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Collection: Lovely (Zoya)
Retail Price: $8.00 (USD) per bottle

This is the spring 2013 Lovely collection from Zoya. It contains three fresh blooms of cream and three dewy metallics. These colors are perfect for the spring season (and Easter weekend!), and add a great pop of color to any look. Read on for my thoughts on this collection!

Jacqueline: This shade is a light beige creme with warm yellow undertones. It’s a great nude for skin tones with similar warm undertones, and a work-safe shade for all. Application is smooth and easy, and is opaque in only two coats.

Neely: This shade is a muted and dusty light green. Zoya claims it is a perfect “vintage” shade, and I have to agree! I always love green nail polish, so this was no exception. Great formula, and opaque in only two coats. No complaints here! Looking for a dupe? Check out Bossy Boots (Butter London), which is slightly brighter.

Blu: This shade is a soft baby blue creme. I’m not sure if I go a wonky bottle or if it’s because I took my photos under the sun, but my photo makes this shade look a bit brighter than other swatches I’ve seen. At first glance, it reminded me of Kristen (Zoya), but it’s not nearly dusty or dark enough! The closest dupe I own is Borrowed & Blue (Essie), though Blu is not quite as bright. The formula for Blu was a teensy bit on the thick side, and was opaque in two coats.

Julie: This shade is a dewy lilac shimmer. I was going to describe it as dusty at first, but when it reminded me of No More Waity, Katie (Butter London), I compared the bottles, and Julie is so much brighter! It seemed like a lie to call Julie dusty. In any case, I liked this purple so much more than I thought I would; I think it’s a nail color that would look flattering on many skin tones. Additionally, the formulas for the shimmers in this collection are so easy to work with. Application is forgiving, and I achieved full opacity in only two coats.

GeiGei: This shade is a cheerful cherry blossom pink shimmer. It’s a good fit within this collection, but I think you could find a dupe for it just about anywhere! Still, this is a great pink for spring, and an easy color to match with several looks. Once again, the formula for this shade is easy to work with, and GeiGei is opaque in two coats.

Piaf: According to Zoya, this shade is a “forsythia yellow metallic.”  Forsythia flowers are gorgeous, but I don’t think this shade is bright enough to do the flower justice! And it has slight metallic tendencies, but I’d call this a shimmer before a metallic any day! Still, I really love Piaf. This soft, dusty yellow makes me think of powdered gold dust. It’s got this dreamy quality to it that’s perfect for work or play, and doesn’t quite match anything else in my stash. Once again, I only needed two coats for full opacity. Definitely a keeper!

Out of the cremes, I especially like Jacqueline, but I think that’s because I find it looks great with my skin tone. And out of the shimmers, Julie and Piaf are the winners because I was surprised by how much I ended up liking them on my nails!

Overall, I really love this collection as a whole. Ordinarily, I’m not a fan of pastels, but I like these colors because they are not too washed out and because the dewy/dusty quality lends the collection a sense of uniqueness missing from other similar nail color collections.

Disclosure: Product samples provided by Zoya.

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Collection: Pink of Hearts (OPI)
Retail Price: $14.95 (USD) for the duo pack

For Breast Cancer Awareness month (October 2012), OPI brought out the Pink of Hearts duo pack, featuring a sweet and sheer pink and a sparkly pink glitter (both with adorable pink ribbon caps). These nail polishes are obviously great to highlight your support for breast cancer awareness, but I think they are perfect spring colors, too!

I Think In Pink: This shade is a light bubblegum pink with a very sheer, creme finish. Whether you wear one coat of this or three (like I have, in order to achieve complete opacity), this delicate color is subtle enough for work, but striking enough to be memorable, too.

You Glitter Be Good To Me: This nail polish features small coppery pink glitter with larger pieces of bright fuchsia glitter in two sizes. To really make a statement, you can layer this on for a fully blinged out look, or you can pair it with I Think In Pink (as I’ve done here) to give an ordinary manicure a little bit of dazzle. You Glitter Be Good To Me would also be a great glitter to use for accent nails on an I Think In Pink manicure!

I love all the versatility this duo pack offers. With only two nail colors, you can create several looks that range from fashionable and work-safe to sparkly and fabulous. Even though I typically don’t like sheer colors, it’s that versatility that makes me love this duo pack. There is something here for everyone, which is what makes this duo pack so awesome. Props, OPI!

