Julep Maven Review: It Girl Sneak Peek Box

Hi everyone! I'm back to follow up on my post earlier this month about the Julep Nail program.  I, being a beauty - and sample - lover, have signed up for Birchbox, new beauty test tubes, and the latest to my addition is the Julep Maven program.  Julep is a boutique nail salon with several locations in Washington.  To sign up for the Maven program, you take a quick style quiz on their site to determine the best sneak peek box to receive.  They send these boxes to various magazine editors, and now we get to sample their products as well! It's a monthly subscription and the great thing is that if you do not want to receive the package, you can put your subscription on hold, do a shelf pull to get another box if you don't like what they selected, or you can actually send your package to a friend to share the wealth.  It's nice to have so many options with the membership.  Oh, and I almost forgot the price. Membership is $19.99 a month and you will receive at least $40 dollars worth of product. 


You can check it out here: http://www.julep.com/AP.aspx?ID=XX&EID=14665637
And once you become a Maven, you also receive a link and get 15$ credits for friends that sign up.


Onto the products!  The box was sleek and black with the Julep logo. Once you open the box they package your items in a nice bag with a bow.

My bag came with the following (Retail value is $76):
New, not released Fall color in Emilie ($14)
Sienna, in consideration for October Vogue ($14)
Nail Therapy with Vitamin E ($16)
Facial for hands Glycolic Hand Scrub ($32)


Not too shabby, and I got two samples as well.

First up is Emilie, a green cream color. Just as a note, their polishes are 3-free, which is pretty much standard in industry these days.  It's a nice, slightly dusty green. For reference, I put OPI Jade is the New Black on my index finger. You can see Emilie is slightly darker, less green, more of a dustiness to it.  It applied nicely with two coats and dried fairly quick, formula is nice and not thick. The bottles are long and thin,  which is different for a polish.

Next up is Sienna, a gold color. I typically do not wear golds but I found this one to be really nice.  Also applied smoothly with two coats and seems to dry pretty quickly.  Formula is nice and thin but still not watery.  I also used a comparison color on my index finger, Revlon Gold Coin.  The texture is different between the two. Julep is smoother and more light gold, versus Revlon which has a chunkier texture and slightly darker. Both are actually really nice shades. I took two different photos so you can see the difference.  With the flash it's harder to tell.  In the second photo you can see how nice and smooth the Julep formula is. Since I don't own many golds not sure what else this is close to.

I did not use the nail treatment yet, but seems like it would be nice to be used alone to strengthen. It says on the site it can also be used as a base coat to help hydrate and protect dry and brittle nails.


Last up is the Facial for hands. I was really looking forward to this product.  Since I prefer to do manicures at home versus at a salon, I like to really pamper my hands before I apply polish. It has glycolic acid and apricot seed powder, which are great but gentle exfoliators.  It also has an emollient texture, slightly oil/silicone feel but does not leave any residue.  It also has a faint orange scent.   It says to use a dime size, and it is a full size 3 fl oz tube, so this will last a while. They say it is gentle for daily use, but I would probably stick to twice a week.  It made my hands instantly softer, but was not greasy and did not leave any residue.  I attached the ingredients as a reference.  Has a lot of extracts, and the glycolic acid is high on the list so they did not skimp. 


They also do not use parabens, sulfates or phthalates in their products.  I personally am all for parabens, but it is good for those that do not like them.

Overall, I was impressed with my first box. It was a great value for the money.  The polishes are great quality, not watery and applied nicely and with two coats. The only downside is the cost, $14 for .27 ounces, whereas OPI is $8 for .5 ounces. It ends up being more expensive than Chanel for retail value of the polish.  But since you get the package for a fraction of the cost, it ends up being more reasonable.  Plus, you also get the treatment and hand care which typically is higher in cost. It's also nice that you get to share or suspend packages for a month. Gives you a lot of leverage and you can really customize how you want to receive your order.


Oh and a nice plus about the brand, they donate $1 from every polish they sell to organizations thats support women through their Powered by Girlfriends program.  It's always nice to know that buying something for ourselves also provides support for others. Score!


Looking forward to the next box, will keep you posted!  If anyone else has subscribed, I would love to hear your feedback as well.


And please don't forget to Subscribe!  Once I get some more followers I plan on doing a giveaway...maybe even a Julep polish!! 


~lola