Julep Mystery Box May 2015

Hello everyone! In April I finally decided to get my first Julep Mystery box, and I was very pleased with it's contents and decided to get the following months box. For today's post I will be showing all of you May's box and all the cool stuff inside.

 

The Julep Mystery box

Just like April's box, everything came in a black box, but this month's was a little bit bigger. This box is not part their monthly subscription service, and if you want the mystery boxes each month you have to order them one by one, as they will not be automatically sent to you. 

Julep is a monthly nail polish and beauty subscription box that is sent to your home. The regular subscription boxes (The Julep Maven) for your first month comes with four items: two polishes and two beauty products. I believe after that you get two polishes and a beauty item. The monthly subscription is $24.99 a month or a month free (just pay for shipping) and then three months for $19.99. 

Let's see what's inside May's mystery box!

Inside the May Julep Mystery box.

Brika Clutch

First we will start off with the Brika vegan leather pouch/ clutch. This clutch was made by the artist Avril Loreti from Brika specially for Julep, which was included in every mystery box.  This clutch measures at 9x11 and is great for holding your IPad, or other similar sized tablets. It also has a small zipper pocket on the inside that you can put your charging cord in.

 Julep Lip Gloss with power cell complex

This box also came with two makeup products. I am not a makeup girl, so I feel that I can't give a fair review on these products, but I will tell you what I think of this as a first impression.

The first item is the Julep Lip Gloss with power cell complex in the shade Vivid. On the website it is described as a burgundy shimmer. This is a nice gloss as it is not too sticky, and a nice, natural color which I like. I am unsure if I would wear this very much, maybe every so often.

The retail price of this lip gloss is $20.00.  

Length Matters wow- impact Mascara

The second makeup item is the Length Matter Mascara. This is described as a mascara that gives your lashes length with a lightweight formula that separates, defines, and curls your lashes. As for my first impressions, as a person that does not wear mascara, I didn't like it. It made my lashes feel weird and clumpy and looked like spider legs, but this could be just user error on my part.

The retail price of this mascara is $24.00.

Now for the fun part, the nail polishes!

       Julep Polishes from left to right Brandis, Lilou, Marcella, Chatoya, and Shayla.

Brandis is a turquoise or green creme polish. This polish was almost opaque in one coat, but to make sure the nail was fully covered I applied a second coat. 

Lilou is a yellow lemon chiffon creme polish. This polish was streaky and a little hard to work with, it took three coats to be fully opaque.

Marcella is a pink creme polish. This was another polish that went on well and was almost opaque in one coat, but once again I applied a second coat. This was one of the polishes that they did say was in the mystery box.

Chatoya is a silver platinum glitter topper. This polish I wore over Marcella, this gave a nice sparkle to the pink polish. Although before I applied my usual top coat, this glitter seemed a little dull.

Shayla is a purple full coverage micro- glitter. This was a full coverage polish, it did take three coats to be opaque. I also tried this as a glitter topper over Hazel (a purple polish). This was also a nice polish, once again before applying a top coat this glitter seem a little dull. This was the other polish that they told you would be in the mystery box.

The retail price for each polish is $14.00.

Brandis and Lilou on the nails

I wore Brandis and Lilou last week and it wore very well, little to no chipping through out the week. 

Thumb and middle finger nail- Shayla the purple glitter used as a topper over Hazel, 

Index and pink finger nail- Chatoya silver glitter over Marcella, 

Ring finger nail- three coats Shayla the purple glitter. 

These are the colors I wore this week. They also wore just as well with little to no chipping. 

Once again I really liked the Julep Mystery box. The polishes where nice, but what actually drew me into getting this box was the Brika Clutch. I liked the bight colors and that it would be a nice option to put my IPad mini and the power cord together. As for the makeup, that was the only thing I did not care for. When it comes to April and May's Mystery box, I liked April's box a little more due to it having nail products only.

   

May's Mystery box cost $29.99 with free shipping. On Julep's website it says the retail value of this box is $150.

If you missed my review of April's Mystery box, don't forget to check it out too. 

Review of the Julep April Mystery Box


Hope all of you enjoyed this review of the Julep May Mystery box!

See you next time for my next design tutorial!  

Julep Mystery Box April 2015

Hello Everyone! For today's post I have something a little bit different. After a few months of looking around for a nail polish subscription box and looking up reviews of the boxes, and generally just deciding do I really need or want this (that's just how I am with everything!) I finally decided to give Julep a try, not the full subscription, but the monthly mystery box just for a single month

Here is what the Julep Mystery boxes look like.

As stated above, Julep is a monthly nail polish and beauty subscription box that is sent to your home. The regular subscription boxes (The Julep Maven) for your first month comes with four items: two polishes and two beauty products. I believe after that you get two polishes and a beauty item. The monthly subscription is $24.99 a month or a month free (just pay for shipping) and then three months for $19.99. 

After looking at what came in the box every month, I personally did not think it was worth it. Then I came across their mystery boxes, that they also have once a month and I thought for all you get in the box it was worth the money, more so then the subscription. Also it is always cool to have a surprise when you get a box like this (at least I think so.)

 Here is what was inside the

 Cora it girl nails only Mystery box for April.

As you can see, the mystery box for April came with some pretty cool stuff. For April their were two choices for which box you wanted, Cora it girl nails only and Pamela it girl beauty mystery box. The box I picked was of course Cora nails only. I don't really care for makeup, so thought this would be the best box, and of course would be the best to review for the M.M.M blog.

Also sorry this is a month late, I wanted to give all the items a fair review, by giving all the products a try. 

Here is a closer look at what came in the box. You can click the names of the product that are linked below, to see more info or if you are interested in the products. 

