Julep Sienna

Today's polish is Julep Sienna. I bought Sienna as a 2-for-1 deal from Julep, along with Emilie, which you saw a few days ago. Sienna was released by Julep as a part of their holiday collection for this year. Julep describes this as a "sophisticated, shimmery gold." I would call Sienna a pale, cool-toned champagne gold. In all cases, both are accurate. I think the coolness and paleness of the polish makes it sophisticated, while the shimmer and the fact that it's a shiny metallic make it festive for the holiday season.

I was a little worried about Sienna at first because the first coat went on fairly sheer and I thought it might be difficult to build up the opacity of the polish. Thankfully I was proven wrong and was able to achieve opacity with Sienna with three coats of polish. In the pictures below I didn't use a top coat, but you can see how sparkly and blingtastic Sienna is.

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One thing that I also really loved about Sienna was how beautifully it photographed. I don't know why that is, but seriously, these are some of the best pictures I've ever been able to take of a polish, especially the ones in natural light. The universe aligned, I guess, or maybe my camera fell in love with this polish too. In any case, I think this may actually be the polish I wear for Christmas, though I still haven't made up my mind about that! Sienna is a gorgeous, well-formulated polish so if you're looking for some sophisticated bling, look no further and snatch this polish up!

Julep Michelle

Sorry for the long intervals between postings-- the holiday season is here and I am busy getting ready! Mainly, this involves baking a lot of cookies right now. I really do love baking, but I am a little tired of cookies at the moment. Luckily, I have two more kinds to do and then I'm done. Whew.

But taking a break from all the cookie making-- I have another Julep polish tonight: Michelle. I received this polish in my November Maven box, which included three different polishes. Michelle falls into one of my favorite color categories-- blue!! Julep describes Michelle as a "midnight, inky blue. Gorgeous on toes. Everyone can and should wear this year-round!" and indeed, it is a beautiful navy blue polish. Though it is dark, I think you can always tell it's blue and not black. If you can't get away with this color on your nails, I definitely think pedicure is a great option-- navy blue is a classic color and it's hard to go wrong with it!

Michelle has a great formula and flows well on the nail. It's pigmented enough where you could possibly get away with one coat but I think two is just perfect-- I noticed I had a little bit of balding in places with just one coat. I didn't use a top coat in these pictures and you can see that even without it, Michelle dries to a fairly shiny finish.

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I would like to compare this to China Glaze's First Mate and Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm but I get the feeling that both are lighter than Michelle. However, Cult Nails Time Traveler, which I haven't swatched yet, might be close.

Julep Emilie

The next Julep polish for you is Emilie. I bought Emilie as part of a 2-for-1 polish deal they had one Tuesday. And it's another green polish-- I know I don't show case many of those! Emilie was one of the polishes that Julep released as part of their fall collection. Julep describes Emilie as "bold and alluring, a statement-making forest green." Emilie is sort of a conundrum-- it's a bright green that also has a dusky quality about it. I think the dusky, greyish quality to this polish is what makes it a fall polish, though like all polishes, I think it's wearable year-round. I know I've said it before, but usually I like green polishes in the bottle and not on my nails, but I really liked Emilie on my nails!

Thankfully, the formula on Emilie was much better than Diane-- this went on smoothly in two coats and was smooth and buttery. I didn't use a top coat in these pictures and you can see that it's still super shiny, which is fantastic.

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I really liked Emilie and it was much better and easier to work with than Diane. Sadly, I don't have a lot to say about Emilie-- in a nut shell, it's a really nice polish and I really like it!

Julep Diane

The next Julep polish I have for you is Diane. I received Diane as part of my November Maven box-- they had a "polish lovers" option which was three different polishes. Since then, Julep has designated the "It Girl" box as their polish lovers box, so if you want the focus to be on polish specifically, you can always change your Maven subscription!

Anyway, Diane was one of three polishes and it's deep forest green jelly/creme polish. Julep describes this polish as an "elegant, forest grey-green. Our Emerald City in a bottle." And certainly, Diane is a gorgeous deep green (forest green is spot on)-- very representative of the green spaces in Seattle, aka the Emerald City. And oh my, due to the beauty of this polish in the bottle, I wanted to love this polish. I don't have anything else like this in my collection as I'm generally not drawn to green polishes and I wanted to like this. However, I had massive issues with Diane. Considering how dark the polish is, it seemed poorly pigmented and was very streaky with a thin formula. Part of that might be due to the squishy jelly finish-- you need to use thicker coats. Also, although you can clearly tell Diane is dark green in the bottle, on the nail I found it be much darker and closer to black than anticipated-- in low light especially. That might in part due to the fact that I had to use three to four coats to get rid of the streaks and get complete coverage.

In the pictures below I have three coats of polish on my index/middle fingers and four coats on my ring finger. I used the Julep base coat and no top coat. Diane is a very shiny polish even without a top coat. 

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I wanted to love Diane, but the formula made it extremely difficult. I will try this polish again, but with slightly thicker coats of polish to see if I can get away with fewer coats of polish. Diane has the potential to be an awesome polish, but unfortunately wasn't.

Julep Brooklyn

Brooklyn is one Julep's holiday polishes that they released this year and I received it in my October Maven box. And of course, only just got around to swatching it right before Thanksgiving! Brooklyn is described as a "ruby red with a hint of festive sparkles" and while not unique, it's a pretty "standard" holiday polish and every line should have one of these. I think Julep is selling Brooklyn a little short, though-- there's definitely more than a "hint" of sparkle in this polish! This is actually the first sparkly red polish I own and I love it. I need more! Brooklyn consists of dark red glitter that is suspended in a deep red jelly base.

