Midsummer Light: Julep Maven June Box

Disclaimer: I purchased these.

I chose the Modern Beauty box for June's Maven selection, which featured new shades of Julep's When Pencil Met Gel, Skip the Brush blush, and It's Balm.  I also added on the new Viola! Nail Polish Thinner, something users have been requesting from Julep for quite some time but apparently was a challenge due to Julep's 5-free formula.  I've been enjoying Julep's recent cosmetic offerings and needed some polish thinner, so let's take a look!

I'm a fan of Julep's gel eye pencils, which apply easily with vivid, smudge-free color.  Sunset Gold Shimmer ($16) is the newest offering, and I'm pleased that the orange-gold shimmer is not duped by anything else in my sizeable eye pencil collection.  The shimmer is slightly on the chunkier side and can look patchy if applied lightly, but color can be built up for intense, opaque color.  I like it and it's a flattering shade for my blue eyes.

I chose Warm Bronze from the new shades available in Skip the Brush ($24), Julep's cream to powder formula in chubby stick packaging.  It's definitely on the warm end of the spectrum, but fortunately for me it works well with my skin's undertones.

It also sheers out nicely, which allows for either sheer or bold color, depending on preference.  There are tiny gold flecks in this, which while visible to the eye at close range, are hard to detect in other photos or from a small distance. I apply directly to my skin and then use a dense but flat head brush to blend along the perimeter of my face and along the hollows of my cheeks.

For the It's Balm ($20), I chose the cool-toned bright pink Flamingo Pink.  I like the formula but the color is not the most flattering for me, although I found a layering mixture I really like that I'll show tomorrow.

Last up is my add-on, the Viola! Polish Thinner.  I tested it in a Julep polish that I remember thinking could use thinning out, the off white with gold flecked Bunny, and I'm pleased to report that Bunny was much easier to work with but still remained an opaque one-coater.  I'm not seeing the polish thinner on Julep's site, however, so I'm not sure what's up with that.  I seem to remember the price being around $6.

The full retail value of my June box without the polish thinner add-on is $60, making it triple the value of what I paid for it.  Of course, Julep is always running specials so there is really little need to pay full price as long as you are patient and keep an eye on sales. Tomorrow I'll show some looks using all three of the cosmetic items from my June box as well as my impressions after wearing them for the last few weeks, so stay tuned :-)