Disclosure: Product samples provided by OPI.

(Source: blanketprint)

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Colors: America (Julep), Chelsea (Julep), and Kate (Julep)
Retail Price: $14.00 (USD) per bottle

Julep boxed up quite a lot of awesome for their July boxes. They’ve released some colorful new glitters that are perfect to add sparkle to your July, and they’ve also presented their spin on the matching nail and lip color trend. If I’m not mistaken, I believe this is Julep’s very first venture into lip colors, and my very first review of a lip product! Lots of excitement in this post, so I hope you’ll keep reading for my review of my Julep Maven Bombshell box for July!

America: This is a special glitter Julep included in all of the American Julep Maven boxes this month in honor of the 4th of July (Canadians received O Canada!). It is a mix of small red glitter, large blue glitter, and silver stars all suspended in a clear base. I was most excited for this glitter because of the silver stars (I love stars!), so I was really disappointed to discover there actually aren’t that many stars in this (I had to fish out the ones that made it onto my nails). Also, I think I just got a bad bottle because this is what the inside of my bottle looked like when I opened it (yuck…). So, my bottle was thick and gunky (fairly certain my bottle is a fluke, considering my bottle of Chelsea [see below for review] was just fine), which made the application process terrible, unfortunately. I’m wearing two coats of America in the photo above, and after some top coat, I managed to make it look okay, despite the formula. In any case, this combination of glitters is really unique, and certainly ideal for the 4th of July, Memorial Day, or any day you’re feeling particularly patriotic! 

Chelsea: This nail polish is a mix of violet, purple, and silver multi-dimensional glitter all suspended in a clear base. The formula for this is great, although I wish the glitter was a little more dense. Julep nail polish bottles suggest only two coats of each nail color is needed for a manicure, but if I’m only going to have glitter on my nails, I want full coverage! So, I’d recommend layering this over a solid color because two coats on a naked nail (as seen in my swatch photo) just doesn’t cut it for me. Julep’s nail art suggestion for this month is completing a Chelsea manicure with French tips in Kate (see below for review). I’m not so sure about this look, but then again, I appreciate its uniqueness since I would’ve done glitter tips on a creme manicure instead of the other way around. Always good to try new things! :)

Kate: This shade is a soft white pearl. It has a gorgeous, subtle shimmer in the bottle and also appears slightly grayed out, but on the nail, the shimmer sort of disappears and the nail color is a very bright white. For me, the difference between bottle color and nail color is fine because I like the brightness of the white. The formula for this is a little on the thin side, but I don’t mind since it’s still very easy to create a smooth, clean manicure. Overall, I think this would be a good nail polish to pick up since white is a staple for any nail polish stash and because the pearly shimmer makes Kate stand apart from other white nail polishes.

Zinnia: Julep created this odorless, tasteless (well, it tastes sort of like Vaseline, but I call that “tasteless”), long-wearing lip gloss to pair with Chelsea. It is a violet-plum lip gloss with subtle shimmer. Usually, when I wear lip color, I choose shades that are somewhat close to my natural lip color (Revlon lip butters in Pink Truffle and Berry Smoothie are my go-to colors right now), so when I first took out the lip gloss wand, I was a teensy bit startled with just how purple Zinnia is! But once you spread it on your lips, the color sort of thins out. As you can see in the photo of my lips, Zinnia only looks slightly darker/pinker than my natural lip color. So, if you’re into natural lip colors, this lip gloss might be for you! And even if you’re not, I think it would be great to wear over a saturated purple lipstick. My favorite thing about wearing Zinnia is that it doesn’t feel super sticky like some lip glosses do, so it’s easy to forget you’re even wearing it. Another cool thing about Julep lip glosses is the wands aren’t actually wands; the tip where the lip gloss gathers is actually a brush! I love this because it makes applying the lip gloss to your lips really easy to control. But despite all the reasons I’m digging Zinnia, I’m not entirely sure the Zinnia/Chelsea combo follows the matching nail/lip color trend since once Zinnia is on my lips, it’s not really the same color as Chelsea anymore. Perhaps Julep’s doing a creative spin on the trend because Zinnia is obviously still in the same color family as Chelsea. Regardless, I rather like this lip gloss!

