Julep Nail Polish: A Little Bit of Seattle in a Bottle

I love Seattle. My hubby and I visited it this spring, and we both just loved everything about it. So cool, but not "too cool" as if I would never be able to fit in there. Yummy food. Coffee everywhere. The huge amount of water everywhere only made me love it even more. (I grew up at the mouth of the longest river in Michigan and on the shore of the second largest Great Lake by volume. Now Google for a while to see if you can figure out where I grew up.)

Anyways, recently I got an email from the nice people over at Julep, asking me to try out their polishes and give some away. Julep is a great little Nail Parlor in the Seattle area with 4 locations and their own line of polishes. I was definitely excited to try out the products (I'm a nail polish freak and it's from Seattle?? Count me in!)

The polishes that I tried out were part of the Julep Holiday Colors Set, and they're the same 4 shades that will be given away below. Included in this set are 4 different colors, Sienna, Molly, Stefani, and Cyndi.

Julep's polishes are free of DBP, toluene, formaldehyde and formaldehyde resin. The brush is rounded rather than flattened (I prefer rounded, so this is good), thick enough and flexible enough that application is pretty easy. The formula does flow well off of the brush and I found application very easy. The colors are well pigmented, I only needed 2 coats for the creme and jelly finishes. Sienna did need 3 coats because I think the flecks are a bit harder to get opaque (it might have been me, I was using thin coats). Note that the bottles are a bit smaller than many other brands at 0.25 oz each.

In addition to trying out the polishes below, I also tried out the Holiday Manicure Set, which has Julep's base coat, quick dry top coat and cuticle oil in addition to an amazing red glitter, Marilyn (which I'll show you in a few days when I finish my wear test). The base coat dries almost immediately and the top coat is a little thicker than the "normal" top coat, though not as thick as Seche Vite. I found it helped my manicure dry to the touch within about 15 minutes. The oil is amazing and I loved that it has a roller ball applicator.


Cyndi has a very dark smokey chocolate base color, and really has a little bit more of a jelly finish. The red/amber shimmer is more of a glass fleck which really shines in the sun light. I've included a couple of swatches of the color in different lights so that you can see how it shows up. The pictures just don't really do this one justice, it really is beautiful!


Molly is a classic red creme. I did think the red had a little bit of orange in it, though even on my very cool toned skin it still looks great!


Sienna is an amazing shimmery gold. The little gold flecks do make this one a tad harder to get opaque, though part of my problem was using very thin coats (even then I only needed 3). Notice that there are no brush strokes, and this one just shimmers like crazy in the sun. Love!


Finally, Stefani (named after Lady Gaga, not Gwen) was my surprise favorite of the bunch. In person this one looks mostly like a gunmetal grey with little flecks of multi-colored shimmer. In some lights it becomes a little bit more of a dark olive green, perfect for this year's military trend.


Contest!
I'm currently wearing a full Julep mani with Marilyn, the red glitter jelly from the Manicure set (amazing, amazing shimmer, I love it!) I'll let you know in a few days how it is wearing. In the meantime, leave a comment below (with your email in the comment) to win a set of the 4 polishes pictured here! The contest will last until Sunday night at 5 pm EST and is open to those in the US.

Update Thanks to everyone that entered! Rachel was the winner, she's been contacted and I know she'll love her new nail polish!

Julep Holiday Colors
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Julep Nail Parlor & Polish