Julep - October 2013

THE REBEL SET
FULL UPGRADE


Me? A rebel? Well I LOVE Billy Idol, so does that count? ::giggles:: A collection of polishes and products that can appeal to any beauty lover's dark side, check out this month's Julep set!....

 

In this box is the upgrade, including all of the add-ons

and here is this month's polish line-up!.....

OOooooo, aaaahhhh, what a very mysterious line-up!

Let's move on to the profiles, shall we?

MODERN BEAUTY

MASK NOIR

"A peel-off mask of gentle kaolin clay and black volcanic ash" - from julep.com

Julep's Mask Noir contains black volcanic ash with anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial peptides, kaolin clay for deep cleaning, and also has a triple-threat Power Cell Complex of rosehip seed oil to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and post-acne marks, malveceae lipid extract for hydration, and green coffee bean oil that promotes cell turnover. 

Whew! That's a lot of goodness right there in one little bottle. This is my first peel-off mask and I have to say, that one little fact made me superdupes excited to try! 

The texture is similar to a soft tar, and while it's slightly thick upon application, it can be spread easily. You do have to work quickly, though, since it starts to dry fairly fast and if you go over areas you applied a minute previous it will start peeling off and you have to apply fresh globs on top. 

After washing your face, you apply the mask all over, avoiding your eyebrows, lips and eyes. You let it sit for 15-20 minutes, then starting from the chin you gently peel the entire mask off in one piece up to the forehead. YES, I WAS SO GIDDY ABOUT THIS! I have no clue why, really...is it just a girl thing? Every girl in her life must have a peel off mask! The remaining product is similar to a light rubber and can just be thrown away. I was going to take a picture of it but frankly...it looked a bit creepy, haha! 

My skin felt lovely afterwards! Very soft, smooth and with no dryness. This has to be one of my favorite masks I've ever used! My rosacea wasn't inflammed, in fact, it lessened! My moisturizer went on very smoothly afterwards which I can attribute to having a nicely hydrated and softened surface. The next day my face looked fresh and clean! I've used this mask several times since then and every time...just love it!

Did I take pictures of this? Why yes, yes I did....

 ::sigh:: It's so hard trying to be pretty all the time...

Haha, please excuse the scary makeup-free eyes and before you ask (because seriously everyone does) I DON'T pluck my eyebrows, they are just naturally non-existent and fair, but I promise you, they're there. 





KAJAL EYE GLIDER & SHARPENER

"Two intensely pigmented colors - carbon black and brown shimmer - that glide on smoothly and blend like a dream." - from julep.com

As you can see, the Kajal Eye Glider is a double-sided eye pencil, with a carbon black on one end and a brown shimmer on the other. I love keeping pencils like this in my purse for touch-ups since it could go with any eye look I'm wearing that day! 

The pencil pencil glides on sooooo smoothly! The Carbon Black reminds me so much of Perversion by Urban Decay, it's beyond black which I love for my eyeliner. Look how fabulously pigmented the single black line is! It was very soft, and I didn't have to press much as all to apply. The brown shimmer is SO much more lovely in person than it is on in this picture! It's a gorgeous rusty brown with some reddish-brown shimmer that gets highlighted when the light hits it. The brown goes on a tad softer than the black and isn't quite as pigmented, but when you thicken the line the color deepens to a darker brown and it's gorgeous! 

In this picture I'm wearing the Brown Shimmer side in a cat-eye over some auburn-brown eyeshadow on my top lid (and mossy green eyeshadow below my bottom eyelashes). See how nicely it picks up an auburn shimmer? I think it's very natural looking but still crisp, modern and fresh. I think it'd look gorgeous smudged! And thank goodness, I have eyebrows again! Haha!

The staying power for both shades are awesome! They both lasted about 8-9 hours before needing any touch-ups at all (using both an eye primer, as well as a setting spray) and did not smudge.





BOHO GLAM - DAHLIA & STEVIE

Dahlia (top) - goldenrod microglitter
Stevie (bottom) - concrete gray frost

 I absolutely LOVE these two shades! This is my typical profile, Boho Glam, and I must say I was so very intrigued with Dahlia as I have nothing like it in my stash. The color may not be fore everyone but I love how different it is! Stevie is very bold, and I think very fun and versatile for nail art looks!