There were some snags with my July Bombshell box (namely the America formula and the denseness of the glitter in Chelsea), but overall, I really do like this box and the cohesiveness of all the Julep Maven boxes this month. It was perfect for Julep to whip out glitters for July, and even better that every single box—no matter the style profile—received the America glitter. Also, I appreciate Julep’s spin on the matching nail/lip color trend, and was pleasantly surprised with how much I ended up liking Zinnia (I generally don’t like lip glosses).

After how much I loved last month’s box as well, I can’t even imagine what Julep will surprise us with next month! I’m most curious about what other kinds of cosmetics they might add to their arsenal of beauty products.

What do you like or dislike about Julep branching out beyond nail colors? Sound off in the comments or leave me a note in my ask box!

Want your very own Julep Maven boxes every month? Check out the bottom of this entry to learn how you can get your first box containing over $60.00 (USD) of products for only $5.00 (USD).

Disclosure: Product samples provided by Julep.

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Collection: Heavy Petal (Jessica Cosmetics)
Retail Price: $7.50 (USD) per bottle

This is the spring 2012 collection from Jessica Cosmetics. It contains three pinks and three purples, which makes it rather adorable at first glance, but I think the “petal to the metal” theme in the nail polish names makes these shades cool enough for a rocker chic manicure as well. Read on for my thoughts on this collection!

Dazed Dahlia: This shade is a bright berry creme that leans slightly toward fuchsia. It seems somewhat ordinary, but the formula for Dazed Dahlia sets it apart. Application is practically effortless, and it was opaque in only one coat! As lovely as this is on nails, personally, I think it’s even better on toes during the summertime.

Witchy Wisteria: This shade is a dark plum creme with subtle reddish orange shimmer that really helps it to fit in with the “rocker” theme in this collection. The formula for Witchy Wisteria is great; it’s very pigmented, and is opaque in two coats (although this was almost a one-coater). I absolutely love how this sparkles in the sun, so again, I think this one’s even better for the summer season.

Hotter Than Hibiscus: This shade is a silvery pink frost. Honestly, I’m not crazy about frosts because the application process is generally a nightmare due to streakiness. However, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised because the streakiness wasn’t too bad for this shade. The formula was rather good since, compared with other frosts, it was easier to create a smooth manicure with Hotter Than Hibiscus. In the photo above, I am wearing two coats of nail polish.

Geranium Gypsy: This shade is a silvery lilac frost. Unlike Hotter Than Hibiscus, the formula for this shade confirms all the reasons I typically dislike frosts. Application is really streaky (you can see my brush strokes quite well in the photo above)! And although the formula is a bit too thin for my taste, I needed two coats of nail polish to achieve bottle color. In any case, if you like frosts, this shade (or Hotter Than Hibiscus) would be a great staple for you because the pastel-ness fits in with spring, but I think the gleam from the frost makes it a cool (or frosty?) touch for summer or winter, too!

Rolling Rose: This shade is a light, almost white baby pink with blue shimmer. It’s no secret that I dislike pastels, but I feel as though the fact that it looks almost white makes me like Rolling Rose a bit more than I anticipated! Color me pleasantly surprised. :) Regardless, the formula for this nail polish is a little on the thick side, which made application slightly tedious. I am wearing three coats of nail polish in the photo above. Looking for a dupe or a similar shade that you’re more likely to find in your local beauty store? Try Kim-pletely in Love (Nicole by OPI), which is included in the Kardashian Kolor “Celeb-bitties” Nicole by OPI mini pack!

Born 2 Pansy: This shade is a pastel lilac with blue shimmer; it’s basically the lilac version of Rolling Rose. I’m disappointed that the shimmer doesn’t really show up (not even in the sun), which just makes it way too similar to all the other pastel purple cremes that come out every spring. Like Rolling Rose, the formula for Born 2 Pansy was a little on the thick side as well, and I needed three coats to achieve bottle color. Looking for a dupe? Check out To Buy Or Not To Buy (Essie).

I love the darker, more saturated Heavy Petal shades, yet as the shades get lighter, the less I like them! So, my favorites are Dazed Dahlia and Witchy Wisteria, and even though I don’t like frosts, I’m willing to give a nod of approval to Hotter Than Hibiscus because it’s not as streaky as most frosts I’ve experienced. Another great thing about the darker shades in this collection is I think they’ll transition effortlessly into the fall, too.

In essence, I have mixed feelings about this collection, but I suppose that might be because there is something for everyone here. That’s pretty close to a win/win, right? You be the judge!

Disclosure: Product samples provided by Jessica Cosmetics.