Intro & Julep Maven Rave

This is more a journal than a blog I suppose. Something I have wanted to do for awhile and now finally am. I have always loved to have my nails done with first acrylics and then solar nails. When I had my daughter I ended up scratching her more times than I'd like to admit so I gave up on the false nails and went naked for awhile. Then slowly started getting into nail polish and polishing my own nails. I've never really tried growing my nails out very long and these first pictures will show I still kind of suck at it... LOL but I am working on growing them out longer and longer each time around and maybe one of these days they'll be at a respectable length to other nail bloggers. :)


So becoming a mom slowly started this obsession with nail polish but the straw that broke the camel's back was Julep. Julep's Maven program took painting my nails every now and then for fun to I can't go a day without wanting to redo my manicure. I've actually tried "nail art" now and I am loving experimenting. Top it off with the fact that my daughter little Miss Miley LOVES doing nails and is quickly becoming just as obsessed as her mommy. Although she won't let me paint her nails except on occasion. She is all about doing it herself.


So I suppose this intro to my journal/blog should start with who Miley and myself are.

 This is my amazing little girl miss Miley Iris :) Two years old and full of energy. She's pretty much the most incredible thing to ever be a part of and she lights up the world unlike anything you've ever known. She makes this mama's world go round, that's for sure. :)

She certainly loves nail polish. Doing manicures and pedicures. Her favorite colors so far are Hoch and Morgan by Julep, but they are just green and "purkle" to her :)

This is me :) Amber. Mommy in the Miley and Mommy. I'm a 22 year old pre-med student with a love for a lot of different things but namely beauty products. Being a mother was not in my plan but definitely was a blessing in disguise. Nothing could be better than the little girl I get to call my own.

As much as I hate how my face scrunches when I smile and how my daughter has chocolate on her face, this picture makes my heart happy. For a bit of background Miley rarely looks at the camera anymore for a picture. She almost always looks to the side, smiles and says cheese. But to look straight at mommy? Never! :) There's no real one reason this picture makes my heart happy. It just does. She's my everything.


The thing that got us so into nail polish there's no looking back... Julep Maven. I came across an ad for their "penny" intro box when I was on an insect website. No joke. My daughter has an eight year old half brother that I claim as my own and he wanted me to look up bugs one day outside in August. We grabbed the computer and started looking up things on Google. Namely fireflies. But sadly we discovered the sort of fireflies he was thinking of just don't exist in our part of the woods. So as we were looking I saw a little bar ad on the right hand side. It was advertising two nail polish colors and a nail related product for a whole one cent. I honestly did not believe it and clicked simply because I doubted the claim. I signed up, took the style quiz (I'm an American Beauty) and when I got to check out and entered in the code it truly and honestly took my total to $0.01. That's including shipping. Now of course if you're like me you're thinking well there's a catch. And I'll admit kind of sort of but not really. Really not really.

My referral code is 4688376 at check out at Julep's page if you want to skip all the ranting and raving (although you should read it just for a laugh :)  )

Julep Maven is a monthly subscription service. And no you cannot cancel just whenever you want to (unless you call I believe) BUT it does take your options as far as a monthly sub service SO MUCH FARTHER than I thought ever could be. :) First of all you can order the intro box for your whole whooping one cent and be done. Just cancel during the next 20th through the 24th of the month and that's it. No problem. Which is exactly what I intended on doing since I really didn't care to start receiving nail polish in the mail.

BUT THEN they got me. :) They got me good. Instead of cancelling you are also given three other options.
1. You can skip. No penalty. You can skip forever as far as they are concerned and still be a Maven. Which I suppose if you wanted the Maven discount on shop items but didn't want to receive the monthly box is what you could do.
2. You can also choose to send the box to a girlfriend. Which is an awesome way of getting a birthday present to someone :)
3. Or you can also receive the box yourself.

BUTTTTTTTTT that isn't where the options end. You aren't stuck with whatever style profile they awarded you with at the beginning NOR are you stuck with one every month forever. You can choose between any of the boxes being sent that month with any one of the five style profiles (American Beauty, Boho Glam, Bombshell, Classic with a Twist and It Girl) and you can do this every month if you choose to.

 And even if you just can't decide between two absolutely amazing boxes well guess what. You're in luck. They have add-ons! Instead of paying $14 retail or $11.20 maven price for another polish outside of your maven box (which by the way if I haven't mentioned is $19.99 monthly) Add-on nail polishes are only $4.99 :) You can add up to three. AMAZING DEAL if I don't say so myself.

They also recently have been offering an option to upgrade your maven monthly box to the ENTIRE monthly collection being offered that month for $30. Now I could never bring myself to pay $50 for a box of nail polish in one month. But after I explain the rewards program it'll make more sense why maybe one month I could upgrade.

Up until the other day Maven Rewards were a free month's box for two referrals. Easy. I've even earned one and believe me. As social as I used to be I tend to be a hermit these days. Yet they have improved even more on their rewards program. Now you earn "Jules" ex: one referral is 1000 jules and 2000 jules is one free month's box. So two referrals still earns you a free box. Plus you earn 300 jules (I think?) for each full priced box you purchase. 200 jules on your birthday. 500 jules on your maven anniversary. I believe there are more but I will stop while I'm ahead in case I completely have those numbers wrong. :)

Now jules can be used for monthly boxes, add-ons, and upgrades. Now if I earned a free box again I could justify upgrading to the entire collection one month. The new website isn't completely done yet so I'm not sure what all the new changes are and will be but I'm excited. Julep hasn't done one thing wrong yet.


On top of their stellar nail polishes they have amazing products. I am a mascara junkie and I have never found a mascara I liked even a little bit in comparison to a $30 will not be named because I am ashamed I spent that much from Sephora mascara... LOL until Julep. Julep released new mascara in their September boxes and I fell in love with the first swipe. I received their American Beauty mascara in Jet black and it is beyond incredible. It looks so amazing and beautiful with just a few applications but the best part is that you can layer it and it almost resembles the most natural looking false lashes ever. It's amazing. I ended up getting the brown Boho Glam mascara they were offering off Copious's website for a steal and I love love love that one too. They actually have an ACETONE FREE nail polish remover that removes your nail polish. Who would have thunk? ;)

Now while this is meant as a journal more so than a blog for other people to read I certainly won't take offense to anyone taking a moment to read this. And if you are reading this and decide you want to check out the amazing Julep I just ranted and raved about for about a decade :) You could follow this link and while checking it out you'll be doing me an incredible favor also. It'll get me a referral and you will become part of being a Maven :)

http://www.julep.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/60888/


One of the fun things about this whole program is that it's a monthly "present" that my daughter and I open together. She gets so excited about it and in the October box they sent candy corn which of course went over well with my two year old. It certainly makes me heart happy when I see her get all ecstatic over something we can enjoy together. I have been switching every month so far to get tot friendly colors and colors that this mama likes. I will post a Julep collection next I think. I am up to 18 julep polishes which isn't a lot as far as a polish collection goes but considering that I've only been polish obsessed since late August I would say that is pretty decent. I'll include polish and product though.

I think this journal will do me good too since I have been a hermit lately.

XoXo
Miley & Amber