Julep Maven July Box: Modern Beauty and Add-ons with swatches

I did something for July in regards to my Julep maven box that I never thought I’d do. I chose the Modern beauty box. If you don’t know, the Modern beauty box is usually whatever non-nail polish items that Julep is offering for the month and no nail polish. The featured beauty items for June were dry body oil and sea salt hair texturing spray and I could not resist them. So I chose modern beauty and added on the nail colors I liked and I’m very happy with my decision.

July Modern beauty box with add ons

I received the dry body oil, sea salt texturizing spray, and my add ons were Tracy, Cassie, and Fireworks. Julep’s extra this month were green tea facial blotting papers.

I have heard great things about this spray, unfortunately I haven’t been able to get it to work on my hair. I tried it on wet hair and let it air dry and my hair was HUGE. I have a lot of hair and it was too much volume for my taste. I tried it on blow dried hair and it didn’t really do anything. I want to try it on 2nd day air dried hair and see how that works. If anyone has a good idea on how I can use this I’d love to hear! I also have to use a TON of it which is kind of a bummer. This is my hair before and then after. You can see it didn’t do much and I already had used a bunch of the product. Maybe it’s just not for me or maybe I’m doing something wrong which is completely possible. *sad face*

The dry oil, on the other hand, is actually really awesome! It sprays very evenly and nicely and smells really nice. It absorbs quickly into my skin and leaves it feeling soft and smelling nice. I really like this.

The nail polish this go round was equally amazing.

Cassie (classic with a twist)-Soft coral sheer. I really really liked this!! Applied extremely well and looks gorgeous. These photos are with no top coat because it dried really shiny.  And I kid you not, it smells like apples.

Fireworks (classic with a twist)-Red, white and blue multi-dimensional glitter top coat. This was fun. It applied evenly and looked really cool. I did a patriotic pedi for July 4th and I used fireworks and got a lot of compliments. It’s really pretty! I also like that it’s pretty different than Julep’s other patriotic polish.

Tracy (it girl)– Sparkly ocean blue sea salt. This was my favorite of the 3 and I’m so so glad I decided to get it. It applied like a dream and looked absolutely gorgeous on! I am in love. Swatches are with no top coat, but you could add a top coat for shine and dimension.

There you have it! Very happy with my Julep Maven box this month. Julep Maven boxes are $19.99/month and the add ons vary in price. You can get your first box for free using the code FREEMAVEN. 

If you’d like to join Julep, I’d really appreciate if you used my referral link. I have not been disappointed yet! http://www.julep.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/113382/

Here is my unboxing video if you are interested.

Julep Maven Secret Store for July

Nothing really wows me this month, but since I just got a TON of stuff from the warehouse sale, that’s not really surprising. Plus I’m trying to spend less money so I won’t be getting anything from the store this month. I thought about getting the Peony lip gloss because it’s amazing, but I have to resist. 

 

Beauty Box 5 Unboxing and Review

I recently received a Beauty Box 5 (BB5) to review on my blog. For those of you who aren’t familiar with BB5 it’s a monthly beauty box subscription service similar to Birchbox and Ipsy. The boxes feature 4-5 deluxe sized samples/full size products for $12/month. Boxes contain a mixture of cosmetics, nail products, skin products, hair products, fragrances and beauty tools. Brands may include well known brands, niche brands, and even vegan brands.

My package arrived in a delightful little box.

Then I opened it and found these goodies!

• Model Co. Illusion Lip Enhancer pencil–full size ($20.00)-I love this because it’s a skin color pencil that I can use to enhance my small lips. When I first looked at the color of this pencil, I thought it would be dark, but it actually matches my lips perfectly. I have used it and I think it works very well. I just use it to barely line outside my natural lip line and I define my cupids bow.

• bodyocology Clear Foundation Primer–deluxe sample size-I just tried this primer this morning under my Rimmel BB cream and I LOVE it. It made my face very smooth and seemed to even smooth my fine lines. I have this bad habit of looking at my face in my car visor mirror even though it amplifies all my pores and fine lines. I looked at myself again this morning and I really could notice a difference! I like this primer a lot.

• blinc Mascara in black–Sample Size-I’ve tried this before, but it’s been awhile. I tried it on my freshly curled lashes and it made them look super thick. I didn’t notice any smudging and it didn’t bother my eyes at all. It was weird when I removed it though, I got my lashes wet after I washed my face, then I sort of “pulled” the mascara off. It came off in strings and looked like I had pulled a set of lashes off. It was strange. I guess it was the “tubes” coming off my lashes. I will use up this entire sample, but I don’t think I’d purchase a full size.