Dahlia went on like a dream, needing only two coats for full opacity. It evened itself out nicely and has a soft glossy finish (note, I am not wearing a top coat in my swatch pictures as to show what the polish finishes as by itself). Stevie was a LITTLE streaky, which I've had happen a lot with gray frosty finishes, but it wasn't too bad and still looks gorgeous on the nail. It can look a bit dirty on the nail, though, without a crisp cleanup along the cuticles but still a gorgeous shade!





BOMBSHELL - CLEOPATRA & VALERIE

Cleopatra (top) - black latex creme (no latex in formula) 
Valerie (bottom) - teal with iridescent microglitter

This profile right here basically convinced me that I needed to upgrade! I was falling in love with all of them, but when I saw the black latex and teal I made up my mind! So gorgeous and I love the two of them together!

Is that latex not fabulous?! I think it's stunning! Cleopatra is a TAD on the thick side and dries a bit faster than the typical polish so you have to work quick with evening it out. I recommend the fewer brush strokes, the better! With one coat, it's pretty much opaque, but I recommend two just for that even and smooth finish. Valerie is lovely, it's very easy to apply, glides on smooth and has a lovely glossy finish. The shimmer isn't as apparent on the nail as it is in the bottle but it's still a beautiful dark teal shade. I had no issue with applying it at all and it only needed two coats for full opacity, however it came very close to being a one-coater!





CLASSIC WITH A TWIST - ANISA & WINONA

Anisa (top) - deep burgundy creme
Winona (bottom) - buff greige creme

I realize I need another red like I need....well...you get what I'm saying, haha! In fact, Winona was the reason I wanted this profile. I don't have that many greige-y or beige shades so I definitely wanted to try this one out and I wasn't disappointed! However, I don't know if I would call Anisa a deep burgundy, it looked more like a darker brick red. 

Anisa went on very nicely, evened itself out quickly and only needed two coats for full opacity. It dries to a gorgeous glossy finish and I had no issues with running or pooling and it's not a thick creme so it's not hard to work with. Winona was just a tad thicker than Anisa but still a dream to apply, in fact, it's the exact thickness I prefer my cremes to have! It evened out wonderfully, needed only two coats for full opacity and has a gorgeous glossy finish as well! SO glad I added Winona to my collection!

IT GIRL - CIARA, KENDRA & MISSY

Kendra (top) - army green frost
Missy (middle) - titanium metallic
Ciara (bottom) - vampy magenta with teal microglitter

 I found this month's It Girl trio to be so interesting and different! Although, I suppose I say that about every month's It Girl profile ::giggles::. All three being very shimmery, I was worried I wouldn't like at least one, but I was wrong! The types are all different, though, as you can see...frost, metallic and microglitter!

Kendra looks much lighter in the bottle than on the nail, however, it's still quite beautiful. It was ALMOST a one-coater but I prefer two. It glides on nicely, evens out fairly well and dries to a lovely glossy finish. Missy is GORGEOUS. It reminds me a lot of OPI's DS Radiance. Very metallic and shiny with metallic flecks throughout. It applies well, evens out fairly nice and needs two coats to become opaque. I think it's very, very flattering on so many skin tones! Now Ciara.....is SO stunning and unique! It's very simple but so unusual with a reddish dark undertone but light, cool blueish teal shimmer on top. The pictures really don't do it justice as it looks a bit more like the picture of the bottle above once on your nail when the light hits it. The formula was good, it evened out fairly well, but I wouldn't use too many brushstrokes as that seemed to thin out the layer and cause it to look streaky. You MAY want to do more than two coats for a richer, deeper shade, but two good coats is enough for opacity.





FEATURED ADD-ON - BEATRIX

Beatrix - coal black with multidimensional glitter

I LOOOOVE this polish! It is DEFINITELY my favorite glitter polish from Julep to date! It appears to be mainly gold and black in the picture above but check out when my camera is out of focus....

Look at that scattered multi-color goodness! The polish looks MUCH more like that in person. My camera just doesn't capture the gorgeousness of the bottle at all!

