Julep review and swatch spam!

By now, you've probably heard of the polish company Julep.
They've got this pretty cool thing called Maven where you subscribe and pay $20 a month to receive a box that has polish and other stuff in it like hand creams or cuticle oil. I really like the idea. But the execution... not so good.

There have been several long blog posts about people's issues with Julep before and my experience was no different. Their customer service leaves so much to be desired, and makes it difficult to want to ever support them.

I joined Julep Maven a few months ago during one of their sales where you can get your first box for just one cent. After that I paid for one box (because I wanted the cuticle oil in it and the colors seemed nice) and then I got a free box for referring two people. Since then the boxes have just been boring and I'll probably never pay for another one.

I don't like Julep but I sure like that photo I took of them! Hahaha.

Okay, here goes the review on the actual polish. I'm going to make some general complaints before showing the swatches.
1) The bottle is just horrible. I have no idea who thought it was a good idea to put nail polish into such a tall, skinny bottle. It has no stability and is so easy to knock over.
2) Because of the long and skinny bottle, the brush suffers. It has to be longer to reach the bottom of the awkward bottle. Because of this, it is way harder to paint your nails because the brush is further from the handle. Imagine trying to write your name with a pen, but holding it way further away than you're used to. It's just messy.
3) You know how sometimes, you're painting your nails, and suddenly a big drop of polish drips down the brush and onto your nail? That happens pretty much every time with these. Again, it's due to the bottle. More of the brush handle is dunked into polish in the long bottle. So more polish stays on the brush handle waiting to drip down and flood your cuticles. It annoyed me so much as I was swatching that if I had to put the brush down for some reason, I laid it on the table instead of putting it into the bottle so it wouldn't get coated in polish again.
4) The brush itself... Ugh. It's too thick and hard and won't conform to the nail. I've got a photo illustrating that after the first swatch.
5) The price. These retail for $14. Good lord, I hope no one actually buys these for $14 a piece. So so so so so so not worth it.

Okay. Do you even want to see the polishes after that? Haha!

Julep - Chloe
A black jelly with lots of magenta glitter. This polish has probably one of the worst formulas I've ever used. It was like glue. Black, glittery glue. Just awful. 2 thick coats.

Here's the photo showing how the brush does not conform to the nail:

See that empty spot along the sidewall? Good luck getting the brush to fan enough to get down there. Especially when you're working with glue.
So annoying. So bad.

Julep - Hayden
This polish I like. The formula is good, and the color is really different. It's like a neon peach. No complaints about this one, besides all the general bottle/brush complaints.

Julep - Oscar
Oscar is a gold glitter that was inspired by The Oscars.  This is just one coat over Hayden. You could probably get full coverage with this glitter. As far as glitter goes, this is nice, but not original.

Julep - Kim
Kim is a streaky, awful mess. This is three frosty coats, and each one dragged the other. It was a nightmare to apply. No bueno. Yuck.

Julep - Megan
This one is an alright color, not unique, but again the formula just sucks. Frosty and streaky and draggy. 3 coats.

Julep - Helena
Nice color, alright formula... But you can get the same color from Sinful Colors for $2. Sometimes $1. (The color is Dream On.)

Julep - Marisa
Nice color, decent formula, nothing special.

Julep - Leah
I love this color. Great formula, too. 2 coats. Really nice shimmer. Thank the lord I actually got two polishes I like.

Between my three boxes I also ended up with a bottle of their topcoat which is really sucky.
I also got a bottle of Nail Therapy which I haven't tried but I'm sure it's nothing to write home about.

Now I'll show you the one thing that made my $20 spent on Julep worth it:

The cuticle oil.
I just love it. Not necessarily the oil itself but the delivery method.

It's a roll on! How smart. Man, I love it. Just roll it onto your cuticles. No mess, no fuss.
The oil smells really good, it smells like fruity cereal! Seriously! It doesn't absorb as good as OPI's AvoPlex oil (which is my favorite) but it is better than some other brands I've tried.
So the oil is decent but the bottle is awesome.
When I use it up I'll be refilling it with AvoPlex! Good job on this one, Julep.

One last little complaint before I go:

Why are the labels all in different places?!

Ooooooooh, Julep.
I hope this post has been informative... heh.

I wish there was China Glaze Maven. OPI Maven. Color Club Maven. Essence Maven. Those things I'd pay for!