• Brazen Cosmetics eyeshadow in “birthday suit”-deluxe sample-I wore this as an all over lid color and blended it in my crease and I really liked it! It blended nicely into my skin and it’s a very nice neutral shade perfect for a natural makeup look.

• Jean Pierre Cosmetics Oil Absorbing facial tissues–full size-I haven’t tried these yet, but I love the plastic case they come in. I’ve tried facial tissues that come in regular cardboard boxes before and they always get beat up in my work bag. I think something like this will be good for me since the plastic will probably hold up a bit better. I tend to get oily in the afternoon so these will come in handy.

So there you have it!! I actually really love everything in this box, and since it contained some full size products and a nice variety of products, I feel like it’s definitely worth the $12.

If you want to receive a Beauty Box 5, you can sign up HERE. You have to sign up before the 10th of the month to receive that month’s box and you can cancel anytime.

Here is my unboxing/review video 🙂

*disclaimer-I received the box free to review, but all opinions are 100% honest. The link is not a referral link, just a link to the BB5 website.

June Ipsy glam bag Unboxing

I was going through Picasa editing some photos for a new Indie polish review and I saw the swatches of the items in my June Ipsy bag that I took, and it dawned on me! I forgot to do a post on my June Ipsy bag!! So here it is a bit late, but at least it’s still June!

Ipsy went with a “Wild” theme this month, which I can always appreciate. I love going bold with makeup every now and then. Since I generally keep my makeup conservative for work, I like to let loose when I can.

The first goodie I pulled from my shiny pink bag was this baublebar bracelet. This was a gift I received for referring 2 people to Ipsy in the previous month, so if that was you, I thank you!! I like this bracelet because it’s adjustable, and bracelets tend to be too big for me. I have about a 6 inch wrist and this bracelet fits nice! I browsed baublebar’s website, and they have some really cute jewelry! I received a coupon code with my ipsy bag, so I may get myself some goodies.

Next, I pulled out this Chella Ivory Lace Highlighter pencil. The color on this is darker than I expected, but I plan to use this under my brows, bridge of my nose, and cupid’s bow. I think it will look nice blended out.

I was very excited to see this in my bag. J. Cat Eyelashes and glue! I enjoy wearing falsies every once in a while, and these look nice and natural enough for daytime wear.

I thought for sure I was getting the nude colored pencil in my bag, so I was thrilled when I saw this one!! It’s in the shade called “tipsy” and made by Starlooks. The color is a coral color and I think it would look fabulous as both a liner, and an all over lip color.

I originally thought this was an eye shadow palette, but apparently it’s a body glitter palette? I may still try it on my eyes with great care though. The glitter is chunky and if it gets in your eyes, it will hurt and possibly damage them, so use around your eyes at your own risk! I so wish this had been eyeshadow. It’s also by J. Cat.

The last item was NYX powder blush in the shade called “spice”. It is described as a Matte Mauve, to me It’s a nice pink with a shimmer, and I’ll definitely use it!

I swatched all the items and was a bit disappointed in the glitters, aside from the gold and the dark turquoise color, they all sort of look alike when applied on the skin. My favorite is the gold because it’s got some holographic glitter in it.

See? The last 2 colors especially look similar. In the pans the second from the last one appears to contain holographic glitter, while the last one does not.

 Here are swatches of the Starlooks pencil in Tipsy, The Chella highlighter, and the NYX blush in spice. All very pretty wearable colors for me.

Overall, I like this bag. It contains things I can definitely wear, with the exception of the glitter palette, and my verdict on that is still sort of up in the air. I may get brave and try an eye look with it, if I do I will post a pic!!

Update: I did a makeup look with all the products from this month’s bag after I published this post. Here it is!

Did you enjoy your ipsy bag this month?

If you are interested in joining Ipsy for $10/month, I would highly recommend it. I have never been sorely disappointed with Ipsy, and they include a lot of full size products. If you want to join, please do so through my link. I’d greatly appreciate it. Join Ipsy here: http://www.ipsy.com/?refer=u-hb8pdmp0msq61ir8

Also check out my spoiler page for July!! I will be constantly updated the page as soon as I can.

Comodynes Self-Tanning Intensive Review

I am a very upbeat, positive person, but I’m afraid this review is going to be pretty negative. 😦 I got this tanning wipe in my June Birchbox, and I wanted to let my current self tanner fade before I applied it. Finally, yesterday seemed to be a good day to try it out, so I exfoliated, shaved, and moisturized in preparation for trying out the towel. I have never used towels for tanning before, but it was super easy! I unwrapped the towel and did my best to rub it all over. You can’t see where you’ve already applied, which I was expecting. The scent wasn’t bad either. The size of the towel was tiny, and in my haste to apply the tanner before the towel dried, it kept getting all rolled up. Despite my best efforts, the towel dried out really quickly, before I felt I had gotten my upper body fully. 

