Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Julep Polishes

You wouldn't think so, as I am someone that has an undisclosed amount of polishes (read TONS), but more times that not, I have a tendency to get in a rut and find myself only using certain brands.  As such, I absolutely love when I discover a new-to-me brand.  One of these brands, Julep, I recently had the opportunity to try.

UPDATE... Here's a better picture of Charlotte:




Charlotte - Dusty, plummy purple creme.  This color is absolutely beautiful.  It's a dusty purple creme, with enough red in the base, to not be a dead-on dupe for RBL Purple Haze.  That said, as RBL Purple Haze is currently discontinued (though I think it is coming back for a limited edition redux), Charlotte may just fufill and "dusty, mid-tone purple" lemmings you may have.  And since I know you are asking, here's a comparison...



Charlotte is on middle and pinky, Purple Haze is on ring finger.

As much as I love Purple Haze, and I do love it as it's one of the few RBLs I've actually kept, I think I may love Charlotte more.  First off, the formula on Charlotte was EXCEPTIONAL.  Both swatches of Charlotte above are one coat.  ONE.  That's it.  Y'all know how I love my one-coaters.  :P  Purple Haze is a 2-coater for me.  Also, the color just seemed to work so much better on my skin-tone.  If you have super pale pink hands like me, then you may find that mid-toned purples have a tendency to give you dead-hands.  Because of the plummy/red base in this, I didn't get that with Charlotte.


Emmanuelle - Pale, soft baby pink creme.  While I call this one a creme in my descriptor, it actually seemed more like a jelly to me, or at least jelly-esque.  It really reminded me of the soft shades from OPI Femme de Cirque.  However, this formula, again, was so much easier to work with.  I had zero drag with Emmanuelle, and I didn't even have to wait between coats (something I normally have to do with paler shades).  It's a super pale pink, so of course, it's a little on the sheerer side, but it is buildable.  The above picture is 3 coats, and I was able to reach opacity.  However, I bet if you used a sticky base coat, you may actually be able to reach opacity with 2 coats.


Natasha - Bright red-orange creme.  Ahhhh.  Natasha.  I swear, I have been craving this exact shade of red/orange, so when I opened my box from Julep and saw this little beauty in there... I admit it... I squealed.  This one, like Emmanuelle, did have a bit of a jelly quality to the finish.  It almost looks like hard candies.  I was able to reach opacity in 2 coats, however, so it's not a true jelly.  And, I know I sound like broken record, but again, the formula on this one was great. 

All in all, I really like all 3 Julep polishes that I had the opportunity to try.  As it was a brand I was unfamiliar with, during my review, I happened to check out their website, and I was happy to see they had around 70 colors (I'm currently eyeing Stella).  They also have something called "Julep Maven" which is a monthly shipment program.  For $19.99, each month, you get $40 worth of nail polish and treatments (and extra goodies like free shipping).  I haven't joined it yet, but I must say... I am EXTREMELY tempted.  Also, $1 of each bottle purchased goes to Julep's "Powered by Girlfriends" program.  Plus, and this is a HUGE plus, the formula on all of these was fantastic.  It makes me tempted to try more.  :)

Julep polishes are available for sale on their website (and if you are in the Seattle, WA area, I'm guessing they are for sale in-store).  Price is $14/ bottle.

these were sent to me for review

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