Julep - February 2013....and thensome

I might have said that I wasn't looking for a monthly nail polish subscription.  And I might have said that I don't need more nail polish.  Ok, I did say those things and they are true statements.  But now I have a monthly nail polish sub and a polish collection that is growing by leaps and bounds every month.  The February Classic with a Twist collection arrived before January was even over.  That's a welcome change from all of the recent delivery days I've encountered with other subs.  And here's what I got:

The colors I received this month were inspired by Helen Hunt and Claudette Colbert.  I loved Helen Hunt with Paul Reiser on Mad About You and I thought she looked stunning at the SAG Awards a few weeks ago.  Some said she had on too much glitter.  I say she had on just enough!  Given how flashy her ensemble was that night, this polish seems so tame.  Helen is a "smokey pastel lavender creme".  I'm thinking this will make a good base coat for some of my new glitter bombs and is unlike any other color in my stash.

I've never heard of Claudette Colbert, but she won an Academy Award in 1934 for It Happened One Night.  Her polish is a "smokey brick red creme".  I put this bottle up against OPI SkyFall and Zoya Tamzen.  There are similarities but SkyFall is more brown and Tamzen is more orange.  This should look good with a matte top coat or maybe even a holo top coat.  I'll play around and see what I can come up with.



Also included were the Oxygen nail treatment and Freedom top coat.  Julep calls Oxygen "makeup for your nails".  It's recommended that Oxygen be used on it's own to give nails a break from polish and the formula is meant to strengthen nails.  I put it on for a day and it was fine but I've got so, so many new colors to play with and just not enough time to play with them - no bare nails for me.  The Freedom top coat has a quick dry formula that gives nails a gel-like shine while protecting that pretty polish from chipping.  I used it over my mani last week and it seemed to cause some of that dreaded polish shrinkage.  It did leave my nails super shiny and I didn't have chipping, plus they felt really strong.

As special extras, Julep sent an eyelash curler and 2 yummy chocolate hearts.  Thanks, Julep!  I'm happy with what they sent this month.

Now here's what else I got for myself:
As a Julep Maven, I get points when people use my referral code and for each monthly Maven box.  Those points can be used towards other collections and purchases.  I decided that I needed the November Classic with a Twist box because it contained Brit and Minka, beautiful suede finish colors as well as some grapefruit body frosting (?) so I used 2000 points to add them to my stash. As a bonus, I also received 3 nail polish remover pads.













And then, Bloomspot offered a $50 Julep promo credit for $20. Heck yeah, I bought one!  I should have bought more, but they're sold out now.  Probably for the best.  I had planned to save it for a while but did I? Absolutely not. I managed to ignore the secret store but the Cupid's Mystery Box and Valentine's sets got me.  The Cupid's Mystery Box was $19.99 and promised to include not only $70-$200 worth of "Valentine's Treats"but also a "mystery holographic or gift code for the color of your choice".  I received 4 polishes and a lip gloss, but no mystery holo or gift code. I emailed customer service on Friday night and haven't heard back yet but it is the weekend had a gift code from them by Monday afternoon. 

From the Valentine's Sets, I got My Favorite Valentine featuring Hillary, Maya and Rose.  I also added on more polish remover packets and Patti; Julep threw in another packet of the pedi creme as an extra.

For those keeping score at home, I went from "I need no more nail polish" to "I need to add a dozen polishes from Julep to my stash". There are a few I think might be dupes for colors I already have, and someday I'll take the time to see if that's true.  In the meantime, I need to stop buying all the polishes because not only did I get these...

...but then I needed these from Candy Lacquers...

...as well as the three I'm still waiting on from Enchanted Polish.

My name is Jessica and I'm have an addiction.