The size of the towel in relation to the package. I felt it was small.

Of course after applying the towel, I had no idea what it would look like. The package says 3 hours, but I didn’t notice full color until I woke up this morning, and it wasn’t pretty folks. I did notice a slight smell during development, but I haven’t had a tanner yet that was completely free of this. When I looked at the color, I saw orange and spotty where I was actually able to apply, and no color change at all on my upper body, when the towel had dried. Here it is folks, and remember, I warned you!

Before and after. If you’re brave enough to zoom this photo, you’ll see the splotchiness.

I love the idea of a tanning towel, and it was super easy to apply, but I would need 2-3 towels to get adequate coverage and I’m 5’6″ and roughly 122 lbs.

Bottom line: I didn’t like this and I had to re-tan today with my favorite tanner by Sun Goddess.

Has anyone else tried this and gotten good results?

 

 

Ipsy Vs. Birchbox: June 2013

It was a good month for beauty boxes for me!! I loved both my boxes so much I couldn’t decide on a winner this month.

July Ipsy Sneak peeks!

I got this in my email this morning!! On the account that I got one Ipsy bag and canceled.  Looks like Item # 1 for July is Benefit’s benetint!!

Super excited about this, believe it or not I’ve never tried Benetint.

Sneak Peek #1!!!

TOP SECRET BRAND

JULY GLAM BAG SNEAK PEEK #1

A pop of perfect color will be yours from sand to sundown.

This looks super exciting to me, but confirming a brand will be hard since these types of lippies are used by many companies. Judging by the picture below, I am thinking it’s POP Beauty pouty pop. Thank you to the ladies at makeup talk for posting the second photo.

Sneak Peek #2

Sun or city, guard your skin from spots and wrinkles with this instant summer fave!

Looks like Coola Sunscreen!! I have tried the cucumber moisturizer and it’s amazing!! I am very excited about this.

Thanks to Zadidoll for finding the product on ipsy.com!

Thanks to Zadidoll and the lovely ladies on makeup talk for finding the 3rd Sneak Peek!!

Sneak Peek #3

Have fun finding the perfect beach-look with this gorgeous combination of California colors!

Can you guess what this is??

It’s a bh cosmetics sample eyeshadow palette!!! Apparently the palette will contain a sample from each of their 3 California palettes. I am so stoked for this!!

Isn’t that gorgeous??!!

Rumor also has it that the bag this month will be a hot pink clear vinyl bag!! (Thanks Zadidoll!)

Leaked Instagram pic!!-I got this from Zadidoll who received it from an anonymous informant. 🙂

Here are some possible products some Ipsy subbies may get. Since they do variations for their bags, some may get these items and some may not. We will see. I took these pics from Zadidoll’s facebook page. She is my official source for Ipsy Sneak Peeks!!

Sneak Peek #4 is out!!

ONE of these is yours for summer’s salt air and beachy hair!

Looks like 2 possible Sexy hair products.

Sneak Peek #5!!!

Turn up the heat and top off your summer look with ONE of these sun-ready finds!

Sneak peek 5 includes the following products:

So it does look like the Benetint is in fact an OR product. Kind of a bummer, but the bag still looks awesome this month!

July’s Ipsy Bag Possible Products:

• pop Beauty pouty pop lip crayon
• Coola Rose Essence moisturizer sunscreen
• bh Cosmetics California Collection sample eyeshadow palette
• demeter Salt air roll on perfume oil OR derma e microdermabrasion OR Nailtini in Mai Tair OR Benefit Benetint
• Healthy sexy hair soy renewal beach spray OR Big Sexy Hair weather proof spray
• Hot pink clear vinyl makeup bag

Based on what we know, this is what I hope my bag looks like:

• Pop Beauty Crayon in the brightest shade
• Coola Rose Essence moisturizer
• Eyeshadow palette
• Nailtini in Mai Tai nail polish
• Soy Renewal beach spray

Oh please oh please oh please Ipsy God’s hear my request!!

What do you hope you get?

June Birchbox Unboxing

There were around 40 variations to this month’s Birchbox, but every subscriber got a polish from Color Club’s exclusive Wanderlust collection. I like when they include a sought after product in everyone’s box, I think it eliminates some box envy. (Hello my name is Stephanie and I..suffer…from…beauty box envy…) There, I said it. When some subscribers got the Ruby Wing color changing polish last month and I didn’t, I wanted to stomp my feet and cry that it wasn’t fair (not that I did that or anything….) Anyway on to this month’s box. 