First we will start off with the nail care products-  

  Julep Rock Star hand creme

The first item we have is the Julep Rock start hand creme 

This was a sample size of 1oz (full size is 3oz) the retail price for a full size is $20.00.

This hand creme is nice, it was not greasy and absorbed into the skin well. The only thing I didn't like was the smell, it just smelled to chemically, it would have been better if maybe it had a clean sent. Otherwise, it was good.

  Sample size .07oz of the Luxe care hand creme

Next we have another hand creme, the Luxe care hand creme 

The retail price of a full size (2.5oz) is $20.00
 

This was a small amount of hand creme. I just got three uses out of it, so it was really hard to tell how well it worked. It did seem very similar to the Rock start hand creme, it was not greasy and absorbed well, this also had chemically smell to it as well but not as bad, maybe due to it being a small sample. 

The Clean slate polish removers

The Clean slate polish remover pads have 10 individual per-soaked with acetone and Aloe Vera to moisturize and condition. For ten pads the retail price would be $10.00.

These are suppose to be a easier and quick way to remove your nail polish. These polish remover pads where okay. I did have to use three pad to remove the polish off all ten finger nails, and the manicure I had on had no glitter, so it might take more pads if you had glitter nail polish on your nails. I personal would just stick to the jar polish remover and cotton balls method that I do, rather then purchases these polish remover pads.

 

 The Mighty nail and cuticle serum.

The Mighty nail & cuticle serum was a full size product (0.09oz) the retail price for this is $28.00!

When I first open this mystery box I thought this was a mascara, but as you can tell from the name it was not a mascara, it just looked like it (at least to me.) This product does live up to the name of Mighty. This nail and cuticle serum is amazing! I have used this product once a day along with the Burt's Bees lemon butter cuticle creme at night and my other hand care products. This serum help the dry skin that I still get even after using the Burt's Bees lemon butter. I mean the Burt's butter is also amazing and has helped my cuticles, but this serum has just added some extra help, to help the dry skin around my finger to go away. 

The only thing with this when you first use this product you do have to to twist the bottom a lot to get product out, then it flows pretty well, and when you go to use it every time you do have to twist the bottom two or three times. Also when I looked up the prices on all these products, I was surprised that this serum cost $28.00! But I did find this serum at Sephora.com- Julep Mighty nail serum for $22.00, which is still pricy but a little bit better, so I just might have to get more of this at Sephora.  

     Bonus/ hidden item- The Markkit gold triple threat necklace.

This necklace was a bonus item that some of the Mystery boxes had in them. I got lucky that my box had one in it. On the Markkit website it says that this necklace is made out of metal, not real gold, which I kind of figured that this necklace was not real gold. I have not wore this necklace out, I just put it on just to see how it looked. This necklace does look nice, I just hope that it will continue to look nice due to it being made out of metal and not real gold. 

On the  website Markkit- gold triple threat necklace retail price is $22.00.

Now for the four nail polishes that came in the box-

If you would like to know more or are interested in these polishes click the name of the polishes to find out more information. 

  From left to right- Shari, Hazel, Lizanne, and Cora.

Shari- is a peach neutral color that is described on Julep's website as a sweet pea creme. This color was the only color that I did not paint on my nails, but I did swatch on a nail wheel that you can see after the photo of the polishes. When I did swatch this polish it did go on well with two coats. This color I was not excited about, due to it being a neutral color which I do not care for.

Hazel- is a shimmery purple that is described as a wild violet and bronze duochrome. This color is very pretty, went on smooth, and opaque in two coats. 

Lizanne-  is a shimmery green that is described as a sea green shimmer. This polish was also really nice, went on smooth, and opaque in two coats.

Cora (currently not available on the website)- is a midnight jelly glitter top coat. This was a gift in the April mystery box, and initially this was what drew me into buying this box. Then when swatch this on this on the nail wheel and painted this color on my nails, I was a little bit disappointed. The color just did not look as nice as it does in the bottle, it just looked a little muddy to me, maybe due to the base being a dark/navy blue. The polish is a glitter but just does not seem very shinny, it does look a little bit better in the bright sun light, but in regular light it just does not look that great. 

As for wear, I wore this polish from Saturday to Friday and the wear was great, which is always a good thing, their was little to no chipping and just a little bit of tip wear. 

The retail price for a full size of .27oz, 8ml polishes is $14.00 for each one.

   Nail polishes swatch on a nail wheel. Left to right Cora over Lizanne, 

Three coats of Cora, Lizanne, Hazel, Shari, and one coat of Cora.

  Julep polishes on the nails- thumb nail to pinky nail. Lizanne, Hazel, Cora, 
Cora over Lizanne, and Hazel.

Another photo of the Julep polishes.

In conclusion this being my first Julep box, I think it was worth it to purchase the mystery box. Due to how much you get in this box (9 items, 8 without the necklace) it is worth $24.99 with free shipping. 

The value of this box according to the website is $100 value, when I looked up all of the products including the necklace the actual value would be $156. Do I think this is worth $100 or the actual value of $156? I really do not think it is worth $156 (the actual value) or even the $100 value that Julep says. Really I think the $24.99 is a great price for all you get, and I personally think the value is $24.99. I do know that all of the products on Julep's website (as you can see above) are pricey and are good quality. For example the polishes are good, but $14.00 for one bottle I feel is over priced for the amount you get. 27oz,8ml, when a regular polish is about 15ml and can be cheaper and you get more.

If you would like to try Juleps products it is better to purchase a subscription box or a mystery box, rather then purchasing individual items, due to getting more for your money.

Hope all of you enjoyed this review of the Julep Mystery box for April 2015!

See you next time for my next design tutorial!