Julep Maven April 2013 Full Collection

I couldn’t decide this month which Maven box I wanted this month. I liked all the colors in my normal box but I had so many colors I wanted to add on that I decided to upgrade to the full collection. For the most part I like all the colors, the only down side is that I got another dry shampoo! So some lucky family member will be getting that.

So let’s get Into what is in the box.

This is the freebie that was put into the box this month. When I was younger my family would always vacation in the mountains and where ever we went they had rock candy, so this brings back memories.

I’m really interested in the Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum. This is suppose to help dry, peeling nails, which I have. You apply it twice a day for two weeks and then once a day after that. I’ll let you know how it works or if I notice any change after the 2 weeks.

This is Julep’s new dry shampoo. This is suppose to be invisible and you won’t have to worry about dull hair.

So now the good stuff, all the polishes! This month’s theme is “Turn on the Brights” and these are bright polishes.

The picture on the left is a swatch inside and the picture on the right is in sunlight. Well, almost sunlight as it’s very cloudy today. The swatches on the nail wheel are all two coats except for candy, which is three coats. You can tell the true neon colors by the fact that they are matte. All went on pretty smoothly except for Eden, which was really thick. I might have to put in some polish thinner to see if that helps. The only other problem I had was with Ally, which had a strong off smell different for normal polish.

This is a picture showing Eden (left), Candy (middle), and two coats of Eden with two coats of Candy on top (right).

So that is what was in my box. My favorite polishes are Lena and Abbie. Can’t wait to see what next month brings!

Holiday Nails: Easter edition

I love to do nail looks for the holidays. Probably because it is the only holiday decorating that I do. So here is my nail look for Easter. The inspiration was first from cutepolish’s Easter nail video. You can look at the video by clicking on this link Cutepolish Easter nails. Then I was seeing all these cute nail art looks with bunnies on Pinterest so I knew I had to add bunnies to the looks.

These are the polishes that I used and you get to see what I put on my thumb.

This set is the Julep polishes that I used. These were used as the base coat for all the fingers, except the pinky. In order from left to right the colors are Ava, Simone, Blake, and Shenae.

This set is the Essie and Zoya polishes I used. From left to right I used Zoya Purity and Arizona and Essie Turquoise & Caicos. I have no idea what the Sephora by OPI color is called but I used it on my pinky as the base coat.

This set is the stripper polishes that I used but none of them have names. I also used a green one but I couldn’t find it when I went to take the picture of the bottles.

There was a causality to the look. When I went to put Blake back in the box it crack open and polish started oozing out. Sad day as it was my first Julep add-on in my first Maven box. The picture below is the aftermath.

So that is my Easter look. I hope you liked it!

Nail Look of the Day

My job is very hard on my hands so I rarely have my nails look good for very long. So I thought I would share a nail look with you when I have a nail look before it chips.

This one is two coats of Julep Teri, probably could have used just one coat but I put two just to make sure everything is covered. I then put on one coat of Julep Camilla. If you notice in the picture Teri dries much darker than the color in the bottle. Not a fan of the color it ends up being. Oh well. I am loving Camilla! It looks like it would compliment any polish color and can see myself putting this on a lot. So this is my nail look right now. Enjoy!

First Impression: BeautyBox 5 March 2013

If things look a little weird it is because my computer is broken. 😦 When I went to use it this morning the computer said it needed to restart and then nothing happened. Wish I was a little more computer literate. Until I figure out what’s wrong I’ll be using my iPad, not ideal but I guess better than nothing.

This is my first month with Beautybox 5 (note this is my referral link if you want to help me out 😉 ) This is a service similar to Ipsy and Birchbox, for $12 a month or $100 yearly, you get a box of 5 different samples to try out. So let me show what I got and what I thought.

The first thing in the box is the La Fresh nail polish remover wipes. These work great for the first hand but by the time I got the second hand the wipe was dried out. So I either had to open the other pouch or use another nail polish remover. I went with my Zoya nail polish remover but I have to say that the hand that I used the La Fresh wipes on my nail felt less dry. Saying that, I wouldn’t buy these, at $3.99 for 6 wipes and 1 wipe only works on 1 hand that would get pretty expensive.

The next item in the box is the Brazen Cosmetics eyeshadow in Type A. This is probably my favorite thing in the box. This is a pretty reddish brown mineral eyeshadow that blends easily and makes a great crease color. This retails for $7.49 for .18 oz.

In the eye look above I used the bareMinerals READY 8.0 palette The September Issue. I used the color statement, from the palette, on my lid and then used the Brazen cosmetic eyeshadow Type A in the crease.

The next item is the Tree Hut moisturizing lotion in the scent Tropical Mango. This is an okay moisturizer. It absorbs very quickly. I put this on and then immediately put on my clothes. The scent is okay, if you like mango scented things this would be up your alley. This retails for $6.49 for 9 oz.

The next thing in the box is the H2O Plus Spa Sea Salt body wash. This was okay, nothing special. I prefer my Bath and Bodyworks and Philosophy body wash to this one. The smell is okay, kind of like minty lemons or generic hotel shower gel. Not a bad product just one that doesn’t thrill me enough to buy it. This retails for $17 for 12.5 oz.