Inside I found some pretty good things, in my humble opinion. First I pulled out a Comodynes tanning towelette. 

 

I know a lot of ladies who got this were disappointed, but I am excited to try it. I am a chronic self tanner, but I’ve never tried a towelette. The only thing I worry about is not being able to do my whole body with this one towelette. I will post a picture when I try it out. If you have already tried these let me know what you thought. 

Next, I found a matchbox of Tweezerman nail files. This was considered the box’s “lifestyle extra” although I consider this a beauty product. 

 

I actually already own these in another print and I really like them! They work very well and you can stash them anywhere. My favorite place to use them is at work. Occasionally I will snag a nail and need a quick fix, and these are perfect. I get a ton of use out of just one of these little files. 

Next I found a small tub of Suki exfoliate foaming cleanser.

 

I was pleased to see that this is a decent sized deluxe sample, and I am excited to try it. It is a sugar based lemongrass infused exfoliating cleanser. I exfoliate just about daily, so I will definitely get a few uses out of this. 

Next, I grabbed the pillow box, because I knew what laid within (I peeked), and one item was a lippie!

This is a LAQA and Co. Lil’ lip. It’s a bright pink color which I am in love with. I think the shade I got is called Lambchop. I like bright colors though, I know a lot of ladies were displeased with this on the Birchbox facebook page, but I am NOT one of those ladies!! I will rock this pink. 

 

It applied smoothly and I really like the twist up plastic packaging. This is one of my favorite items in this month’s Birchbox. 

The other item in the pillow box was a color club nail polish!

 

The shade is called Mod in Manhattan and I would describe this as an off white creme with a hint of peach in it. It applied pretty smoothly and the swatches below show 3 coats with Seche top coat. I really like this shade and I think it makes my skin look tanner! For some reason I feel like my nails look longer with this shade as well. 

 

So I am really liking my Birchbox this month. Another thing I wanted to mention was Birchbox’s new look. Did anyone notice? They sort of redid their theme. I like it, but I liked the other one too, so I’m a bit indifferent. 

What did you get in your Birchbox this month?

If you didn’t get one and you want one, you can sign up here. 

The First Ever Target Beauty Box!

I finally got my Target beauty box. I know a lot of you have been waiting for yours and I was thrilled when a box from Target arrived!

It came in a white box with target emblems on it.

I knew what was in the box because of the spoiler post I did, but it was still thrilling to finally open it! It was only $5 with free shipping.

Inside I found the following goodies.

The card that it came with said something to the effect off “The first monthly target box….” so I’m thinking these will become more regular. I guess the response they got with this first one was pretty good.

First goodie I pulled out was:

A full sized Venus Olay razor!-This may be the highlight of the box for me. I already use and love Venus razørs, so I only expect great things from this. And with it being summer I’m shaving like every other day.

Then I grabbed…

Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail polish strips! I like these. They retail for about $8.50 and are pretty cool. I prefer nail polish, but these are nice for a quick mani if you don’t want to wait for drying time. I also really like the giraffe print!

Next was:

Fekkai glossing cream!! Probably my 2nd favorite in the box. I have very thick, coarse, naturally wavy hair and I am very excited to try this out! I’ve heard some pretty good things about it.

After grabbing these 3 bigger items, I had 2 foil packets left. I dislike foil packets, but for $5 it’s expected in a box like this.

The first foil packet was:

L’Oreal Magic skin beautifier BB cream-I was not excited about this because I already own the full size product and it’s nothing to write home about. This will probably end up in a trade or package I send to someone.

The last foil packet was more exciting to me…

Effaclar duo dual action acne treatment-I am actually having a breakout right now 😦 I tried to take biotin for my nails and it caused some pretty severe acne as a side effect. I have quit the biotin, but the acne is still present. I’m hoping it will go away soon. I am always interested in new acne products, although I wish this was a bigger sample, or at least 3 days worth so we could test out the claim that it starts to clear acne in 3 days.

So there you have it! All in all for $5 it’s a decent haul. For those of you who got the Target Beauty Box what did you think? I am also interested to see what patterns you all received of the nail strips!

Post in the comments!

I got my Target Beauty Box!

For those who’ve been wondering about the target beauty box, I did receive mine today through USPS. I am waiting to open it for tomorrow so I can do an unboxing video along with my birchbox. Plus I had to run to work so no time to open 😦 I just wanted to let y’all know because I know a lot of ladies were wondering when it would come.
Happy Friday Everyone!