Julep Maven Box Review

Alrighty, here's a fun little review that the girls will love. I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when a cute little ad about make-up caught my eye {probably mainly because it mentioned birthday girl in the wording}, so I checked into it and discovered Julep - an online make-up company that will send you a little box of goodies once a month {or more often if you're super into make-up}. You get $40 worth of make-up for a $25 monthly subscription, bu if you're like me and you want to try before you buy it, the first box is free. Just pay shipping, which for me was an easy $3.

Anyway, when the little purple box arrived, I got all excited and opened it up. Inside I found some paper explaining what the company is all about and a coupon {always love coupons} and of course, the actual make-up. There were four lovely items: three things of nail polish and a bottle of lip gloss. The nail polish is in slender square bottles that look very sleek and expensive. The first bottle of nail polish is Colton - a unique dark purple/black shade of nail polish made with green coffee extract {among other interesting and surprisingly healthy sounding ingredients}. The website says it dries very fast, has one coat coverage and allows more air to reach your nail beds while strengthening your nails. I haven't yet tried it myself {only just got it today} but I love the dark color. On the site it looks black but in the bottle it is clearly a lovely rich dark purple shade. I can't wait to try it out! It's a solid color too which is something I look for in nail polish.

The second slim bottle of polish is Mari Bombshell. This polish is magenta shade of pinky purple with a dash of sparkle. It doesn't overly shimmer and there aren't large flakes of glittery things floating around it in, making it an edgy sparkly polish while still remaining smooth and elegant. Definitely something I could see myself wearing and the color itself is beautiful. I'd love a slightly redder shade for Christmastime. Luckily, the website has a wide variety of nail polish to choose from so getting more will be easy.

The third bottle of nail polish is a very handy nail therapy solution that can double as a base-coat or just a clear stand alone polish that strengthens and hardens your nails. Essential vitamins and natural pistacia resin work together with five key extracts {aloe vera, lemon, ginseng, pomegranate and grape} to deeply nourish your nails and help reduce slitting, encouraging and helping your own natural nail growth. I have thin nails that are generally good nails but sometimes they d split in horizontal layers and that can be very annoying. I can't wait to apply some of this healing polish and track the improvements in my nails! It's also something I wouldn't have thought of to get myself and I'm so glad that whoever packed my box included it for me.

Now for the lip gloss! As a teenager I loved lip gloss; all the different sugary-sweet flavors it came in were a delight and once I got one that tinted my lips a faint pink {not that you could really tell with me but that was okay}. This is lip gloss for grown-ups. It's very classic and elegant with just a faint shimmer to remind you of starry nights and carefree youthful moments that sparkle in your mind and keep you going on the long coffee-fueled days. The color I was sent is Charming - an earthy dark rose shade with a thread of red woven delicately through it. This is the kind of lip gloss you can wear all day, to work, to school, to the supermarket and to those big special events while feeling comfortable and pretty the entire time you're wearing it. Opening the classy-looking bottle, the first thing I did was smell the lip gloss and surprisingly, it smells like chocolate. I made my sister confirm this. It goes on smoothly with a faint stickiness that comes with all lip gloss, but it doesn't taste like chocolate. I'm not sure if I'm relieved or disappointed about that. I will definitely be
using this a lot though.

I've explored the website while waiting for my order to arrive {coffee-deprived mommy brain thought it was two day shipping but instead it was standard; still it arrived very promptly and intact}. The website is laid out in a fairly easy to navigate way and had hundreds of items from skin care products to brushes, nail care tools, lip stick and eye shadow. I'm very keen to try some of the lipstick when I get the chance and several shades of nail polish have caught my eye. Every month you get a little window of time to look through that month's selection and customize your box. I like being able to do that, though I couldn't with my first box. Not that that bothered me too much. I'm not sure I'll be able to keep getting boxes of make-up every month but for those months when I want to treat myself or a friend, they're wonderful! New moms with babies who can't leave the house just yet would love something like this. I know I would've. If this sounds like something you'd like to do, please feel free to use my little code here and get $15!