Elegant Nude Nails + Julep August Golden Mystery Box

Arden: Well, I guess I'm just going to be on a Julep kick this week!  Last month Julep offered a "Golden Mystery Box" in their monthly secret store.  Given how pleased we'd been with the Mystery Box we ordered back in May, I decided to take the plunge on the Golden Mystery Box.

Here's a picture of its contents:

Included were:
-Everyday SPF Hand Cream
-Oxygen Nail Treatment
-3 elastic hair ties
-4 nail polishes: Bunny (white), Drew (hot pink), Layne (sheer nude pink), and Sheryl (gold shimmer)
-3 toffee candies

Overall, I was a little disappointed with the Golden Mystery Box.  I'm not the biggest fan of the hand cream (it kinda has a weird medicinal smell).  I'm not sure what the point of the Oxygen Nail Treatment is; Julep bills it as "makeup for your fingernails" but isn't that what polish should be?  I tried it one day and it left my nails a little sticky (definitely much stickier than regular polish).  Supposedly it strengthens your nails if you leave it on for a week or more; I'll let you know if I ever try that!

I already owned Bunny (look for it to be included in an upcoming blog giveaway), but the other three are pretty nice.  I haven't tried Sheryl yet, but Drew is a great hot pink and I've used Layne several times (including in the below manicure!).

I was about to attend a wedding when my mystery box first arrived, so I decided to try out Layne first and do an elegant, nude manicure.

I was worried about how many coats it would take to make Layne even semi-opaque, so I started with two coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu and then added two coats of Layne to pink-en it up a bit.  I finished with a coat of Revlon Snowflurries.

I didn't end up keeping this manicure til the wedding I attended, but it would definitely be a good option if you were looking for a sparkly nude wedding manicure!

Swatches: Julep Mystery Box Haul

Hey y'all! It's Lisl. Today, Arden and I are totally pumped to share our excellent haul of nail polish we got from Julep's May Mystery Box.  We're not subscribed to Julep's Maven boxes (these come once a month), but every once in a while Julep releases a mystery box, and Arden and I jumped at the chance to try out some of their polishes! 

I myself cannot resist a good mystery box; it's like it's your birthday in the mail! What is inside the box? You don't know! It's a mystery! We got the box last week, when Arden was away, so I texted her pictures of what we got, and when she got back we had a "draft" to decide who got which polish. (Basically, we just took turns choosing which polish we wanted).

For my first pick, I chose Dakota, which is a rosey-coppery metallic.