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Julep Maven LA Maven Meet-up + August Collection Review

Chris Acree
ByChris AcreeJul 25, 2016 | 25 comments

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Julep Maven
3.8 overall rating
176 Ratings | 76 Reviews

As a bit of background info, Julep was my first subscription box a few years ago. It totally sucked me in and I loved it! Julep is still one of my favorites now and I don’t see that changing any time soon. In my online quest to find out more about Julep, I found MSA and quickly expanded my addiction!

Julep occasionally has Maven Meetups in different cities around the country. My daughters and I all love Julep so when they recently announced a meet-up in Los Angeles, I knew it was time for a road trip!

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The meet-up was at The Standard Downtown LA at The Firepit, an outdoor patio with a fire pit in the middle and koi ponds surrounding two sides that my daughters loved.

Here are the basics of this subscription box in case you are not familiar with it:

The Subscription Box: Julep Maven

The Cost: $24.99

COUPON: Sign up with this link and use coupon code FIRSTBOX to get a free box!

OR

Use code HEYSUMMER to get a FREE 6-piece Summer Brights Gift Set ($106 value!)

OR

Use code GIFTCOVET to get a FREE 12-Piece Mini Nail Color Gift Set ($84 value!)

The Products: Julep Maven is a monthly nail polish and beauty subscription box. They make all their own products, so subscribers get a good value each month – over $40 retail worth of product for $24.99 a month. And, if you sign up for 3 months up front, you get the $19.99 rate.

Good to know: Each month Julep releases a new collection on the 20th, and you have a few days to decide which box you want, upgrade to the entire collection, or skip that month.

Ships to: US and Canada

Check out all of our Julep Maven reviews and the Beauty Subscription Box Directory!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your Wish List or Subscription List!

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Here is what we saw when we first arrived.

Julep brought along the new August collection so everyone could see and play around with it. The August theme is “Sun and Done.”

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Julep nail color is 5-free and vegan. Here are the new holographic colors:

I absolutely love all of these! They are gorgeous in person and this might be my favorite Julep collection yet. Each of these colors has a retail value of $14 and they are only available in the August subscription box at this time.

These are all swatched below.

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The new beauty item this month is the No Excuses Invisible Sunscreen Gel – Retail Value $28. It is a transparent, fast-absorbing, essence-gel base with SPF 40. It contains rosehip seed oil, melon extract, camellia seed oil, and antioxidants. It is currently only available in the August box.

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Julep Lip Gloss - Admired – Retail Value $20

Admired is a sheer, non-sticky lip gloss in a new violet fuchsia color that is also currently only available in the August box. It contains rosehip seed oil, sunflower seed oil, and vitamin E. I have tried several other colors of Julep’s lip gloss and I like them.

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I apologize for the dark pictures here! It was getting late when I took these.

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Julep brought some new items we could try out and vote for our favorite as part of their Idea Lab. They also did a drawing for 2 tickets to Beautycon that was in town the next day.

Julep’s 5 year anniversary will be in August. Here is a sneak peek of a couple of new items they will have to celebrate. These are not available yet.

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The Cheers to Five Years! Mini Long-Lasting Eyeliner Set, retail value unknown, includes the following colors:

  • galaxy black shimmer
  • ultraviolet
  • deep seafoam shimmer
  • lilac shimmer
  • gilded gold shimmer

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Julep has really nice eyeliners that go on smoothly and last for many hours. (I may have accidentally left some on overnight within the last month and was pretty surprised when it looked exactly the same the next morning. Impressive.) I am excited to see these new colors! The mini eyeliners have no parabens and are sulfate free.

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Different lighting.

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And swatched on my daughter’s hand.

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The Cheers to Five Years! Full-Coverage Crème Lipstick Mini Trio, retail value unknown, is paraben free. Both the mini eyeliners and the lip trio come in this new anniversary packaging that I think is adorable. It also looks ready to gift.

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Here is a closer look at the colors.

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My daughter drew these hearts on my hand.

As promised, here are some swatches of the August nail colors!

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Here are my daughters modeling the polish and mini lip trio colors.

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And on me. You will have to excuse the less than perfect application since I put the polish on while talking and making sure my daughters didn’t end up in the koi pond.

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Trying to show the hologram. Sorry it is blurry, but I think you get the idea.

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More swatches.

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Of course, one of the highlights of the meet-up was getting to meet Julep’s founder and CEO Jane Park herself! Jane chatted throughout the evening with everyone there. She seems to be very involved in the daily workings of Julep, is extremely down to earth, and was just a lovely person all around. My daughters adored her! She told them stories about her own daughter and played with them. There was a DJ later on during the meet-up and Jane even danced with my youngest daughter for a while. There were plenty of drinks and appetizers to go around, but nothing especially kid-friendly. (I think it’s entirely possible I am the first to bring kids to a Maven meet-up!) Regardless, Jane immediately requested food and drinks just for them. That was totally unnecessary, but appreciated.

Jane had a couple of Julep team members with her who were great as well. Shout out to Susie and Heather who took did everything from polishing my older daughter’s nails to answering my endless questions to taking pictures of us. Thank you, ladies!

