Julep Maven March 2014 Unboxing & Review!

Today I received my March Julep box! This is the first time in awhile I've been overly excited to order my Julep colors. I'm a sucker for anything bright and anything green, so I quickly knew what colors I wanted!

For those of you who don't already know, Julep is a monthly subscription service that provides the latest nailpolish colors right to your door for as low as $19.99 a month. Every month they come out with four different sets of colors and a beauty product based on your style profile, which is a quiz that allows them to decide which color you'd like best. You can either pick between these four, or opt for their Modern Beauty box, which is contains no polish and awesome beauty items instead! They also let you upgrade to get the whole collection! Sign up right now and use code FREEBOX to get your first box for only the cost of shipping!

Now on to my box!!! For March 2014, Julep brought us "The Riviera Collection"; nine beautiful bright spring colors and lipglosses. For Modern Beauty they brought us the "Buff Lip Scrub" and "Luxe Lip Conditioning Treatment". 

My style according to Julep's style profile is "Bombshell", which is the box I chose this month! Take their quiz HERE to see what yours is! :)

My March box contained:

Lilou - Lemon Chiffon Creme

Monaco - Dazzling Mariner Blue Creme (Pantone color of the year for Spring 2014)

Julep Lip Gloss in Fearless
Candy Cane Extra :)

Add ons:

Lizanne - Sea Green Shimmer
Tania - Multidimensional Mermaid Teal Glitter

Now, I usually don't get add ons, but I had to have these colors! I don't have any swatches of Lilou for you today, because I am thinking about selling or trading it, because I already have something similar, but here are the others!

I love LOVE LOVE Monaco. It's the perfect blue creme for spring and summer. I can't get enough blue polishes. And Lizanne is great too! Personally, I don't really see any "shimmer" once it is on, its more like a bright teal cream, but beautiful nonetheless! I used Tania as an accent over Lizanne.

In the bottle, Tania reminded me of Julep's Esmerelda, so I decided to do a comparison photo to see what the difference was. Esmerelda is one of my favorite Julep's I own.

The glitters in them seem to be very similar in color, but Tania has an opalescent base color that completely changes the color of the base nail polish. I'm interested to try it on it's own, but that's for another day!

Here's a swatch of the lippie I chose. It will be great for the spring and summer. It's a beautiful hot pink shimmer gloss that makes my lips shiny and fuller. I love it and can't wait to use it over a pink or red lipstick!

I love Julep's new glosses because they smell and taste super good and aren't overly sticky!

So that's my box! Like I said if you're not signed up for Julep already, definitely check them out! They have some great products as well as polish, and I'm sure you will be JUST as addicted as I am!

If you are signed up, which box did you get this month??? Love it or hate it?

Xx Ashley C.

Awesome Pre-Birthday Ulta Haul!

So it's that time of year. Valentine's Day, My birthday, Tax Time, Bonus at work time, School refund time... So I've been waiting and waiting ever so patiently (NOT) to go to Ulta and hunt for deals (Mostly on Nailpolish). I went on Sunday, and to my dismay, they closed at 6. I was super sad and went to Old Navy to buy flip flops and camis in my despair.

I went back tonight though! And in my opinion I got a PRETTY AWESOME HAUL! I don't have very many actual photos and no swatches yet, as I plan to swatch everything individually, but here is what I got!

Ulta was running a special on Nyx for Buy 1 get 1 half off, and I love Nyx so I HAD to get something from this deal! I picked up Nyx Matte Lipstick in Summer Breeze for $5.99 & Nyx HD Photogenic Concealer in Green for $4.99 (Half off, so $2.50!). I've been dying to try out some Green concealer for a long time to see how well it hides blemishes, so I'm pretty excited to try this out tomorrow! Definitely will post a review for you guys to let you know how it holds up! The lipstick I got is SUPER pretty. As you know I LOVE pink lippies & matte lipstick is pretty great too.

You can't really tell how green the concealer is because the flash totally washed this out, but it's like a mint color. :) Isn't the lipstick great!?

The next deal I got was their 2 for $12 China Glaze deal! I normally wouldn't even spend this much for a China Glaze but they had two colors that I really really liked, and one that I have been in search of for a long time. I can't wait to swatch these! I picked up:

China Glaze - It's a Trap-eze! (from the Cirque Du Soleil: World's Away Collection; White w/ lots of glitter)

China Glaze - Flip Flop Fantasy (from the Party Poolside Collection; Coral Neon)

The next item I HAD to have is Push and Shove from the OPI Gwen Stefani collection. It was $9 but it came with a mini basecoat too which is fine by me. This color supposedly only lasts like 24 hours but it is a Silver Ultra Chrome Mirror Polish. Like crazy chrome. I've heard mixed reviews, but it's too shiny not to have in my life. I can't wait to swatch it! :D

Next is the lovely Zoyas I added to my collection this evening. I decided the other day, that I don't have nearly enough Zoya in my life, and I saw some girls in my swap group talking about some being on clearance at Ulta. I had to dig deep in random bins of nail polish to find these babies, but it was totally worth it.