The last item in the box is another H2O Plus item. This is the Eye Lift Concentrate. The card says that this product is “bottled sleep” and lifts, firms, lightens, and repairs. I’ve only used it a few times but I haven’t noticed any of those things. It could be that this is a product that needs to be used for awhile before you can notice a difference but in the week I’ve been using it I haven’t notice one. This product retails for $38 for .5 oz.

Well, that is what is in my first beautybox 5 box. Not overly impressed but we’ll see what the coming months bring.

Julep Spring Mystery Box

 

So as you can see from the picture above I lucked out and got an amazing box!  I was very surprised when I opened my box and saw everything that was in the box.  

The first item in the box is the Julep.com emery board.  Nothing fancy, just your standard emery board.

The next thing in the box is the Pink Grapefruit Body Frosting.  I already have this but I’m okay with that because I love the one I have.  This smells so good!  I also feel that it moisturizes really well.  It doesn’t absorbs that quickly but that is about the only downside to the product. 

This is what the product looks like.

The next thing in the box was the Age Defying Hand Brightener.  Haven’t used it yet so I have no opinion.  I have so many open hand lotions open right now I don’t need to have another open.

The next thing is the American Beauty Volumizing mascara.  I had tried the Boho Glam Lengthening mascara.  I hated this mascara.  It was so dry and did nothing for my lashes and threw it away after one use.  Haven’t tried this one yet but I don’t have high hopes.

The next thing is the random goodies that was in every box.

 

Last but not least is all the polishes I got!  I got 10!!!  Crazy!  I did get 4 dupes but I can’t complain about 6 new polishes.  

The first 4 polishes are the ones that are dupes.  

I got this one in the February It Girl Maven box.

I got this one in the Cupid mystery box.

I also got this one in the Cupid mystery box.

This is the mystery glitter that everyone got in their mystery box.

This is much darker than in real life. This is more of grey purple.

This is another picture of Melissa to show the green duo chrome in the polish.

So that is what I got in my box.  Makes me ready for the next mystery box, even though I know I probably won’t ever get a box this good for a while.

 

 

 

First Impressions: Ipsy March 2013

Here what I got in my March Ipsy bag.  It was an interesting mix this month so let see what I got.

The bag

The bag is really cute this month!  I guess it doesn’t speak well for the contents but this was my favorite part of what I got.  

GlamRX Mini Freestyle Palette

Showing the magnetic case.

This is the GlamRX case.  This is a magnetic case, sort of like the Z-palette.  It is a little bigger than a credit card so it is perfect size to put in your purse.  I put in the shadows from the Coastal Scents quad I got in Ipsy bag a few month ago.  That was a mistake because two of the shadows wouldn’t come out and I mangled them pretty badly.  And after all of that they are not even magnetic!  I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to put in this.

Yaby eyeshadow in So Vein

This is a matte forest green eye shadow.  This has decent payoff.  I’m not a huge fan of matte eye shadows, the more glitter the better I say, so this doesn’t thrill me.  I do find the color interesting and I like that it is a green that doesn’t grey out when blended.  

Yaby eyeshadow in Sand Dune

Yes, I did swatch this color on my hand.  Look again.  So yeah, this is the same color as my skin!  Maybe they should have this in foundation size for me.  😉  Anyway this is a good blending color to soften harsh lines but that is about it.  I don’t think I could wear this as a lid color as it would show up and I would be afraid to use it as a base color as it might muddy  any color I put over it.  Maybe I should use it as a concealer.  Hmm….

 

Here is a look I did for St. Patrick’s Day using the two shadows in this bag.  Ignore the fact that it looks like I put my eye shadows on with my feet.  Anyway I used So Vein on my lid and used Sand Dune to blend out the color in my crease.  The liner is the gel liner from MICABeauty I got in last month’s bag and the mascara is Revlon Grow Luscious Plumping mascara in blackest black waterproof.  Side note this is my holy grail mascara!  I went to a parade yesterday and was outside for about 3 hours and I have to say these shadows didn’t hold up that well.  The color was worn away in some spot.  I’m sure it would have held up fine if I was inside all day but this is too bright for me to wear this at work.  

 

La Fresh Travel Lite Makeup Remover

These are like your standard makeup remover wipe, I didn’t think there was anything special about these.  They smell a little like baby whips but I do like how soft they are.  I think it did an okay job taking off my foundation but was pretty bad when it came to taking off my eye makeup.  I should say that I’m not a huge fan of makeup wipes as I feel like it is a another product, another step, and needless waste to add to the trash.  

Juice Beauty Hydrating Mist

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this product when I first open my bag.  I didn’t know if this was something to spray on when your skin is feeling dry throughout the day or just a fancy toner.  Well, when I went on the Juice Beauty’s website this product is listed as a toner so that is how I use it.  This reminded of Lush toners.  I don’t feel this does anything special, I don’t feel that my skin is any more hydrated with it than without it.  Not crazy about the smell as I don’t like rose scented things.  

