Julep January 2015 Birthstone and a Nail Polish Challenge

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My hands are not the best, so I have a love/hate relationship with nail polish. On the one hand (sorry that I could not help the pun), unkempt hands get ignored. That way, no one notices them. At the same time, all hands look better with a nice manicure and a little polish. Yes, more people will notice them, but at least they will look as good as they can. So, I invite all of you on my journey to keep my rough, man-hands polished as much as possible. I’ve joined a nail polish challenge and plan to paint my nails at least once a week for the remainder of 2015.

Nail polish Saturday will be my new “thing.” I started collecting nail polish in May 2013. Prior to that, I only owned a couple of older bottles that I tossed when my new collection started. That means my current collection is all less than two years old with some being very near the two year mark and others that just arrived today. My newest haul from Julep just came in with two polishes and a plush pout. Of course, I will always swatch new items for you.

Here is the Plush Pout in Cardinal. It looks red in the container, but it presents more pink-red on my skin. That probably has to do with my natural pink undertones and the moisturizing center lightening the color. Yes, I know this is a nail polish topic, so I will not spend too much time on this. I will just say that I am in love with these. Magenta Plum was my first, and it is amazing. These wear so beautifully and feel great. I picked up Aurora Pink in October and hope to use it for the first time soon. Almond Nude is the only one I am missing now, but it is coming in my next box. My collection will be complete when it gets here.

Luna was the polish that got away in December. If I could describe this polish in one word, I would call it Frozen. It just reminds me of the movie. I regretted not ordering it, and it was not an option in January. That just meant I needed to place an order outside my box. Julep is clever about getting Mavens to place extra orders. Compare this to my other blue polishes.

Last year, I collected all of the birthstone polishes. I started with my birth month, Aretha. She was so beautiful that I eventually added them all. On top of the fact that they all look beautiful, I love the special bottles with the gold tops. There are a brand new set of gemstones this year, and I have my heart set on collecting them all as well. January’s Geena, named after Geena Davis, is so beautiful that they are off to a great start with this amazing light pink glitter shade. Compare this to my other pink polishes.

I used coupon code COLORFUN to get this nail polish free. It is still good until 01/31/15 with a $15 purchase. Pretax subtotal must be $15 after deducting the polish. My total for this order was $18.39, so each item cost me $6.13! The polishes were $11.20 each, and I got the Plush Pout on sale for $9.99. The coupon took $14 off, because they tend to take off the full polish price of $14, even though I only pay the $11.20 Maven price (which is 20% less than the general public.  Like this deal. View Julep and others in the current deals. When I add the new polishes into my current collection, I have a total of 253.

Of those 253, I’ve only used 31. Some of you are starting to see why I joined a nail polish challenge. The older ones (remember none are older than May of 2013) are starting to break apart. I have one that is probably damaged, but I have put Seche Restore in it to see if I can save it. Luckily, it is one of the 31 I’ve used, even if it was only once. My goal is to only wear new ones until the end of the year and hopefully not to skip a Saturday of painting. If I get adventurous and try nail art, that may even help me use multiple colors at once. Join me this year as I try to complete the challenge and my goal not to skip any weeks. Saturday will be my first painting of the year, and I want some feedback. My list of polishes is attached. Are there any I own and have yet to try that are amazing? The polish with the highest number of votes will be the first one I use this Saturday, so please pick one for me.

Julep Iman was missing from the lsit above. It was the July 2014 birthstone. I do love Julep, so I am hoping to start with one of those 114 (well 112 new ones). I will try whichever brand you decide on, so I am open to suggestions. How many polishes do you have? Are you planning on painting your nails more this year?

If you want to join Julep, visit my Julep Maven page to see all start-up offers. Visit my regular Julep page to see more offers for shopping. All polishes above are swatched once. They get darker with more swatches. See all Julep or Subscription articles. Tips For Getting the Best Deal lays out every way I can think of to save money at Julep. View my main page for the guide map to the site and deeper deal exploration.

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