 Brooklyn only needed two coats for nice, opaque coverage. I used the Julep base coat and since Brooklyn dries gritty, I used the Essie Good to Go top coat to smooth it out and give it a nice shiny finish. My photos don't quite capture the true nature of this polish-- Brooklyn is not quite so tomato red-- it's a slightly deeper red in real life. But the sparkle is real-- this baby is beautiful!

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I love Brooklyn and it's definitely a great holiday polish! Like I said above, it's not terribly unique for a holiday polish, but it's a good basic for any nail polish collection-- like red lipstick, every girl needs a good red sparkly polish! I suspect there are other very similar polishes out that are probably cheaper (Julep polishes retail for $14 for 0.27 fl oz), though unfortunately I don't have any good suggestions because I don't have any other polishes to compare this to! However, there are some other classic polishes out there like China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Essie Ruby Slipper (though the Essie one is hard to find) so you can definitely go on a hunt for the perfect red glitter polish!

Julep Boris & Nicole

Now that I'm finished showing you the Firebird collection, I am going to move on to some Julep polishes. Last week while I was on vacation for the Thanksgiving holiday I managed to swatch all of my Julep polishes and I'll share those swatches with you! Boris & Nicole is one of the first polishes I got and it's truly lovely. Julep's website describes Boris & Nicole an "autumn red-brown. Lovely for fall pedicures."

And indeed, Boris & Nicole is a gorgeous polish and absolutely perfect and appropriate for fall. The polish is a beautiful red brown with threads of gold shimmer running throughout the polish. Unfortunately the golden shimmer doesn't really show up on the nail, but it does look great in the bottle. The polish is also a lot more red than I anticipated from looking at the bottle-- I think I would call this color mahogany. Boris & Nicole was almost a one coater, but I used two coats here over the Julep base coat and with no top coat. I thought the formula was a little on the thick side, but certainly not unmanageable in any way.

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This is a perfect fall polish! I was actually planning on wearing this as my Thanksgiving manicure, but in the end opted with nothing because I was painting my nails the next day for football. My only problem is that I want to say Boris & Natasha (from Rocky and Bullwinkle)!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Fortissimo

And here we are at the last polish in the Firebird collection: Fortissimo! This was a polish I originally passed over, but in the end decided to snag it when it was released to the public. I can't really say why I did except for my hoarding tendencies and the fact that I don't have another color like it. Additionally, I have recently become enamored of near black polishes and Fortissimo has a cool murky quality about it.

Ji describes the polish like this: "At last, when the light left the sky and the wind started to roar, the sky turned into a shade beyond description—a dark greenish, blackish, brown, leading to a powerful Fortissimo, the finale chord of The Fire Bird.

Fortissimo is a deep brown color that has hints of green (and maybe even some grey) to it. It leans towards black, and despite being fairly dark, I feel like it never looks black. I love the murky swampy feel to this polish and how Fortissimo has a great formula and goes on smoothly in two coats. Here I used the Julep base coat and no top coat-- you can see how nice and glossy the polish is even without a top coat.

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While this isn't necessarily the color I would associate with fortissimo (when means very loud/very strong, if you're not a musician) but I think Ji hits upon a good point in her description of the polish-- the description of the sky as the storm hits. Now, I've never been through a hurricane, but I have seen some nasty tornado weather and the sky turns this weird yellow/green/brown/grey color that's so hard to explain unless you've seen it in person. So I do think Ji has captured the feel of the threatening feeling of the storm in this polish-- if a polish could be threatening, anyway. I don't think Fortissimo is necessarily my favorite polish of all time, but I kind of in love with it's ugly pretty quality and the fact that you don't see many polishes like this out there. I certainly don't own any like it, anyway!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Piú Mosso

Next in the Firebird collection we have Piú Mosso, perhaps the most intriguing polish of the whole collection-- at least in my opinion. This was the only polish in the collection that I knew I had to have when I saw the preview swatches. Part of it is because I love blue polishes and part because Piú Mosso is such a unique color.

Ji describes the polish like this: "Later, the ominous dark clouds bled into the sky with a fast-moving wind. Piú Mosso is an inky, blue-black that shoots through a flash of orange, the last glow of sunlight."

Piú Mosso, translated from Italian, means "more movement" and as I just sang a Latin requiem we also took it to mean singing with tension. Giving that this polish has been inspired by a hurricane, I think both work-- the winds picking up and clouds scudding across the sky and the almost imperceptible pressure that builds up as the storm grows. Piú Mosso is a color combination you don't see very often-- a dark inky blue (but never black) that has strands of copper shimmer running through it. If you enlarge some of the pictures, you can see that the copper shimmer sparks green/yellow, blue/purple, and red. Piú Mosso applied wonderfully, and was practically a one coat polish. However, I used two coats here, to ensure complete coverage. It's nicely pigmented and the formula is excellent-- not too thick or too thin.

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Is the shimmer seriously out of this world?! It's amazing. Unfortunately, the shimmer is most pronounced under direct, bright light. You can still see it on the nail in the shade/indirect light, but it's much more subtle. I am glad I got this during the pre-order and swatched it while the weather was still nice so I show you its true depth and just how pretty it is! I don't own anything like this and if you're looking for a truly unique blue polish, I would snatch this up before it sells out!