April 2015 Julep Maven Box

I got my julep maven box for April yesterday. The theme for the month is the Paradise Collection and it's full of fun bright colors. The collection featured beauty products that included some awesome looking eye brow products. But, even though I have been obsessed with eye brow products lately, I opted for the It girl box, which included two gorgeous bright polishes and a new base coat from Julep - the Oxygen Bonding Base Coat. I am super excited about the base coat. I imagine it will be something like the Orly Bonder sticky base coat which is my current favorite. The color polishes that came with the box this month are Randi, a bright pink plumeria creme polish and Danielle, a gorgeous cerulean wave duochrome blue. I think that these shades are going to be perfect for summer. I was quite excited not to see yet another pastel collection. I love the bright shades!

And of course, when I saw that Julep was offering a gorgeous holographic polish as an add on I had to jump on it! I had enough julep maven points to pay for this little beauty, so it's almost like I got it for free. The polish is Angie, and it's considered a boho glam polish, though it definitely seems more like an it girl polish to me! I can't wait to put this gorgeous polish on! I love holographics.

The box this month also came with a little package of gobstoppers, which my husband snagged since they are his favorite. Also, a coupon code for a free polish when you spend $15+. The coupon code is SPRINGFUN if you are interested.

So that's it! That's my julep maven box or April! I hope you enjoyed this post! Did you choose a Maven box this month? Which selection did you choose? I would love to hear from you! Please leave me a comment down below!

October 2014 Julep Maven: The Black Magic Collection It Girl Box + add ons

My Julep Maven Box arrived in the mail today! I was so excited to see it. In case you weren't aware, Julep recently changed their shipping procedure! They now ship Julep Maven Boxes from their warehouse in Ohio and they now also ship Fed Ex! No more DHL! That means much faster shipping in general. And since I am in Michigan, once my Maven box is shipped it takes just a couple of days to arrive. So much better than the week to two weeks I was waiting when they shipped DHL. So happy about the change! 

The box was packaged absolutely beautifully. I always look forward to opening my maven box. This time it was full of burgundy colored paper shreds and wrapped in black tissue paper with glitter! Very halloween-y! 

The collection this month is the Black Magic Collection. It's full of a lot of darker vampy shades that are perfect for the fall and upcoming halloween season! The Beauty Product that was featured in the collection is a Nighttime Mask, which sounded intriguing, but I was all about the polish this month, so I chose the It Girl Box. As always, the It Girl Box came with three nail polishes. I also chose to add on one of the polishes from the bombshell box this month because I couldn't resist. There was also a fun little extra this month! Candy Corn! I was so psyched to see it. I love candy corn and I think this was the perfect little addition to an October box! Let's take a look! 

Let's have a closer look at the contents of the box this month. The polishes this month are really neat! 

The It Girl Box contained Ledi, Dana and Shailene! 

Ledi- Black Pearl Shimmer

Dana- White with an electric blue shimmer (this one glows under a black light! So cool!) 

Shailene- Bewitched Purple with Gold Iridescence (My favorite from this collection) 

And I also added on Nancy from the Bombshell Box because she's just gorgeous! 

Nancy- Silvery Sage Metallic

L to R: Ledi, Dana, Shailene, Nancy

Other than the candy corn and the polish, there was a little card with a quote. They do this every month, but I especially liked this month's quote. It's an Edgar Allan Poe Quote. "There is no beauty without strangeness" 

There was also a sneak peek from November's Maven Reveal. It looks like the beauty products that they will be featuring for November is not one but two mascaras. I don't have a good track record with Julep's mascara, but they have been killing it with their beauty products lately, so it might be something to consider. 

And the last thing was a coupon code! I always love being able to get nail polish at a discount. Here's the code if you want to take advantage of it! 

