November Julep Maven It Girl Box

For the month of November I had a hard time picking my Maven box, because I wanted a bunch of the polishes. I ultimately decided on the It Girl Box because it had two polishes and the matte top coat, which I really wanted to try. Then I added on three polishes as well (of course).

As per usual, Julep gets an A+ for the presentation of their Maven Boxes. I love the colors.  This month's box included some new polish removal pads, but I haven't had a chance to test those.

Now, a lot of people are "over" the suede finish, but I love it! Certainly it's not a new thing in terms of polish, but it's nice to Julep putting a few more options on the table aside from mainly creme polishes (even though the creme polishes are great). These polishes were very easy to use, which can sometimes be a problem with this finish. The formula was a little on the thick side, but not unmanageable. The polishes are all very well pigmented, almost too much so, and you need to be careful about overloading your brush, because you can wind up with too much pigment on the nail. These dry down to the suede finish very quickly. The polish looks textured but is smooth. So far I have just swatched these polishes so I can't testify to their wear time, though a friend was complaining about how they chipped quickly. I also found them a bit of a pain to remove, so you probably need to let the polish remover soak in a little bit during removal.

The matte coat I really liked. When I first applied it, I didn't think it was working but then it dried down (fairly quickly) to a nice matte finish. At the moment I don't have any other matte top coats to compare this too, but I think it worked quickly and very well. The matte does have a bit of a sheen to it, but it's definitely not shiny or glossy in any way. I can't wait to try this over some glitters!

Hailee, a khaki green suede :

Nora, a silver aubergine suede:

Matte top coat, over Donna:

My add-ons were the following:

Donna, a smokey peacock blue creme:

Amber, a golden bronze suede:

Minka, an oxblood red suede:

Do you guys like this new way I'm doing these posts? I will be reviewing these polishes individually a little later on.

Because I like the suede polishes, I really liked this month's Maven Box. The polishes were all good, the theme was good and of course Julep always does such a nice job of putting the boxes together.