Julep Leslie

And the last polish I have for you from my October Maven's Choice box is Julep Leslie. Again, this was a new polish introduced with the October Maven boxes and I decided to add it to my box. Julep describes Leslie as a "black and silver specked shimmer." I would go farther and say Leslie is a black creme based polish that is packed with silver flakies (I think, and it's definitely not glitter) because the silver all seems to be irregularly shaped when you look at macro shots.

Leslie is just slightly on the thicker side in terms of formula, but is definitely easy to control and apply.  I used two coats here and not top coat. What's interesting is the way Leslie dries down. With all the shimmer, it dries down smooth, but to a sort of semi-matte finish. It's still got a little bit of gloss to it, but definitely isn't as shiny as say a jelly or some creme polishes. I'm a little bit flummoxed on how exactly to describe it, actually. I guess I'll just stick with semi-matte, even though that might not be the proper term.

Artificial light with flash:

Artificial light:

Natural light - shade:

This feel perfect for a Halloween inspired polish. It's dark, but not necessarily goth (in my mind, anyway). I kind of like that the silver isn't in your face but definitely doesn't disappear into the black base. However, this shade is definitely not unique in the world of nail polish and several brands have very similar polishes (though perhaps not dupes)-- Orly, Sonia Kashuk, Sephora by OPI, China Glaze and Sally Hansen have all produced similar shades in the past.