You may have heard of Julep Nail Vernis at some point recently, be it on the Sephora site or one of their stores where the polishes are $14 a pop (for a .27oz bottle, whoa). Or you may have seen the name on Twitter, or Facebook, or Pinterest, jeez man that name is everywhere. I watched the Julep Mania for a few months with a jaded eye until I finally gave in. If you haven't heard the name Julep, well, it started with a salon in Seattle, then grew to include a nail polish line, and now there is a monthly subscription box where you can have a selection of these polishes delivered to your door at a much lower price than their retail stickers. 

If you'd like to join, here's a referral link if you click it, thanks in advance, that's awfully nice of you:)  (if you refer people, it counts toward getting a free month, pretty nice) Don't forget to enter your code COLOR2012 to get the intro box for a penny. There are other codes to only pay $5 and $10 but I used the penny one and it worked just fine.

You can get the gist of what's going on here on their site, or on their freakishly busy Facebook page, but here's basically what happens:

• Take a quiz about your favorite things and Julep will magick up your perfect style profile (you don't have to buy the one they choose for you)
• You pay $19.99 (or a penny if you use the code COLOR 2012, duh which one would you rather pay?) and they send you your intro box. This box at this point comes with your two colors and a fairly amazing pedi creme, or three polishes and no creme if you choose the It Girl style profile).
• If you like it, every month afterward you will have a four day period, between the 20th and 24th of each month to decide if you want to skip that month's box, or if you'd like to choose another style profile.
• If you continue past the intro box, you get billed your $19.99 for your first monthly on the 27th of the month, which is the day the box is sent out. 

Here are some interesting things to add:

• Each month has a new theme, and there are several new polishes added to the line each month, so there's nearly always something new.
• Recently they have been doing a thing where you can add on two (sometimes more) items to your box for $4.99 each (which is way cheaper than you pay at Sephora). 
• You get a 20% discount on anything that's not "new" that month in the Maven Boutique. (In my opinion the price on these items is still pretty steep, though I did purchase Taylor at retail price so who's stupid now, lol).
• Each month in addition to polish there is another product. Last month it was a lip gloss (which I really liked) and this month it is a tote bag and a polish remover in a pump.
• They always send little extras which range from files, cuticle oil, creams, to free polish vouchers, to candy, so it's sort of fun to open each month. 
• Each month tons of "Golden Boxes" get sent out randomly to subscribers and they include the polishes from every style profile box that month which is actually a pretty rad idea. 
• The customer service is very fast, very nice and very effective. 

Click to read more and see the swatches...

Claire's Mood Nail Polish in Daring/Innocent - $5 at Claire's

I'd been seeing so much on the web about these polishes from Claire's, but I was loathe to really get into them because of all the experiences I've had with "mood" polishes in the past. I had a couple Toma ones and they were sort of bunk, but I've read about how much people like these, so I bought a couple to give them a shot. These are the same price as the regular Claire's polishes; $5 and usually BOGO 50% off. However, they're quite a bit smaller.

I was shocked at the application! The exclamation point is not used lightly. I had zero problems with these polishes. They applied beautifully opaque and streak-free in two coats. This particular polish of course applies grey, but as it starts to cure it begins to turn peachy at the base of the nail and keeps changing from there. Since I've got a fair amount of free-edge to my nails, the very tips remained grey which makes for a neat sort of funky french look. I was also surprised at the immediate changing of shades when run under cold water, and then hot.

Click to see more photos of this polish after running under cold and then hot water

Index to pinkie: China Glaze Peachy Keen, Color Club Coral Cascade, OPI Back to the Beach Peach, Lippmann Daytripper

China Glaze Peachy Keen: There's really not enough pink in this to call it coral, but it looked pretty with the others. Two coats of perfection make it a perfect peach.

Color Club Coral Cascade: This reminds me more of a peach as well, but the added pink (and the name) is why I added this for comparison. Very sheer, but nice.

OPI Back to the Beach Peach: Peach... maybe. I'll call this a blush coral. It requires three coats, but the jelly finish is to die for.

Lippmann Daytripper: A jelly coral that is super bright and gorgeous. Three coats will give you great coverage, and it reminds me of my favorite Chanel Glossimer, Sirop!

Click to see a pic of Lippmann Daytripper and Chanel Sirop

For this Springy manicure I used a base of Barielle Blossom, which is the perfect mix of peach and pink. Then I used Konad plate m74 and China Glaze High Hopes to put this happy graphic floral design on it. The two colors are just a few shades apart making it quite a subtle effect. I loved the look of this one. High Hopes is a bright mango shade that looks amazing on it's own as well. If you're new to Konad, here's a video tutorial on how to use it. I buy my Konad supplies from wowsocool.com, which I definitely recommend as the shipping is shipping is fast and cheap (or free for orders over $20) and the service is great.

Click for another photo

Here are four different peaches for you, they're all vastly different but are all four the best peach I've seen from their respective brands. I love all four, some more than others. Hopefully this helps someone out.

Index to pinkie: China Glaze Peachy Keen, Essie Van D'Go, Barielle Blossom, OPI Back to the Beach Peach

China Glaze Peachy Keen - This is the creamiest pastel of the bunch. It's also the most opaque and has the most orange of all four.
Essie Van D'Go - This one's a lot lighter and a lot pinker when you put it up against the others. 
Barielle Blossom - I love the little bit of jelly in this finish, it applies the easiest after the ChG and the color is the perfect mix of orange and pink. 
OPI Back to the Beach Peach - This was my favorite peach until the other three came out recently. Now I'm looking, it doesn't really seem peach at all, does it?