So that's it! That's my Julep Maven box this month! Julep is a monthly nail polish subscription service! You pay just 25 dollars a month and get great nail polish delivered to your door. For more information and to sign up check out Julep's Website and Julep.com or you can feel free to use my referral link! For every two people that sign up through my referral link I get a 15 dollar gift card to use on Julep's website! You can sign up using my referral link by clicking here 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to contribute more to my blog more often. I know I have neglected it for far too long! 

Influenster TLC Voxbox unboxing

I was super psyched when I found out I qualified for the TLC voxbox! If you aren't familiar with influenster, it's a website you sign up for, completely free. You fill out surveys and complete badges and sometimes you qualify for a voxbox! They send you a box full of complimentary products to try out! They sent the TLC Voxbox out to moms. In case you weren't aware, I am a mom. I have two beautiful boys! Robert is 11 and Austin is 6. All the products in this box are super helpful to a mom on the go! Here's what I got in my voxbox!

Neosporin Neo to go ($4.97 to $7.50) This is going to come in so handy! My boys are constantly tripping and falling, scraping up their knees and elbows. This is a handy on to go version of neosporin, to help keep those scrapes clean and help remove some of the sting! This little guy is going straight into my handbag!

Puffs to Go ($0.49 per single pack) This is another item that's going straight into my handbag. Tissues are always handy to have!

Ivory Bar Soap ($3.99 for a 10-pack) My boys use bar soap so this will definitely come in handy! I don't like to buy them body wash, because they are famous for leaving the bottles open and knocking them over, allowing all the body wash to slowly spill down the drain! No issues with bar soap and I love ivory because it's simple and doesn't contain a lot of heavy dyes and fragrances!

Avon Anew Reversalist Express Wrinkle Smoother ($30.00) This product sounds like it's going to be right up my alley. It's a translucent balm that supposedly blurs the look of wrinkles on the forehead and around eyes. I can't wait to try this out. I have slight wrinkles around my eyes that foundation and concealer like to collect in so we'll see if this helps!

Shell Fuel Rewards Network Car- This is a free loyalty program that helps you save money on fuel! I can't scoff at that! Our family vehicle is a Ford Expedition and boy it is a gas guzzler! Any chance to save a few cents on gas, I am all over!

Breyers Gelato Indulgences ($4.49 to $5.99) We got a coupon to try this delicious treat and I cannot wait until we get the chance to pick it up! As you might know, I am currently on a weight loss journey, so this will definitely be a special treat for me! Yummo!


So that's what I got in my influenster TLC voxbox! I hope you enjoyed!

Ipsy May Bag Reveal

I apologize that this is so late. I have been suffering from some pretty severe back pain for the last week, and it's pretty much had me laid up. It still hurts like hell, but I am pushing through to bring you this very late post. I received my ipsy bag last week, and as always, wanted to share it's contents with you all!

The theme this month was Fresh picks, and it seemed to focus less on makeup and more on skincare. The contents of this bag were not the most exciting ever, in my opinion, but the bag itself is just beautiful. It's a sturdy canvas bag with a green leaf design. Very nice, and I will get a lot of use out of it.

Now for the actual products. In my bag I received:

Avene Thermal Spring Water: This is basically spring water made for misting your face or irritated skin, from what I can tell. It's basically water in a can. Let me tell you, this might just be the most useless item I have ever gotten in an ipsy bag. I suppose it would be handy to have on a really hot day outside to help cool off or something, but I am just not at all impressed.

Eva Nyc Therapy session hair mask: I was pretty excited to see this in my bag. I've never heard of the brand before, but I am always anxious to try hair products. This smells nice and it's a fairly large sample. However, I have already tried this and it does nothing for my hair. It really seemed to leave my hair looking dull and flat. I am glad I got to try it, but bummed that it didn't work for me.

Jersey Shore Sun Sans Tan Anti-aging sunscreen SPF 35: Sunscreen isn't exactly the most fun product ever, but as a woman with very fair skin that tends to burn easily I was pleased to see this. It will definitely get some use!

