Julep August 2014 Maven Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’ve got some polishes from Julep’s August 2014 collection today (Wanderlust) that I swatched individually, and then combined into a sari-themed nail art design (with a tutorial!). Most of the polishes from this month were very vivid shimmers and microglitters, plus one glitter bomb. It’s a very rich and opulent bunch of colors – I love how it all together looks like jewelry! This month I picked the Bombshell box (again) with Neha and Tazeen, and added on Avni (Classic with a Twist) and Waleska (Boho Glam).

The whole collection seems to have been inspired by India, specifically sari colors. I can definitely see how the colors fit the theme, with the vibrant, saturated jewel tones. So I used all of the colors to create sari-inspired nail art! It’s easier than it looks, and I made a tutorial for it if anyone is interested. You can see everything below, starting with swatches:

Julep describes Avni (Classic with a Twist) as an “African violet” shimmer, which I suppose means that it’s a very saturated, blue-tinged medium purple. What drew me to Avni was its incredible intensity, and I was not disappointed when I saw it in real life. It’s amazingly vivid and quite mesmerizing. Avni requires two coats for full opacity and is fairly easy to apply, other than showing a bit of brushstrokes due to the strong shimmer. Unfortunately, my camera insisted on showing Avni as bluer than it really is, so my color correction is a bit funky.

When I saw the promo pictures for Avni, I thought it would be close to a polish I already have: Essie Sexy Divide. Not to worry though: Avni is lighter than I thought it would be, and is more towards the blue side of purple than Sexy Divide is. Here they are side-by-side:

Neha (Bombshell) is a medium magenta shimmer. I was least excited about this one out of all the polishes I picked, but I still like it a lot. Like Avni, Neha is also a very saturated color; however, the shimmer is less prominent. This means that it doesn’t show as many brushstrokes when applied, which is nice. Out of all the polishes, Neha was the easiest to apply: all it needed was two thin coats, and it doesn’t need to be messed with to avoid brushstrokes. Nothing in my collection is very similar to it, so I have no comparisons.

Tazeen (Bombshell) is a “Bollywood gold”/green-gold glitter bomb, and is the only glitter in the collection. This one was the polish I really wanted out of the bunch because it looked so interesting. It contains green-gold hex glitter suspended in a gold shimmery base for an overall look that is very glitzy and in-your-face blingy. A whole bunch of similar polishes have been released in the past year that are Tazeen’s close relatives (the one I have is Essie Hors d’Oeuvres) – this one is the green-gold version of those. Unfortunately, the formula was horribly thick and gloppy, and (of course) it was a pain in the butt to remove. It is also very gritty when it dries. At least it gives full coverage in 2-3 coats. I took a photo comparing the opacity at one, two, and three coats to show the build up:

The following photo shows three coats:

Waleska (Boho Glam) is a “eucalyptus green chrome with gold iridescence” (so many words). I’d say it’s teal with blue shimmer and gold flecks. It’s fantastically reflective and shiny, though not as saturated in color as Avni and Neha. I had some application issues with Waleska (balding, streakiness, etc), but I’m going to attribute that to the godawful L’Oreal base coat I swatched it over. I knew there was a reason I stopped using it… Anyways, I’d say that Waleska probably applies pretty smoothly in two coats provided you don’t use a base coat from hell. Overall, I’d say it’s competing with Avni for being my favorite of the collection.

I was curious how Waleska would compare to Julep Valerie: a teal polish with gold flecks. I knew they wouldn’t be very similar, but I swatched them together anyways. Waleska is bluer and lighter than Valerie, plus it’s got some shimmer that Valerie doesn’t have. Waleska overall is very in-your-face with its glimmer, while Valerie is comparatively subdued.

Now for some nail art! I knew I wanted to play off the inspiration behind the collection and do something sari-themed. I typed “sari” into Google and clicked on the first site that sells saris, hoping to find a sari with a pattern that I would like and wouldn’t be too difficult to mimic. Lo and behold: I found the perfect sari amazingly quickly. Not only did it have a good pattern, it also used all the colors I had chosen from the collection! See for yourself:

 

Since the pattern on the sari is so intricate, I kept some elements and eliminated others. I kept the itsy bitsy gold flowers and added some green centers to them, but got rid of the larger floral clusters because that would have been too big of a pattern on such a small space. Similarly, I retained the purple border with the dots, which became French tips near the free edges of my nails, and discarded the green paisley border. The result is amazing! SO SHINYYYY! It’s a bit too much for me, though, so I don’t think I’ll be keeping it on for too long.

If you’re interested in recreating this look, check out my tutorial:

Thank you so much for reading!

– Emi