Julep Maven January 2014 "The Boudoir Collection" Review

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I have a very exciting post for everyone today! I recently became an affiliate with Julep and this is my first review of their products since! - More on what all that means at the end of the post. First, lets take a look at the Julep Maven January 2014 Box. 

The Boudoir Collection

For those of you who don't know yet, Julep Maven is a subscription box for nail polish and beauty products. You can either choose to receive three nail polishes, two nail polishes and a beauty product, or two beauty products each month for $19.99 per month. You take a "Style Profile" and they will help you decide your best Maven box fit! I'm Boho Glam most months, but don't worry, you can change at anytime (even as often as each month if you like the options of another box better!)

Here are the contents of my January Box! Two polishes, quick dry drops and a surprise, they gave me two free nail buffers! :)

The nail polish in my Boho Glam box were Julep Hannah which Julep describes as a "Sage crème" and Noelle which is described as a "Sandy Beach Silk." Also, all Julep polishes are 

"Julep Nail Color is “4-free” and do not contain formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, toluene, or DBP." 

First, let's talk about Hannah. Hmm, what a strange color! It almost appears green in the bottle and in these photos, but in reality it's more of a Safari Khaki creme. (that's my professional color naming at it's finest, lol) Here I applied three medium coats and this is the natural shine without a top coat. Application was nice, the polish practically applied itself. Maybe a little on the thicker side, but very easy to work with. I can see myself using this polish again for a nail art base!

Next up, the dreamy Noelle. This polish stole my heart and ran away with it. Julep's whole idea behind this month was luxury boudoir and they certainly delivered with this nail polish. This is one of their "fancy" finishes and it's described as silk. To be a little more descriptive, it's a matte, pearl finish and it's absolutely stunning in this light taupe. (Is matte, pearl finish any more descriptive?) Noelle applied great. This is three thin coats, though two would have been fine. Very little clean up on either of these, they both applied exactly where I wanted them to go and left little room for error. Also, being a matte, this polish dried really quickly.

Julep has a neat concept on their bottles, they include a swatch sticker! When I first saw it a couple of months ago, I thought ... this is useless. How to do I get the paint on the lid? ... It wasn't until recently that I discovered the lids pop off. /sigh... Now I really enjoy this small touch, it makes finding the color you want a breeze when you store your polishes lids up.

Finally, the product I was most excited about! Quick dry drops? Heck yes. Normally I use Seche Vite, but honestly, who can stand the polish shrinking that it causes? It can ruin any manicure! So I was more than happy to try out a new quick dry product. 

After applying three coats of Hannah and allowing the the final coat to dry for one minute as directed, I applied two drops to each nail. I did a fingerprint test two minutes later and you could see a visible print, but it easily smoothed out, I tried again a few minutes later and the print was still visible but not nearly as bad and again smoothed out without issue. After about 10 minutes I did tried again, still with some "printing" but nothing to cry about. Overall I really like the product and I do believe that it dries my nails quicker than just regular air drying. I will be using this entire bottle up!

One more thing to note about the quick dry drops is that they smell VERY strongly. It's not an unpleasant scent, it's just very overwhelming and I can see how some may not enjoy it. It's a mixture of Almond, Rosewood, and Lilac. Also, something I both liked and disliked - both the bottle and the dropper are glass, I felt like I had to be very fragile with it. (Although it probably is more durable than I think.)

Lastly, Julep always throws in a small surprise, I've seen everything from flower seeds, candy to more nail related things like polish remover pads and nail files. January's box included two nail buffers, but these are only the rough sides, nothing to shine up the nails here. I suppose the "shine" will come from the two colors they included this month, huh? ;)

Lastly, in every box is a motivational quote, usually by someone famous, but this simply says "2014 will be my year" and I sure hope it will! I'll turn 22, graduate college with a BA and begin planning my wedding this year! I cannot wait! :)

Ok, now to the most exciting part! You can get your first Maven box for free! Take the style profile and enter the code FREEBOX for your first box free, just pay shipping which is pretty cheap, $3.99 or so. Now to be completely clear, this is a subscription box, and when you sign up they will continue to charge you on the 24th of each month unless you cancel. You can cancel at absolutely any time with no penalty, just make sure it's before the 24th or you'll be charged. 

Ok, so are you excited yet?

 If you do decide to check it out, you have two options that can help me, first, you can sign up using my affiliate link here -Take the Maven Style Quiz! In which I will make a small percentage of your purchase but at no cost to you.

Or

You can take your style quiz here with my refer a friend link - I'm not making money from it, but it does give me "Jules" which I can purchase more Maven boxes with so I can do more awesome reviews!

Lastly, you could just go to Julep.com yourself, but where's the fun in that? (I've provided this information in order to be transparent with you, I hope it helps!)

♥ Pooka