First up is Zoya - Blaze. The website describes Blaze as a full coverage, cool-toned mulberry red w/ micro fine diamond holo glitter. It's beautiful in the bottle, and I don't even really like red. Dug this out of the clearance pile for $4.99! Can't wait to swatch it! 

I also managed to find Zoya - Payton buried deep for $3.99! It's kind of similar to Blaze, but its described as full coverage, galactic cranberry with holo glitter. Definitely a deeper red!

My nails have been breaking and peeling up a storm lately, so I also grabbed a bottle of Butter London's Horsepower to try out. I definitely paid full price for this, $19, so I hope it's worth it. I've been using some Orly Nail Strengthener, but it just isn't really working out for me. So fingers crossed! Anyone tried this?

Last, but certainly not least, I redeemed my FREE birthday gift. CK One Mascara, valued at $18. I have no idea if this stuff is any good or not. I had no idea this was even a makeup line until I got the coupon for this, but I will definitely let you know how it works out!! It's weird because it comes with two different brush heads, I guess depending how how you want your lashes? I don't really know honestly I haven't used it yet... I just glanced at the bottle. But you can't beat free!!!

All in all, I am really pleased with this Ulta Haul. It's been quite a while since I've been able to buy anything cool for myself in such bulk. Overall I paid about $58 for all of this which isn't too bad considering I saved $27!

I also signed up for the Starlook's Starbox today, as well as a 3 month subscription to the Pretty & Polished Beauty Box! Which is really awesome and is selling out FAST! You get all kinds of stuff with their new sub, including TWO polishes that are ONLY going to be released in that month's box! How awesome is that?!

Anyone gotten anything great in a haul lately?! I'd love to hear about it! 

Goodnight everyone!

Xx Ashley C.

Valentine's Day Nails!

Okay so I know I haven't really been posting much this month and I feel totally guilty and neglectful but I've been super busy and stressed over work and this being the last month of the semester.
I did however spend a pretty significant amount of time on my nails last night for a Pretty & Polished contest so I figure I may as well share!! Hope you enjoy.
Inspiration is Naughty & Nice nails.
Right side is the naughty side, with black, glitter, and corsets.
Left is the nice side, with pink, glitter, and love letters with hearts. :)

I think I'm going to do all corsets this weekend. I think they're pretty cute!

Anyone have any awesome Valentine's Day nails ideas???

Let me see or describe it to me!

Xx Ashley C.

Pretty & Polished Harajuku Honey and Popples!

It's official. I love all things Pretty & Polished. It could be because it's my first indie, but I don't care and I must share with you these lovelies in all their glory. I hope you enjoyed my last post of the Amazing Technicolor Topcoat as much as I do. :) I ordered three colors in the Black Friday sale and these are the remaining two. I love both of them!!!!
I hope they do another sale soon because I want to own so many more of her colors. ESPECIALLY her thermals! Check out Pretty & Polished HERE, you won't regret it. :)
In my previous post about The Amazing Technicolor Topcoat I mentioned I received cuticle balm. It seems to be working very well! I also bought another Sugar Scrub in the scent cupcake which I LOVE! My husband said he wanted to eat it out of the jar it smells so amazing. lol Here's some pictures of the two since I didn't post them last time.

And here are some swatches of my nails!!

White is Popples & Harajuku Honey is the Pink Jelly

If I had to choose between the two I would probably pick Popples as my favorite, just because I really love the name and neon glitters. They both went on really great as well as they were super easy to work with. This is three coats of each just to get lots of glitter. :) Only downside is they were a pain in the butt to take off!

Other hand! Which is your favorite!?

Like I said, I LOVE both of these polishes, and I can't WAIT to get more of Pretty & Polished to add to my collection. I have a thermal mini that will be in the mail on Friday that I can't wait for!!

Anyone else LOVE Pretty & Polished?? What's your favorite color?

Later!

Xx Ashley C.

Pretty & Polished The Amazing Technicolor Topcoat

I wanted this polish as soon as I saw it. The Amazing Technicolor Topcoat by Pretty & Polished is an awesome, unique glitter topper. No two bottles are the same, as Chels, the genius behind this beauty, makes it out of all of the glitter left on her mat after making other polishes. Essentially it is all the left over glitter crammed into one amazing, one of a kind bottle of awesome.
I ordered this from the Pretty & Polished Black Friday sale, as well as some others that I will swatch later. I am pretty sure she matched it to my other two bottles I ordered, and it is simply amazing. Also, I ordered some coffee scented cuticle balm to feed my coffee addiction, and it smells absolutely wonderful and goes on like a dream.