For my swatch picture I layered it over three colors, then by itself on my pointer finger...all with two coats of Beatrix each. If you look at my pointer finger (no under color), you can see it's actually fairly thick for a glitter in a clear base. Very densely packed with small gold, black and multicolor flecks, as well as larger gold hex glitters. You could come close to getting away with decent opacity with three coats. On my middle finger I applied it over Winona, which I ended up not being too impressed with. It's a little bland for me. On my ring finger it's over Dahlia which is a BIG difference! It's brighter, more sprinkled looking and has a sharper contrast with the black, however the gold doesn't stand out as much. The colorful shimmer (not seen as well in the pic) gives it a funky, fun party look though! On my pinky finger I layered it over Cleopatra (black latex) and I'm SO MAD that none of the pictures I took turned out well with this because I actually loved it! Compared to Dahlia, it was the reverse...the black didn't show up but the gold and colors did and it was beautiful! What I really like about this polish is the dirty, coal dust effect it has while still being ridiculously sparkly and colorful! Also, to note, one very important thing about this polish since it is a glitter is that the glitter was so densely packed - as I said - that you didn't have to fish any of the product out of the bottle, it spread on evenly and spaced itself out wonderfully!

FEATURED ADD-ON - CASPER

Casper - glow-in-the-dark shimmer
      
My second glow in the dark polish ever! This was another reason I was so excited for this month's collection of shades, and I knew the upgrades were going to be fun as well!

 I know you may not believe me on this, but I did actually do the exact same as Beatrix, which is apply two coats of Casper over three different shades as well as one unpolished nail! One my pointer finger is the two coats of Casper by itself. I think, glow-in-the-dark aside...it's actually a very, very beautiful polish! It's very shimmery and soft with a very glossy finish. On my middle finger is Casper over Winona, which once again, I wasn't fond of....apparently, Winona does not like to play well with others! Haha! On my ring finger I applied it over Stevie, which I thought was lovely in person...very chic, edgy and cool. On my pinky...haha, you wouldn't believe....over Cleopatra. It seriously did not need a second coat over that one. It almost made Cleopatra and Stevie look the same underneath! It's interesting but I honestly think Casper is pretty just by itself or maybe on a french tip!

Let's see this baby glow!.....

Ooooo, aaaaah....actually, I was very disappointed by it's glowing abilities. I let it sit in the sun for a short time....glowed for 2 seconds in the dark....I let it sit for a long time....glowed for 10 seconds in the dark....I held it under a lamp for a short time....glowed for 2 seconds in the dark....I held it under a lamp for a long time...glowed for 10 seconds in the dark. Well phooey! I seriously had to snap pics fast for you to see this! In the bottle, it glows very bright for a short time, then fades away...on the nail...well you'll be sad. These are the exact same nails from the picture above and as you can see, over other colors it really doesn't get much glow at all. Even with two coats by itself without any color underneath it barely glows. I kid you not, this picture is a pretty accurate view of what it looks like in real life. So, I'm sad it's not all fun, funky and glowy in the dark, but it still is a beautiful polish to wear!

       

WORTH AND PURCHASE:

1) Mask Noir - $32

• Or $25.60 for Maven subscribers

    

2) Kajal Eye Glider & Sharpener - $22

• Or $17.60 for Maven subscribers

    

3) Nail Polishes - $14 each (11 total) = $154

• Or for Maven subscribers: $11.20 each = $123.20

    

Total Paid for Box:  $66.97
       

Total Worth of Box:   $208

As always, Julep does well to provide me with a box worth much higher than what I pay. They typically go just a few above the $200 range when I upgrade! The breakdown this month is: $19.99 regular profile subscription + $35 upgrade fee + $5.99 for each additional add-on (2 in my case).

        

FINALE

So this month was definitely a fun group of dark, mysterious polishes and shades for a Rebel Set and I had so much fun with the Mask Noir and Kajal Eyeliner, in fact, it's one of the best beauty gifts I've seen from Julep in quite some time! Bravo Julep! I had a bit of a snafu this month as they forgot to include Beatrix in my packaging and I had to wait till it came before I could write this review, hence the lateness...hopefully next month that won't happen! Keep your manis and pedis looking hot during this Fall season and don't be afraid to walk on the...dark side every once in a while! 
       

Happy Makeuping and Polishing, you lil rebels, you!