February Maven Polish Review

So my last post highlighted a pair of Julep polishes, and a few posts ago, I promised that I would say more about the Maven program, so here it is. At the risk of sounding gushy (and for the record, I have been in no way compensated by Julep for this post), I really like Julep's products, and I've had a great experience with the Maven program so far. I joined in October, and I'm really glad I did. For the curious: my style profile is Classic With a Twist.

For background: I am cheap. Crazy cheap. Not "Extreme Couponers" cheap, but I admire their commitment. I generally shy away from subscriptions of all sorts because I don't like the idea at all of adding another bill to my collection, and this definitely qualifies as a luxury item. However, the Maven program spoke to me, and so far, I'm pretty happy. I look forward to receiving my Maven package every month, and while it's not the kind of service that everyone would enjoy like I do, if you love trying new nail polish and/or beauty products, you should definitely take a look at this subscription. For more info, you can check out Maven FAQs. If you decide it's a fit for you and want to join, do me a solid and use my referral link.

But I digress-you came for the polish. All that being said, I was kind of underwhelmed by this month's selection. First up was Greta, a "loganberry multidimensional microglitter." It's pink and sparkly-nice, but nothing to write home about. I also got Octavia, a "smoky indigo creme" that photographs poorly, but is most definitely a purple-y indigo color. Julep polishes tend to skew darker than the swatches on their website, but this one was pretty close to what you see there. Finally, as a free gift (yay free!), this month every Maven box contained Love. It's not up on the website at this point, but it's a very unique glitter with gold flecks, which create a shimmery gold base over another color or with several coats, and fuchsia glitter. If you ignore my messy paintjob, you can get a feel for them below:

Left to right: Love, Octavia, and Greta

None of the colors became an instant favorite when I tried them on, but never one to waste a bottle of polish, I always give my new colors a fair shake. When my Maven box arrived I wasn't quite ready to take off my glitter gradient mani from earlier this week, so I field tested them on my 9 year old daughter. I was disappointed with Love on it's own (she liked it-I ended up putting it on all of her nails when I was done playing), but I noticed that it had a whole different quality when I put it on the tip of her Octavia nail. That gave me some inspiration. I decided to try out a variation on the Cutepolish dripping paint design, with splatter accent nails using all three colors. Turns out that while I'm not madly in love with any of these colors on their own, I think they look so nice together! Take a look and tell me what you think.

See how much more exciting they are together? As a side note, does anyone have any nail photography tips and tricks? I know it can be done well, but I haven't mastered it yet, and these photos don't do this manicure justice. If I may say so myself, I am a genius. ;)