Julep Maven Box

My October Julep Maven box finally arrived in the mail today! For those not familiar with the Julep Maven program, it's essentially a beauty subscription program, not unlike Luxe Box or Glymm, but specific to hand and nail products. It's $19.99 a month, which is pricier than the other programs, but they offer only full-size products (worth a minimum of $40) rather than deluxe samples. Moreover, you get a preview of the products in your box (so there's no surprise factor), and if you are unhappy with the products in it, you can request for a box change, send the box to a friend, or skip the month completely (which is fantastic, so there's no obligation).

This month's "It Girl" box includes:

Glow On Age Defying Hand Brightener (89 ml, $32 retail price): This is essentially a hand treatment lotion that promises to "visibly minimize the appearance of fine lines and age spots on your hands while adding radiant glow and evening skin tone." It contains rare African plant extracts that are "clinically proven to block melanin production and reduce hyper-pigmentation." Since I only received this today, I haven't really seen the effects of the brightening aspects, but it is a really nice lightweight, water-resistant, non-greasy hand lotion. I see this as sort of a serum for the hands; it's not moisturizing enough to cure really dry hands, but it feels really nice and makes hands pretty soft. Plus, it has a lovely sweet citrusy smell that reminds me of Bliss Spa's Lemon + Sage Maximum Moisture Cream.

Nail Color in Jaime (8 ml, $14 retail price): A rich medium-dark cerulean blue in a cream finish. It applies really smoothly and evenly, and you can almost get it opaque in one coat. I can't really think of a dupe for this shade. The closest I can think of are OPI's Ogre-The-Top Blue (from last year's Shrek collection), which is slightly lighter, and Sephora by OPI's Slushied (from the Glee collection), which is lighter and more turquoise.

Nail Color in Leighton (8 ml, $14 retail price): A metallic medium silver. It applies really smoothly and evenly, and it goes opaque in one coat. It's a little thicker than the usual Julep formula, but it doesn't go on goopy. It can look a little streaky because of the metallic finish, though. It's not the most unique shade; most nail polish companies will have a shade like this. That being said, it's a fantastic neutral metallic that will look good on everybody and go with every outfit. Some possible dupes: OPI's Birthday Babe, Sephora by OPI's Social Climber, Essie's Steel-ing The Scene.

I'm really, really happy with this box. The shades are, again, totally up my alley. Absolutely worth $19.99. So far, I have zero complaints about this program! I can't rave enough about this program for nail polish lovers.