You can buy Pretty & Polished on their Etsy site HERE or on their webpage HERE. I've ordered both ways.

Shown below is one coat of The Amazing Technicolor Topcoat with no fishing out of specific glitters over 2 coats of Butter London's Cotton Buds.

Here's the left hand. There's like every color of neon glitter imaginable. I really love that big green one. It's a holo.

Here's my right hand. I love the big random black hex glitter and the little lilac diamonds!!

Does anyone have this polish??? I'd love to see your swatches! I haven't seen many online.

By the way, Butter London Cotton Buds is AMAZING also.

Until next time,

Xx Ashley C.

Julep Maven December Glitterati Collection Unboxing!

I am thrilled to say that Julep finally has an option to upgrade to an ONLY polish option. I've never upgraded in the past because I never 100% LOVE all of their beauty products, so when I saw this month's box full of glitter beauties PLUS a polish only upgrade, I jumped at the chance.

For those of you who have never heard of Julep before, they are an independent nail polish company that offers a monthly subscription box with various "style profile" options tailored to your tastes. The box costs $19.99 a month for either two polishes and a beauty product, two beauty products, or three polishes. I love Julep because they give you the option to skip entirely if you don't like the collection. They also now offer Polish only upgrades for $44.99 in which you get all 9 colors! :) I think the regular upgrade is 50$.
Check them out if you love polish like me! And use my referral link HERE, so they know I sent you!

Who's ready for some swatches!?! My apologies in advance for the photo quality. I was so excited when I got my box that I didn't charge my phone and my flash stopped working halfway through the polish!

Everything was boxed up really nicely this month! The new boxes are super cute, although I think they're a waste of paper. It also came with a 40% off code and 2 twistband hairties. I will wear them as bracelets only.

From left to right:

Mia, Jillian, Cara, Celia, Evelyn, Shoshanna, Andrea, Joelle, Misti

Visit Julep's Website HERE to purchase these amazing colors

I'm going to describe Cara and Evelyn for you because I sold/traded them and I forgot to take pictures of the bottles first :/

Cara - I thought this was going to be a pink shimmer polish. That's what the Julep swatches looked like. However, it looks pink in the bottle but it's actually a really nice red frost color. Julep describes it as a "cranberry frost".

Evelyn - A "Magenta purple cream". I'm so tired of Julep's cream polish. This color was so/so for me. It's a nice color if you don't already have a bunch of purples I guess.

First up is Misti. It's a pretty smokey blue cream that will be perfect for more snowmen. This is two coats over my existing Rebel for full opaqueness.

Meet Jillian. This is supposed to be a "deep eggplant with bronze molten" I think it's more brownish red.

To me it looks like a dupe of Sephora by OPI I'm with Brad

It went on amazingly though. That swatch is just one coat over my existing polish.

This is two coats of Joelle over my Rebel. This is the most amazing silver holo full coverage glitter. I am absolutely in love with it. 

This is Shoshanna. I will have to wear it this weekend and post another picture because this does it no justice. It's a beautiful yellow full coverage holo glitter filled with green and red glitters as well. Love it!

EDIT: Here's an additonal photo of Joelle and Shoshanna over Julep Nicolette for your viewing pleasure.

I love these colors! Not so much over the white but this is a much better picture to give you an idea of what they really look like!

Andrea is a really pretty full coverage bronzey/gold color. This is two coats over Rebel. Went on really nicely for a full coverage and wasn't too difficult to take off!

EDIT: On my ring finger and thumb is Andrea in all it's glittery glory. I love this color so much it isn't really bronze to me, definitely more gold, but it is absolutely beautiful!

This is Mia. I'm not totally amazed. It reminds me of if Julep Stefani and Zelda had a baby. It would be this polish. It's supposed to be a greenish silver, but I only see silver.

EDIT: As it turns out, I used Mia again and it is actually a pretty greenish silver color. What I love the most about it, is how metallic and wonderful it is. This is Mia paired with Shoshanna on my thumb and ring finger. LOVE THEM!

Saved the best for last!! This is Celia. It's an amazing Green metallic that is perfect for winter and christmas. This picture is just ONE coat if you can believe that!

And here are my nails. Using Celia with Joelle on top and Rebel for the Christmas Tree. :)

And here's a bonus mani picture of what they looked like before I did the swatches. :) That's Rebel. It's my favorite.

Again, sorry for the lame pictures. I will take better ones I swear. What colors did you get this month??? Love or hate them?!

Until next time,

Xx Ashley C.