Julep December 2014 Unboxing

This is my second Maven box I have gotten, though I did not show you the first one because it was an absolute fiasco. If I have an experience with a company's customer service, I will always try to make a point and tell you because, particularly with a subscription box company, customer service is a serious part of one's opinion on the company.

The Company, the product, my customer service experience:

Julep is a high quality polish (and beauty) company. All of their products are vegan and 5-free (the link opens in another window and will tell you what 5-free means because I didn't know at first either), as well as allows more oxygen to pass through your nails, has strengthening ingredients, all of those good things. However, it's healthy ingredients weren't what actually drew me to their polishes, instead it was the vast array of gorgeous colors, impressively fast drying formula, and strong finish. 

The average polish costs 14$, but with Maven pricing it comes down to $11.50, and on sale or in sets it is a solidly Mid-range polish price. Mavens get special access to a Secret Store at certain times of the month, and get special coupons, it's actually a pretty sweet deal if you like the polish, a lot more than other subscription services offer you. 

The box is 25$ a month, cheaper if you buy more months, as always. They promise, I think, at least 40$ of beauty products in each box. You take a quiz and it comes up with the polish/beauty product sets they think you will like the most. HOWEVER, this is the cool part, during the end of the month they will reveal what is in your box and allow you to swap out your individual products for ones of your choice (up to two polishes and one beauty product, three polishes, or two beauty products), as well as add on up to 6 products for discounted pricing and of course free shipping. 

Now, my first box contained Roc Solid instead of the color Dana, and was completely missing my cleansing oil add-on. I emailed customer service, it took them a little longer than I would have liked to get back to me, but nothing outrageous. They said there was a problem with the polish I had selected (though it was available on their website later on when I was shopping for polishes), and they gave me enough rewards points to get another polish in my next box. You can only redeem your Jules on boxes, which kind of sucks because you then have to get another box. Also, in order to cancel your subscription you have to call, BUT they do allow you to skip the month, so that is nice. 

Actual Unboxing

This month's box looked roughly like this when I opened it. I did however take down the card that names the collection/theme of the month because It was hard to see through the glare. Julep has a tendency to use pretty large boxes and then fill them with a TON of the crinkled paper. It is very pretty, but also very wasteful. Other brands, like Fortune Cookie Soap and Treatsie also use the paper crinkles, but they are much less wasteful about it. 

 This is the Countdown collection, I assume as in countdown to the holidays. A lot of the polishes are either very bright, metallic, or glittery this month, which fits well with the season.





The first thing I got in my box was this shader brush. I had to choose between showing you the whole brush or just the bristles, and I thought the bristles would be more informative.





This is a very high quality brush, the handle feels sturdy and heavy, the bristles are soft, secure, and well-shaped, they label the brush's intended purpose for those days when I wake up and forget what all my brushes do, it is lovely.



Then, I got this mattifying eye primer, as I have been very happy with all of Julep's products and have been testing out quite a few eye primers as of late.






Now, for the add-ons

I got a mystery polish (because as much as I love customizing my box, I still want to be surprised). This color is Sylvia, which looks like a cream finish purple. This will get used at some point, probably for rainbow nails.

Then, I got the polish Nell because it was cheaper to do the two beauty products in the box and then purchase the polishes at a discount than the other way round. This is a textured glitter finish, containing mainly blush and silver colored microglitter. I love it, though I will probably finish it with my freedom polymer top coat because I can't stand rough texture on my nails, and the glitter polishes tend to be a little more fragile than their cream finishes.

I got their plie wand a while back, and while I don't think it helps me out all that much (it is designed for people who don't choke down on their brushes, as I always have with every brush and pencil I have ever owned), it is nice to have the alternate tools.

Bonus, when you add three or more add-ons, you get an added bonus gift. I ended up getting their Blank Canvas Mattifying Lip Primer. I never would have bought this on my own as I have only tried two previous lip primers and never saw the point, but after some testing I kind of like this one. Maybe there is hope for me after all.



This is what it looks like out of the tube. On the back there is a little push button that you use to expel the product, but I pushed the button WAY too many times, and it sort of oozed out a lot.

This primer is not overly opaque, but it does have some color to it. It also has a plumping function, which felt awful on my lips, but it went away a few minutes. I went ahead and used my Looking Glass Wonder Paint over it with the Elf Lip Lock lip liner.

Bare Lips with Looking Glass

With primer and Looking Glass