Despite being a little nail polish hoarder, I've been a little slow to the whole "Julep" thing, partially because I've been wary of a monthly subscription, because I knew that Julep required a bit of a commitment when it came to the Maven box. But now I'm HOOKED and here's why...
How Julep works: As a regular, non-Maven buyer, you can purchase polish and beauty products from Julep at high regular prices (resist the urge!) OR you can gain significant discounts as a Maven. If you're not a Maven, nail polish prices are upwards of $10-16, greatly inflated prices that exist almost solely to push you to become a Maven.
What's a Maven? For $20 a month you get a monthly Maven box which, bare minimum, comes with three nail polishes OR two polishes and a beauty product OR three beauty products. There's a variety of colours and "styles" available each month and you're given a short window to make your selections and to add anything from a different style than your own, or even to buy the ENTIRE collection each month. They claim the value is $40 per box, but that's a bit inflated, I'd say it's probably $30. But shipping is FREE so that is a huge perk for Canadian subscribers.
How is it? Julep is about quality, I'm impressed with the colour payoff of the polish, the relative swiftness of the application, the easy formula and the smart selection of sale items and discounts provided to 'Mavens' who take the box every month. But to shake it up, I signed up for a box that offers two polishes and one beauty product box so I wouldn't have TOO many polishes. I found that the value of the polish comes down to about $5-7, and the beauty products usually rest at about at least $10 (but they've all been high quality in my experience thus far.)
In December I signed up for my first free box (you can do so here, using the code FREECOLOR, seriously, it was free.) And I added (by choice) another colour for the low-low price of $4 and a topcoat for $7. Your first box will always be a "standard" intro box that changes its colours from time to time, but the options are fairly attractive, and then you're in for the next month!
Bombshell Intro Box
In my intro box I received Kendra (army green frost), Zelda (pink gold metallic) and a Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum. I chose to add on Max (black and white graffiti top coat) and the Freedom Polymer Top Coat. I didn't photograph this whole box but it was identical to Lethal Glam's intro box.
February 2014 Bombshell Box
In late January I received an email about February's Julep collection, the Dramatic Collection. I was super excited because this box would include a bonus polish on top of the regular products. I also added on a colour with a wicked texturized surface and amazing lavender colour. So after all my add-ons, for $25 I received four polishes and a gorgeous liquid eyeshadow that is comparable to Benefit's liquid eye-shadow with regard to consistency and staying power. So once again, Julep won me over.
I stuck with the Bombshell box in February and received Judi (an English violet crème), Kristen (deep sea teal with silver microshimmer), Love (gold, pearl and fuchsia microglitter), and the Dusty Taupe Shimmer eye sheen. I purchased Cameron for $5 on top of everything. I've tried on all the colours except Love and they look great, but were corrupted on my phone so they don't exist, but I'll swatch them eventually for sure.
The only downside to Julep? Julep used to be a subscription that you could skip every month if you wanted to, something that is rare in the beauty box community. But we all knew it wouldn't last. I technically don't have an account that can skip, but I managed to skip my box for March due to financial constraints (I'll be back for April!) and their customer service is helpful if you're in a fix. That said, the quality of their polish is fantastic, the formula is great and the colours, oh the colours!
So please use my referral link if I've swayed up and use FREECOLOR to get your intro box for free!
Are you a Julep Maven? What is your favourite colour?