Pacifica Mineral eyeshadow duo #2: I have so many eyeshadows I will never in a lifetime use them all up, but I hadn't tried pacifica's eyeshadows before so I was psyched to get the opportunity. The duo I got comes with a shimmery white eyeshadow and a purple shadow. I love purple shadows on my eyes because they really bring out my green eyes in my opinion. However, the purple shadow does not seem very pigmented, and the white shadow is incredibly powdery. I haven't tried these on my eyes yet, but I wasn't impressed with the quality of these when I swatched them.

Calvin Klein Endless Euphoria: Lastly was this little sample size of the calvin klein endless euphoria perfume. It's a little rollerball, and is easily my favorite product this month. It's a light floral scent that I find very pleasant. I wasn't expecting this to be the favorite product. I have so many perfumes. But it's a great little size that I can toss in my purse if I want to take it with me throughout the day, and the scent is quite lovely.

So that's it. That's my ipsy bag for this month. As you can see, it wasn't the best bag ever but I will get use out of most of the products, and I am always excited to try new things. If you are interested in signing up for ipsy, you can feel free to use my link. If you sign up through my link, I get points that can be saved up and used to redeem extra goodies for my ipsy bag, so I would really appreciate it! http://www.ipsy.com/r/1cwc

May 2014 Julep Maven Box: Boho Glam

When Julep announced that they were going to be crowdfunding to raise money to create and produce the Plie wand, I was totally intrigued, and immediately pre-paid for the box. When I heard Julep was offering double jules this month I was psyched! When I heard that Julep was shipping out the crowdfunders boxes I was even more excited! Unfortunately, due to an error, my box didn't end up getting shipped out early like the rest of the crowdfunder boxes. Julep Customer service was super great and got it shipped out asap, and offered me jules to make up for the delay, which I gladly accepted. And my box arrived soon after with my maven selections as well as my add ons, and all was right with the world. The only problem with my box was that they didn't send the bonus polish they gave to all crowfunders, and so that arrived in a separate box a few days after my May box. Still, I got everything I was supposed to get, so I am not complaining.

For the May box I chose Boho Glam this time. It was the box that had the colors that I liked the most, even though I have similar colors already in my collection. As someone with over 300 nail polishes, it would be amazing if they had polishes available that were completely unique to my collection. Boho Glam came with two polishes and the plie wand. The polishes are Jeanne and Paulette.

Julep describes Jeanne as a jet set blue creme. It is a really pretty, but not terribly unique bright baby blue polish with a creme finish. I haven't used this polish yet, but when I swatched it, it had a very nice formula. Paulette is described as a Golden Lilac tulle shimmer. It's a beautiful pastel lilac purple with a ton of gold shimmer running through it. I wore this polish last week, and it applied beautifully. The formula was fantastic, and the color was stunning. It's become one of my favorite Julep Polishes.

In addition to the polishes, I also got the plie wand. It's a tool that Julep created to help make polishing nails easier. It is ergonomically  designed to bring more control, accuracy, and fin to every polishing experience. It is designed to work with julep polishes. I've only used it once so far, and while it was a bit awkward to hold in my non dominant hand, I think that with practice it will greatly help my polishing skills.

Julep sent everyone who crowdfunded a bonus polish. It's Yumi, a glitter topcoat with pink, silver and holographic glitter pieces. It's a really pretty polish, but again, not terribly unique.

I also added on the mod art kit to my monthly box. It seemed like such a great deal.It was just $19..99 and I actually used Jules, so it didn't cost me anything out of pocket! It came with the plie wand creativity kit, which comes with a dotting tool and striper that works with the plie wand. It also came with 5 polishes that I didn't already own. The 5 polishes are Brigitte, a bright white creme, Sienna- a gold shimmer polish, Madison- an electric neon hot pink creme, Bette, an electric neon purple creme and Jet- a jet black creme.

So that's it, that's my May Box! I hope you enjoyed taking a little peek inside! If you are interested in becoming a julep maven, you can feel free to use my referral link to sign up! http://www.julep.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/158571/

September Ipsy Glam Bag!

