Julep Maven Spring Mystery Box

For those that are new to the beauty box game, Julep Maven is another of those boxes, but their focus is on manicure and pedicure type products.  I'd like to say that their main focus are actually their polishes.  But once in a while, they come out with these "mystery" boxes.  These boxes come out per season and/or per special holiday and are not part of your regular subscription.  They are also limited in quantities. The cost is $60, but come with at least $200 worth of products (or so it's said).  On Julep's Facebook page, they do give previews of what you might possibly get, but you are not guaranteed to get those products.


My first impression of the box - it's small.  But unfortunately, not small enough to fit into my littler mail box.  *sigh*  It was easy to open (Glymm!!!  Take notes!!!) and everything was packaged very well.  The polishes were in bubble wrap which sat nestled on crinkled pieces of paper.  I love the contrasting pink paper bag that everything was in...keeping everything a secret until you ripped it open.  The bubble wrap was held with rubber bands.  I'm mentioning this because I think that they took really great care with the shipping of the products.  I don't know about you, but I remember dropping a CLOSED bottle of polish onto the carpet promptly being grounded until I got married.  So, having everything wrapped tight really won points in my eyes!  Enough jibber jabbering!  Let's get to the box!

I received chocolates (which were promptly consumed.  Oh heck, who am I kidding?  I inhaled them), a nail file, a cute "HELLO SPRING" card, three colour polishes, top coat and a bottle of essential cuticle oil.  Everything is available for purchase in their store.  As a Maven member, you get 20% off your purchase and free shipping.  Their polish prices range anywhere between $14.00-$18.00 and their mani and pedi items have a wide range of prices also.
Prices for the items that I received: Top Coat $14, Hayden $14, Helena $14, Melissa $14 and the Cuticle Oil was $18.00.  Total cost of items received : $74.  Hmmmm...

Hayden is a "neon peach" as per the Julep website. I thought that it was more like pale peach.  It went on quite sheer but it's beautiful shade.  (the colour in the picture is quite close to what it looks like in real life)

Helena is this shock of ultra saturated fushia.  Unfortunately, my camera and editing does not do it justice.  It's really edgy.  I love it.  It goes on fairly opaque, but you'd still need two coats.  I don't know if it's just my bottle, but I found this one to be very runny.  It was kind of weird.  It also dried a little matte.  Kind of cool.

Melissa is sheer shimmery opalescent shade.  Perfect for adding that little something something on top of another colour.

The cuticle oil is divine.  It smells like lavender really helps moisturize those cuticles!  Truly, a little of this stuff goes a long way.

Overall, I liked this mystery box, but was disappointed that i didn't get more.  I mean, not to sound greedy but I expected at least $100 worth of stuff ($200 seems a little crazy).  And a TOP COAT?  C'mon!  LIke I wouldn't own 400 top coats already.  -.- (I really wish blogger had emoticons.)

P.S. For those interested, there are coupon codes for mystery boxes also!

P.P.S. Don't forget about BlogHop #7!!!