NOTD: Julep's Florence

After I got my most recent Julep box in the mail, I wasn't entirely in love with the color Florence. Honestly, I got the box for the dark purple color, Padma, and to try the Bare Face Cleansing Oil.

But I decided that the next time I painted my nails I would use Florence, in an attempt to fall in love with it. It just seemed sort of bland, but now that I'm wearing it, I really like it. It's very much a great neutral.

It's a very light, tan, creamy color. It has a creme finish. It reminds me of coffee once you've added cream. I drink enough coffee that anything that reminds me of my beloved beverage is something that I really enjoy. It doesn't really look coffee colored in the bottle, but it's definitely the color of coffee on my nails.

See, that looks more like coffee.

I'm so glad that I forced myself to try this nail polish. At first, I didn't really see how it fit into a fall nail polish collection, but after wearing it, I totally understand now. Florence really is a great neutral, one that I will wear again and again.

Julep: Classic with a Twist August Review

Quick overview of Julep: it's a monthly subscription nail polish and beauty item box. It's $20, you can pay $35 extra to upgrade to the full collection. There are a couple of different box options (you can choose to receive only the beauty items, 3 polishes, or 2 polishes and a beauty item. There are 3 different nail polish combinations if you choose the 2 polish/1 beauty item box). I'm a Classic with a Twist, but sometimes I go out of my comfort zone and choose another box. That's another great thing about Julep: you can choose to skip your box or choose one of the boxes that fits with one of the different style profiles. I love that you aren't pinned down to one style profile.

It has been months since I've actually purchased one of the Julep monthly boxes. I had a couple of bad experiences (I'm looking at you, DD Creme), and the polishes just weren't speaking to me, and the beauty products didn't just look so-so, they looked flat out unappealing. But this month, with the beginning of fall looming so close, I decided to get my box. I also wasn't entirely disgusted with the cleansing oil concept. I've been intrigued by cleansing oils for a while; I just didn't understand how they worked. But now that I've tried this one, I might get into this trend a little bit more.

As always, the packaging was very pretty. And it looks like fall!! 

Here are the products before their unveiling. This month's little gift was a polish removing pad. I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard they work very well. If you look at the nail polish (the small, short box on the left) and you're familiar with Julep, you'll notice that their packaging is different than in previous months. They just changed it. When they initially announced the change, I thought the packaging looked tacky. But I reserved final judgement until now, and I'm glad that I did. I really love the new packaging. It's sleep and just looks sort of luxurious. 

My favorite part is that the polishes are also individually packaged, as well as being in one larger package. And if you turn one of the packages clockwise, they read, "Julep Color Treat." It's adorable.

Padma looks blackish in the bottle, but in reality it's a very deep, slightly metallic purple. It's beautiful. I'm a little bit less crazy about Florence. Florence is sort of your average nude cream color. 

I think the next time I paint my nails, I'll paint them with Florence. I want to give myself a chance to fall in love with it.

Then there's the cleansing oil. Like I said, I had never used a cleansing oil before this one. I thought the idea of removing my makeup with an oil was just plain weird. I think this product may have legitimately changed my mind. 

The oil is yellowish, it's pretty runny, as you can see. It's got this delicious citrus smell. I was sort of tempted to eat it, but rest assured, I didn't. It took me quite a few pumps to feel like I was using enough. I used four pumps of the products (and I wasn't wearing any serious makeup-no smokey eye or anything going on). Maybe I was using too much, I'm not used to cleansing oils. Regardless, it worked well, I enjoyed using it, and it didn't sting my eyes. 

You can sort of tell that I look pretty oily in this photo. I was worried that the cleansing oil wouldn't all rinse off. It would be silly to use a cleansing oil then have to use a cleanser to remove the oily feeling. But it all came right off!

Overall, I loved the cleansing oil and I liked the box. I'd definitely recommend Julep to someone who loves nail polish and wants to try beauty products (but who has a keen understanding that Julep beauty products are pretty hit or miss). 