Hey guys! It's that time of the month again! Ipsy time! If you are not familiar with ipsy, it is a beauty subscritption service that, for ten dollars a month, send you a makeup bag full of 4-5 deluxe size samples and full size products. Products range from cosmetics, to skincare to haircare and nail polish. It's always such a great surprise to dig into a new ipsy bag, and I was excited to get the bag this month!

The heme this month is classic beauty. The bag itself is a really pretty blue color with a black abstract pattern printed on it. The ipsy logo is on the zipper pull. It's really cute! I have to say I am a little disappointed with the contents of my bag. Don't get me wrong, I definitely got my money's worth! My bag value is over the ten dollars I paid, so I really can't complain. I just really like some of the other products they sent out in other bags more than some of the items I got. Still. I will definitely use all of the products I received. So let's go ahead and go over each item!

John Frieda Full Repair Full Body Shampoo and Conditioner- Since these are the items I am least excited about, let's get them out of the way first. They are each 1.5 oz so it's a really great sample size. There is plenty of product in the bottles to let me know whether or not I like this shampoo and conditioner. Thing is, I JUST got rid of all my shampoo samples, literally the day before my bag arrived in the mail. And I gave away quite a few foil packets of this very shampoo and conditioner, because it's just not my favorite. Don't get me wrong, It's a decent shampoo, but it doesn't do anything extraordinary for my hair. And since the full size of this product is very affordable, that makes the value of this sample very low. Still, I will use these, and who knows, maybe I will like them more than the last time I tried them.

Nyx eyeshadow in Morrocco- This is am really excited to try. I haven't ever tried a pressed eyeshadow from nyx before, and this is a full size product. Morrocco is a really nice deep purple and the shadow itself seems very pigmented and soft. So I am excited to try it out and if I like it, I know my target just put in a huge display of nyx products, which is nice because that means I don't have to go all the way to ulta to purchase more nyx goodies!

Starlooks Obsidian eye kohl pencil- I have a TON of black eyeliners, so this really didn't wow me, to be honest. But, I have never tried an eyeliner pencil from starlooks, so at least I get to try out a new brand. And, the pencil itself seems very soft, and very pigmented, so I am sure I will get use out of it. Plus, it's another full size product, so you can't beat that!

Elizabeth Mott It's so Big Volumizing Mascara- this is another product that I wasn't really wowed with upon first inspection. I have a ton of black mascaras. I already know my favorite mascaras. Still, it's a nice sample size, and who knows, maybe this will be an amazing mascara and I will be blown away.

So that's it for the products in my ipsy bag for the month of September. The bag also came with a little card sample of products from Michelle Phan's new line of cosmetics, Em. So that's a neat little addition. The coupon codes this month are really good as well. I've already taken advantage of the butter london coupon code which allowed me to take 30% off my order. Right up my alley, considering how much I love polish! I would have really liked to receive the butter london polish they sent out in some bags, over what I got, but at least I Was able to purchase a few polishes to try, so that's not too bad.

Despite my disappointment this month, in general, I really love ipsy. It's a great service that allows me to try out lots of new products for a great price! If you are interested in joining ipsy, I would love it if you would use my refferal link. For each person that signs up for a bag through my link, I get points that can be used towards bonus items! http://www.ipsy.com/?refer=u-h050i4dtdcr313k3

And if you'd like to see a closer look at the items I received in this month's bag as well as a review on the products from last month, check out my video!




So there ya have it. That's my bag for the month of September. Are you subscribed to Ipsy? How did you like your bag for the month of September? I would love to hear from you! Leave me a comment and let me know, or else use the contact card down below to get in touch!

August Ipsy Glam Bag

Hey guys! Today I am going to be sharing with you all the contents of my August Ipsy Bag. The theme for August's Glam Bag is Glamour Academy. The bag is Ipsy's standard bag shape, and it's a sort of bright purple, with insignia, a crest, and the words, "glamour academy" on it gold.It's not my favorite bag ever, I will be honest. I find the design to be a little tacky, but I love the color, since purple is my favorite, and since I already have tons of bags from ipsy, I am not all the disappointed.