Overall not that impressed with this bag this month.  The products are good just these are not products that I would use in my daily life.  Oh well, until next month.

 

Birchbox March 2013

The first item in my box was 3 foil packs of Caldrea Body Lotion in three different scents,  Aloe Water Apricot, Tea Olive Lime, Coconut Fig Leaf. I tried the Tea Olive Lime one first because I like citrus scents.  As soon as I opened up the pouch I got the immediate perfume headache.  This was so strongly perfumed and doesn’t smell at all like citrus!  So this would not be a lotion to wear under the perfume you would want to wear for the day.  Even though I did have a bad headache from the lotion I did try out.  This is a light weight lotion that sank in quickly.  Not a lotion I would use for really dry skin.

Caldera Body Lotion
Full size, 8 oz for $22

The next item in the box was a Dual-Phase Eye Makeup Remover from MAKE.  This is like your typical eye makeup remover with the separate layers that have to be shaken before using.  I have used this almost every night since I got it and it does work well.  It takes off my water proof mascara and eye shadows without a problem.  I also like that it doesn’t leave my eyelids super greasy feeling like some of the other eye makeup removers like this.  I would say this is my favorite thing from the box.

MAKE Dual-Phase Eye Makeup Remover
Full size, $4oz for $18

This shows the two layers in the bottle.

The next item in the box was also an item from MAKE, a Silk Cream lipstick in Sandstone.  This is a matte lipstick that is really moisturizing!  I liked how this felt on my lips as it felt more moisturizing than my favorite Revlon lip butters.  I’m not too crazy about the color as there is a hint of rusty orange in it and I don’t like that color with my skin tone. Saying that I would be willing to try other colors.  

MAKE Silk Cream lipstick in Sandstone
Full size, $18 (I couldn’t find the ounces of this product.)

The next item is Serge Normant Meta Revive Dry Shampoo.  Having curly hair this is not a product I can use as I wouldn’t be able to brush in the product. Don’t think it would be a good look for me to have white powdery hair so I gave this to my mom.  So I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a review but it does smell nice. 🙂

Serge Normant Meta Revive Dry Shampoo
Full size, 4.5 oz for $25
The size I received in the box is the travel size which retails for $15.

The last thing I got was the beauty extra which is an emery board from Madewell for Birchbox.  This is medium grain emery board and has a cute pattern on the other side.

Madewell for Birchbox emery board
Full size, $5

The cute pattern on the other side.

Over all I did liked this box and can’t wait for next month’s!

If interested in Birchbox and want to help me out my referral code is https://www.birchbox.com?raf=hw6v6
 

March 2013 Julep Maven box

I got my usual profile this month of It Girl.  I also got the two products featured in the new Modern Beauty profile as my add-ons.  I guess I could have switched profiles for the month but I would have missed my polishes too much!  Over all I really like this month’s collection, probably my favorite since I joined in January.  I actually debated getting the whole collection but I decided not as there was a polish or two I didn’t think I would ever wear.  So let’s get into what I got this month.  

One of the ideas I read on Julep’s facebook page is to use a matte top coat to make the polishes look like chalk for a different look. So the swatches I did has one side without any top coat and the other side with a matte top coat. The top coat I used is from Essie.  I’ve had it for awhile and so I’m not sure if it is still made.

 

The first polish is Teri.  This is a pretty peach/coral creme color and perfect for spring.  When I painted the swatch it only needed one coat to be opaque!  It will probably need two coats on the nail but I was still impressed.

The next color is Simone.  This is a lavender color with a slight blue/pink shimmer to it.  Really pretty.

 

The last color in my box is Shenae.  This is a mint green with a slight blue/sliver shimmer to it.  Mint is one my favorite colors so this will probably be the first color I wear.

This picture is closer to what Shenae looks like in real life than the top picture, but the top one shows the shimmer better.

This is a swatch of all three colors together that shows the contrast with the matte top coat a little better.

I also got a lip balm in my box which I really like.  It doesn’t add any color to your lips but this is super moisturizing!  Really glad Julep put this in the box.  This smells like strawberry milkshake.  Don’t pick up any mint scent at all, which is fine by me.

Now on to the add-ons.  

The first one is the Glycolic Hand Scrub.  I haven’t tried this out yet because I somehow managed to get a bunch of cuts on my hands this week so I’m a little afraid to use a hand scrub just yet.  

The next product is Julep’s newest hand lotion, Rock Star Hand Creme.  This has a really cool twist open.  This hand creme claims to be long lasting and will keep your hands moisturized even after washing them.  I do agree with this statement as when I used this I did feel my hands stayed moisturized longer. This absorbs pretty quickly, just don’t film a video for YouTube and try to open the bottle! 😛  The only thing I don’t like about the product is the smell, very floral and perfumey!  Luckily it doesn’t linger for too long so I’ll be able to put up with it.

 

This is the bottom of the Rock Star Hand Creme.

So that is what I got in my box this month and I love all the polishes and can’t wait to use them!