NOTD: Julep's Claudette

It's finally September!!! I took the first day in September to be the appropriate time to start wearing fall nail colors. I've been waiting for this day for months. There's something about deep, rich, dark colors that I just can't get over. I'm unbelievably sick of pastels and even of bright nail colors.

So yesterday, I painted my first fall nail: Julep's Claudette.

Claudette is this beautiful deep red color, but it almost feels like it has a little bit of a burnt brown going on. Basically, ever since I received this color in like March in my first Julep Maven box, I've been waiting to try it. And I'm in love. I also love the consistency of Julep polishes: they always apply evenly, but the polish is also thick and opaque. And except for the occasional struggle: I'm looking at you, Julep Peyton, their polishes are consistently in my good graces. 

In the background, you can see a new base coat I'm trying out: Essie's Protein Base Coat. My nails have been looking a little raggedy lately when I take a polish off, so I'm trying to strengthen them up. I'll do a review of this base coat once I've been using it long enough that I should logically be able to see a difference. 

This Nail Polish will be the DEATH of Me.

I'm a Julep Maven. For those of you that don't know about the Julep Maven program, basically I pay $20 a month and receive either two nail polishes and one bath/body product or three nail polishes. It's a subscription, and you're able to skip months. I've skipped the last two because the colors didn't really stand out to me, but a few months ago, when I was regularly getting these boxes, something awful happened.

This color entered my life. It looks innocuous enough, right? It certainly doesn't look like it will wreak havoc, but wreak havoc it did.

Payton is this gorgeous grass green. It was so bright and summery, I couldn't resist using it immediately. And so I did.

Forgive the chips. By the time I took a photo of this
color, it had been at least 2-3 days.

It applied great, like nearly all Julep nail polishes. As a rule, they tend to apply evenly, reaching near-opacity with just one coat. I'm not the sort of person to skip a second coat, but sometimes I can with a Julep polish--they're that good. Additionally, I've found that they defy chips in a way that Essie just doesn't.

Then I took this nail polish off. AND MY NAILS WERE YELLOW. Like, awful yellow.

And it isn't like I skipped a base coat. I take my base/top coats very seriously. I spend the money on Essie base coats, and recently I've gotten into Butter London's Flawless Base Coat.

Now, I can understand when a deep red/plum turns my nails a little yellow. There's just something about reds that do it, and I accept them for what they are. But a green? I've never in my life had a green turn my nails yellow.

This happened to me just about two months ago, and my nails still haven't outgrown this nightmare. When it first happened, pictures didn't do the color justice. Because the entirety of my nails were yellow, there was no normal nail to contrast it with.

But now, you can see what Julep Payton did to my nails. They are the colors of the sunset at this point. It's frightenly unattractive. Thus, ever since the nail massacre of June 2013, my nails have been painted 100% of the time, with no sign of the end near.

While I would wholeheartedly recommend an array of Julep polishes, this one is not one of them. If I'm ever brave enough to use it again, it'll definitely be just as an accent on top of a color I've already painted (ex: the leaves on a flower). If you find yourself tempted to purchase this color, don't do it. Take the sunsets on my nails as a cautionary tale.

My Nails Today: Polkadots

Partly because I love having painted nails and partly because of a freak accident (I painted my nails green a couple of weeks ago and it left my nails hardcore stained yellow), I've been painting my nails with significant frequency.

Here's my manicure right now, inspired by a similar one my sister sent me a picture of today.

I always use my go-to base coat: Essie's First Base Base Coat. Then there are two coats of Essie's Big Spender (a polish I got from my sister in a trade).

Another polish I got in that trade was this white Julep color, Eileen. It's from the Trina Turk Fall 2012 Collection. 

I finished off this particular manicure with Sephora by OPI Matte Top Coat. I got it on sale for $4.50 because Sephora and OPI are ending their love affair. Seriously, go check out the sale and see what's left! 

I don't usually like matte nail polishes, to me they sort of look like your nails got really scuffed up after you painted them and you didn't bother to fix it with a shiny top coat. But with the pattern of the polkadots, I love the matte look!

I've been sporting this manicure for two days now, and I don't have a single chip! I've also gotten a bunch of compliments on it, mostly from men (interestingly enough)!