Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend.  Sorry I haven't been around for a couple of days. I had both a birthday and graduation party this weekend to attend.

Today I have for you Zoya Jules.  Jules is a taupe, tan, beige-ish color with gold undertones and shimmer.  It's the smaller size, so no, my hands are not gi-normous, and I'm pretty sure I got this in a blog sale for super cheap.  This also may have been the first Zoya in my collection!  I sound like such an old fart who can't remember anything! HAHA, truth is, when you buy tons of polishes within a day, week, or season's span, you lose track of how you obtained it all! LOL

Yay! Finally got my September a.k.a. 2nd Julep Maven box in the mail yesterday. Turns out, the post office was sitting on it for a full week with some other nail mail I had been waiting for! Ugh!

A letter from Julep explaining their company and program

Card insert describing what's inside my box

Roll on cuticle oil and hand lotion

My new polish, Vera.

My extra goodies!!

Double-sided crystal nail file, comb, lint remover/mirror combo

Ok, so I love Funky Fingers nail polishes. The shape of the bottle is so adorable and I've never had any problems with their formula.  The only place that I've seen them being sold is in Five Below. They always have a 2 for $5 sale on them which is a plus for me :)

Today I have Screamin' Fuschia, a loud pink that is so up my alley for the summer. Alas, summer is almost over. I'm dyyiiinnnggg to start wearing my fall colors (alot of them I have picked up within the last few weeks!), but I can't diss summer like that!  So here we go, Screamin' Fuschia!








This was 2 coats, and although I've had this color for quite some time without using it, it was like it was brand new.  It didn't chunk or flake up inside the brush handle and I didn't have to break my arm shaking it to get it all to mix - no shaking at all!  It doesn't dry very shiny which you can tell from the pics (no topcoat).

So...your thoughts on Screamin' Fuschia?

XoXo,
jess

Hi everyone! Not sure if you've noticed, but I've been doing my posts at night now.  Reason being is that school started back up so now that takes up my daytime time.  Boooo!! Just kidding, stay in school kids! :)  Seriously though, between reading and assignments, I feel like the best time for me to do my posts is at night.  So tonight I have for you Barielle - Elle's Spell.  I am in LUST with this!!! The flakies in this polish are uhh-may-zing! I never used to be a red polish kinda gal.  I have bought them here and there just for, well honestly I don't know why. But after wearing Elle's Spell, it really made me appreciate reds more than I did.

And now, for pics~

Look at the way those flakies sparkle!

Love the way the bottle looks in this picture!

no flash, and look at how it still shines

This was 3 coats with no top coat.  I love the formula, as with all of my other Barielle polishes.  This jelly is just jam-packed (pun intended haha) with iridescent flakies that change color depending on the angle the light is hitting it. I love this polish! Probably too much, methinks :)

XoXo,
jess

As I mentioned in my review of Julep Alfre yesterday, I had a color in my stash that I thought was very similar.  Turns out, that color is China Glaze Avalanche.  I had bought Avalanche a few months back because I heard it was good for stamping, but hadn't used it til now.  Are Alfre and Avalanche dupes?  Not exactly.  Let's take a look.






I have Avalanche on both my index and ring fingers, and Alfre on my middle and pinky fingers.  As you can see, they're not total dupes. Avalanche is way more on the frosty side whereas Alfre is a bit more mellow in that department.  Frostiness aside, they are spot on in color and application was the same IMO (in my opinion).  As I mentioned in my review for Alfre, I do not like frosty polishes.  In fact,  these 2 colors may possibly be the only frosts I own!  But the color itself is a winner for me, which may mean you might see me giving these babies a try for a full mani.

Anyhoo, what do you think? Similar? Am I way off?

XoXo,
jess

Happy Labor Day!  Hope you guys have some good plans going on for today...here I am, still trying to figure out how to end the summer with a bang...go fig!

Anyways, here is the last of my Julep polish swatches from my sneak peak box.  This one is Alfre, and is part of Julep's Fall 2011 collection which has yet to be released.  To be honest, I really wasn't a huge fan of this color in the bottle, and it looked really familiar to me because of the fact that it's a distinguished color.  Sure enough, when I got home and looked through my polishes, I found one that is M.I.G.H.T.Y. close to Alfre. Hint: It's a China Glaze color.  I'll do a post later of my comparison.








To be honest, this actually isn't a bad color.  It's not my favorite, I'm not a fan of frosty colors, but the shade definitely is nice for the Fall. As with Julep Cameron, application was very opaque after 1 coat, but I did 2 just to even out some of the streakiness.

My camera can't really pick up the color of Alfre, but it's a frosted purple/grey, more purple than grey-toned.  No topcoat for the pictures and it's still very much shiny on it's own.  Once again, another great polish from Julep.  Not my favorite color, but hey, who has ever liked every shade of every color before?

What are your thoughts of Alfre?

Have a Happy Labor Day, guys!

XoXo,
jess

Good morning!  It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood and I'm about to head out to a Zumba class!  Has anyone tried it before? It's so much fun and an hour later my face is beet red and I'm hot like a tamale! LOL.

Before I go, I wanted to give you a swatch of Cameron from my first Julep Maven box.  I really fell in love with this color when I first saw that it was part of my Julep American Beauty Style!  It's pink beyond pink, classy enough for work, yet fun enough for the weekends.








I put 2 coats, even though with 1 it was nearly opaque.  No topcoat, and look at how shiny this baby is still! I really liked the brush too, it made it so easy to apply the polish.

My only complaint is that the bottle size is way smaller than your average bottle, obviously giving you much less product for a higher price than other designer brands.  But I think Julep can pull that off because I'm really in love with the quality level of their products and customer service.  Seriously, you will get emails from them often just keeping you updated on your orders, etc. Will I be keeping my monthly Julep Maven membership? Oh heck yea...

Anyone else sign up to be a Maven?  You can read what that is HERE on my other post.
AND DON'T FORGET, if you want to sign up to be a Maven like moi, click HERE!

XoXo,
jess