture).
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| (Artificial lighting) L - Almond Nude | R - Magenta Plum |
Almond Nude turned out to be more brown than I expected, but I think I can still work with it if I maybe put only one coat.
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| (Two swipes each) L - artificial lighting | R - natural lighting |
Magenta Plum is definitely a bold shade of plum. It's a good lipstick for fall, but you definitely have to be confident enough to wear it. I'm not sure if I'm confident enough, but I might try it out today for school.
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| (One swipe each) L - artificial lighting | R - natural lighting |
The clear strip that you see in the middle for the Magenta Plum swatch above is from the moisturizing centre. When you put this crayon on your lips you don't actually see such a clear separation - especially if you put more than one coat.
Bonus || Candy!
Candy is always a great bonus to have in a box. I like that Julep always provides an allergen warning card any time they include a treat.
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|| Total Value: $96.00 (non-Maven) | $76.80 (Maven) ||
There's not really much more I can say except for I really liked this box. I'm confident that I'll get to use all of the polishes well into the Fall and I'm definitely going to have to play around with those Plush Pouts Crayons. I have a pre-paid subscription, so I paid $19.99 for the It Girl box and another $19.99 to add on the Boho Glam box. All in all, I got way more in value than what I paid for for the products above.
Did you end up getting a box for the September collection? I'd love to hear about how it worked out for you!
If you would like to subscribe to Julep and wouldn't mind using my referral link, you can find it here. Thank you kindly in advance! Make sure to get your first box for free by using the code FREECITY.
Thank you for reading! -A.~
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