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When we were about to leave and were talking to Jane at the end of the event, I saw a couple of the attendees thank her for all her advice to them and one gave her a thank you note and told Jane what an inspiration she was to her personally. I thought it was quite touching and a testament to what likely goes on behind the scenes at Julep. 

What do you think about Julep or the August colors or anniversary items? Have you ever been to a Maven Meetup?  If one comes to your area, go! You will be glad you did.

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Julep Maven is a nail polish and beauty subscription service. Each month you can choose one of five boxes, skip that month, or upgrade to the entire collection of beauty and nail polish products for an additional $30.
Chris Acree
Chris Acree
Chris is a moderator on the MSA forum. Her current favorite subscription boxes are Box of Style, RawSpiceBar, Julep, and My Pretend Place although the list changes frequently. She cannot resist a spoiler.

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25 comments

Debra Quenqua

Just received my Maven box today. I got Pam, Tali, and Alysha. All holo’s. I’m especially in love with Tali. No…make that Pam. Maybe Alysha.
Ok.honestly I love all three.
Great review, your girls are adorable and very lucky to have a wonderful mom to take them along with you on your Julep adventure.
Wasn’t Jane the best for making sure your daughter’s had refreshments too! Awesome company with unrivaled customer service.

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Donna B

I love the Standard! We’ve had some LA Press Club parties there, and so much fun. Great place to bring out of towners, too. True, I’ve never seen kids on the roof…

Love the look of those eyeliners, and especially that one pink polish.

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chris

The meetup was at The Firepit on the patio, not on the roof. I have never seen kids on the roof either!

I agree that The Standard is a great venue. 🙂

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Beth L

Wow that truely changes how I look at this company. In a really really good way. It is nice to see and thank you a million for such a really great and very involved and detailed review…. I felt as if I was for a minute until I realized I was still in my damn apartment bored and now I will probably gonna sign up for Julep….. ?I am not kidding either ?

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chris

Aww, thank you so much! I love Julep and Jane and her team were great!

If you do sign up for Julep, I hope you will love it as much as I do! ?

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Christina

OMG!! Those eyeliners are to die for…my obsession with their eyeliners just gets worse. I have never been so obsessed with any beauty product in my life. I have every color, and will have to get these!! Knowing they exist and aren’t in my hands right now is torture.

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chris

Ooh, awesome! You will love these, too! Coming very soon!

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Sara

Thank you so much for this awesome review!! Oh how I would love to meet Jane Park—and work for Julep!!!! 😀

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chris

You are welcome! Jane was fabulous! ?

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Alicia

Excellent review! You took some great photos. I love Julep and was there that night. It was a great experience meeting Jane and the other Mavens. If she comes to L.A. again I will definitely go.

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chris

Ooh, awesome! I hope they come back, too! If and when they do, I will see you there!

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Cheryl

I got the goosebumps reading your review! What a great night! I really enjoyed your write-up about your meeting with Jane. She seems wonderful! I love that you brought your kids :). And the photos were great and appreciated. I love the close-ups of the swatches! Great job! 🙂 And thanks!!!

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chris

Thank you so much! We made a girls’ night out of it. My daughters love Julep, too! Jane was great!

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Linda

That’s great that you had an opportunity to meet Jane! She sounds like such an amazing person doing pretty grateful things. Julep is such a great company. I sometimes forget how awesome they are, thanks for sharing!

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chris

I agree, so awesome!

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Kay

Your girls look just like you, beautiful!!

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chris

Thanks! ?

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WendyM

Aww!! What a fantastic review! Chris you and the girls are completely adorable and the swatches & manis are so sweet! Thank-you for taking us on your cool field trips (it’s almost like we’re there!)
I agree- when you hear how nice the founder or CEO is, being their customer is that much better 🙂

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chris

You are so welcome! ?

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katie

Such a fun review! Makes me want to go to the event too:) Your daughters looked like they had a blast. I already love Julep but seeing how nice and friendly the CEO is makes me even more likely to purchase their products.?

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chris

If there is ever a meetup near you, definitely go! So fun! Yes, Jane was great and we love Julep at our house!

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Jennifer

I love Julep too. I have hundreds of their polishes, so I rarely pick up a new one, but I use a lot of their beauty products. I agree that their eyeliners are good. My favorite products are their: Vanish http://www.julep.com/vanish-cuticle-softener-remover.html
and Body Sponge http://www.julep.com/it-s-fun-to-exfoliate-5531.html

I am enjoying my nude Lip Shade, a new product from last from. I hope they release more colors in the future.

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chris

Vanish is one of my favorite Julep products, too! I somehow lost my bottle of it when I was traveling over the Fourth of July and my cuticles have not been the same since. It is such a timesaver! Julep has it as an add-on for the August box and I will do a before and after with it in that review.

Thanks for recommending the other 2 items!

Subscriptionista

Awesome post and I enjoyed going along to this event thru it! Lol The Standard would bring up a lot of hilarious memories for me heh

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chris

No comment! ?

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