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| L-R: "Stella", "Sheryl", "Dakota", "Hilary", "Julia", "Brandt", "Carol", "Wendy", "Angelica", and "Marie" |
I was lucky enough to pick up 10 polishes from Julep's first warehouse sale EVER, including the "Rock Candy Nail Glaze" 4-pack on the end. Today I have swatches of 5 of these colors, "Stella", "Sheryl", "Dakota", "Julia", and "Brandt". I'll be swatching the 4-pack and "Hillary" in the upcoming week.
The formula on all of these was pretty spot on. Nothing surprised me (unpleasantly), and the only one I had any issue with at all was "Dakota" due to its metallic streaky-ness.
First up is "Stella" - A solid mustard-colored creme...I'm not usually in love with yellows, but I actually quite like how warm this one is. Most yellows tend to lean a bit green on me, but this one has such warmth and almost a wholeness to it that makes it such a comfortable shade. This took 3 coats without a basecoat underneath for opacity. As you can tell it dries a bit darker than it looks in the bottle.
"Julia" - This one might be my favorite of this haul so far. I've seen swatches of it online that tend to lean a bit more blue, but man the formula on this plus the coverage make it such a great go to for a night out or just if you're looking for a bit of fun. I actually painted these while on the phone, and barely needed any clean up because it was so easy to control on the nail. This is 2 coats but I definitely could have gotten away with one. Described on Julep.com as "Purple orchid with golden micro-glitter metallic." SO SHINY.
"Dakota" - This one I did a couple of shots for you guys so you could (hopefully) see the multi-faceted glow this warm rose gold tone has. Not sure if I would call it a "chrome" as Julep classifies it, but it definitely has a pinkish hue to it. You can't really tell it from the shade on the nail, but it reminds me of a brand new shiny penny. This was 2 coats, pretty opaque...but streaky.
"Sheryl" - Hm. Don't love the name...didn't really love the color (at least not on its own). Quite sheer, this took atleast 3-4 coats for opacity. Along the same golden shade as Essie's "Shifting Power", except this has more sparkle to it. I would definitely try this as an accent coat to something else. And I really bet this would look great on darker skin tones.
"Brandt" - Julep describes it as "Trina Turk Fall '12 opaque off-black crème", obviously part of a collection. Now if by "off-black" they mean "really deep charcoal that's almost black" then sure. Great smooth formula, no surprises there, though it had some issues leveling out due to its highly pigmented dark color. This took 2-3 coats depending on the nail, but dries to a super high gloss. Definitely a great fall/winter color.
Which one of these is your favorite so far? Do you have any great deals and steals from your favorite nail polish brands?
Happy Polishing!
-Maggie