Let's go ahead and move on the most exciting part! The actual contents of the bag!!

The first product I received is actually an extra. With your subscription to ipsy, you get your own personalized referral link to share with your friends. If two people subscribe to ipsy through your referral link, you get an extra product in your bag. The extra this month was a nail polish from Lime Crime in the color Cream de Limon. I love the lime crime bottle. It's a really nice, frosted glass bottle, and the lime crime logo is a purple unicorn, which is pretty much perfect for me, since I adore unicorns and purple is my favorite color. haha. The actual color of the polish is a pale yellow, which I am excited to try. Yellow is one of the least represented color in my polish collection, and I am always on the lookout for a good one!

The next product I got is a Michael Todd True Organics Jojoba Charcoal Facial Scrub. Michael Todd is a pretty high end expensive brand if I am not mistaken, and I have heard good things about his line of skincare products. I know that the other product that they sent out from Michael Todd was a pumpkin face mask, and I was really hoping to get that because I love pumpkin products. But, I got the scrub, and I will definitely give it a try and share with you all my review of this product, as well as all the others in my video next month. The scrub contains 1 fl oz of product. And the coupon code gets you 30% off of Michael Todd Products, so that's fantastic!

Next up is a Mica Beauty Cosmetics Shimmer Powder in the color Bronze. I am fairly certain this is a full size product. It contains 2.5 grams of product, which is a huge amount! This product has a sifter lid, and it's loose pigment in a pretty bronze shade. I am generally not a fan of loose shadows, since they tend to be messy and get all over the place, but I will definitely give this one a shot! The coupon code for Mica Beauty offers is 25% off.

Another product in the bag is the pixi lash booster mascara. It's a deluxe sample size that contains 3.0 g of product. It is in the color blackest black. Pixi products, if I am not mistaken, are sold at Target, and are quite expensive for a drugstore brand. I've tried a primer from them previously, and enjoyed it so I am interested in trying out this mascara as well. The coupon code offers 20% off pixi products, so if I enjoy this mascara, I can use that code to get a discount on the full size!

Next is the pacifica alight multi-mineral BB Cream. This is another deluxe sized sample and contains 10 ML of product. So not a huge amount, but definitely enough for me to decide whether or not I like this product. This B cream claims to have shade matching technology, so we shall see how well it matches my skin. In genreal I love BB creams, so I am anxious to give this one a try! And the coupon code for pacifica is 20% off, and I have lots of much loved products from pacifica that I can purchase with that code, so yay!

Lastly is a sample size of the new Urban Decay Revolution lipstick. I got mine in the color Anarchy. It's a gorgeous bright in your face pink that is going to take some guts to wear and pull off, but I think I can manage. I love bright lip colors, and I am always up to try new Urban Decay products! Even though it's just a sample size of the lipstick, there's enough product in here to last me a good long time. Lipstick takes forever to go through, and I was just telling my husband I wanted to try out their new line of lipsticks, since I was a bag fan of their old lipstick line. So, I am quite pleased! The coupon code for urban decay snags you free shipping, which is great because Urban decay's shipping can be quite pricey. I am definitely going to be perusing UD's website to see what I can pick up. UD is one of my fave high end brands!!

So that's it! That's what I got in my August Ipsy bag. I am super excited to try everything out and I will definitely share with you all my thoughts on these products as well as the contents of my September bag next month! Can't wait!!  If you're interested in seeing a review on my July bag, as well as a closer look at the contents of my August bag, I recommend that you take a peek at my most recent youtube video!




Thanks so much, as always for stopping by. Be sure to use the contact info below and get in touch with me! I would love to hear from you!!

Interested in signing up with ipsy? Check it out here! It's my referral link. If you sign up through my referral link you get your glam bag and I get the chance at a great referral gift!! http://www.ipsy.com/?refer=u-h050i4dtdcr313k3