Julep Maven - May

My new Julep Maven box arrived on Saturday! Julep allows you to choose which package you receive so I already knew three of the colors I was getting. I upgraded to get a fourth mystery color. Julep has recently changed the rules for their Maven boxes though. I don't think you can choose which package gets delivered to you any more. Well, I'll see how it works when next month's box gets ready to ship.

Onto the May colors!

As I said, I received four colors this month. Most of them are spring-like pastel colors. The colors are: Paulette, Bess, Jules, and Iona.

Paulette is a sort of lavender color. Even though the color doesn't seem it, it is actually really shimmery. As a result, it does take a few coats in order to get it to show up well. Two coats worked fine.

Bess is a pretty baby blue shade. This is probably my favorite of the bunch. It covers very well. Only one coat is needed but I found that the second coat makes it pop more. This was the mystery shade I added onto my subscription.

Jules is a peachy pink color. I mainly picked this specific shade because my daughter loves all things pink. Unfortunately, this one is disappointing. One coat barely shows up on a naked nail. Two coats works a little bit better but it is still rather see-through. We tried to do a nail design with the Jules on top of Bess but the blue still shone through unless we really thickly applied the pink. Maybe we'll figure out what to do with it later.

Iona is my second favorite color, just behind Bess. It is a deep purple shade that matches Paulette very well. When I have some time, I might try to do an Iona/Paulette pattern to see what happens. It might be too awesome for words.

I have to admit that I am pretty happy with this month's selection. The Maven subscription is $19.99 and the mystery shade addition was an extra $4.99 so my total this month came to $24.98. The nail polish normally retails at $14 each but Mavens get a 20% discount off of anything in the store plus free shipping. Even though I'm not particularly enamored with Jules, I do like the other colors. I'd have to say this box was a success.

Subscription Box: Beauty Box 5

It is time for another subscription box review! Yesterday's mail brought me the Beauty Box 5. BB5 gives you 5 beauty products. Most of them are sample sized but sometimes you get a full-sized product. In my opinion, the cost is very reasonable. If you pay monthly, it costs $12. However, if you choose the quarterly option, it is only $30. The last option is yearly, which is $99. Most women probably pay more than that per month on regular beauty products. Now you get to try new things!

When you first open the box, you are greeted with the month's informational postcard. The front of the card tells you a little bit about that month's theme. Turning the card over, the back gives you a detailed description of each product in the box. You also get a card with five codes that allow your friends to get their first and fifth boxes for free. Update: Sorry, that is a different box that I will be reviewing next week.

Here is the inside of the box I received. Due to the way it was packaged, you can't see all five products in this shot. But there are definitely five products there. Let's go through them one by one.

First up, Blum Naturals All-Purpose Cleansing Wipes in Citrus Scent. The bottle contains 30 wipes with a grapefruit smell. I adore citrus scents so I think this will get a lot of use. If all goes well with it, I would buy the full-sized version for the house.

Next up is the bh cosmetics California Collection eyeshadow palette. The palette has three shades: Hollywood is a deep purple color, San Francisco is a bronzey sort of color, and Malibu is a yellowish gold. These are some awful pictures of the shades but I couldn't get both the purple and the bronze to show up without making the gold look garish. In reality, all three are very nice colors. I would most likely wear San Francisco the most but my favorite color-wise is Hollywood.

The next two products go together so I'll talk about them at the same time. One is NickAK New York Hydro Lipstick in the Gypsy Begonia shade. I love this color. It's like a deep berry color. I really can't wait to try this one out! With it came a Bonne Bell lip definer. Unfortunately, this came with the pencil tip broken off. So I can't tell you much about the shade. It seems to match the lipstick but I can't be positive.

Finally, there is a 3-day Natural Glow moisturizer by Jergens. I believe this is supposed to be similar to spray-on tanners. I've never used fake tan products before. This appears to be a sample sized product so I'm not sure how much coverage you would actually get from it. You might be able to cover your face and your arms but it definitely will not cover your entire body. I doubt that I will personally try this one out but maybe I can find someone to try it for me.

And that is it! I am quite happy with what I received in this month's box. Out of the 5 products, I will definitely use at least three of them. I have two more boxes left in my subscription package so I hope this is a trend that will continue!

Subscription Box: Julep Maven

I've recently decided to start trying out subscription boxes. Subscription boxes are a (generally) monthly box of goods sent from a company for a monthly fee. The first box I'm going to review is Julep Maven.

Julep is a company that specialized in beauty products. Normally, this isn't my "thing" but I've seen a few unboxing videos and it was enough to talk me into trying their monthly subscription box called Maven.

When you first open the purple box, you'll find the obligatory advertisements that come in pretty much every order you've ever made. One of the differences between Maven and other subscription boxes is that you can customize Maven to your own style. When you sign up, you can take a beauty profile quiz that will help direct you toward which type of box you'd like sent to you. While I would have gone with the "Classic" style, I chose the "It Girl" style for my daughter. The "Classic" box would have come with two nail polishes and one beauty product. The "It Girl" comes with three nail polishes, perfect for my brand new nail polish fiend. Other options include "Boho Glam," "Bombshell," and "Modern Beauty."

Here are the three nail polish colors we received. While they were not labeled, I believe the orange squares are nail buffer/file/things. I'm not sure they will get used much. From left to right, the three colors we received are: Angela (a glittery blue-green shade), Hope (a white satin color), and Catrina (a bright yellow polish). My personal favorite is Angela. However, I can see the three of them coming together to make a cute nail design. Keep an eye on my Instagram for upcoming photos of the colors in action!

If you really like nail polish, this is definitely the box for you. Since my daughter loves painting her nails, I will most likely keep the subscription for a few more months. Click the link here to sign up for your own box.