Having been a Julep Maven for almost two years now, I officially own 76 different Julep polishes. That’s 24% of my entire collection (you can do the math). So in the last few months, I’ve been really finicky with my Maven selections, opting for makeups or skipping boxes. But when I saw the new Julep Matte Metallic collection, I couldn’t pick just one… so I splurged and upgraded my box to get all 5 colors. Once I got them, I fell in love with them all over again and was immediately inspired with an idea. So I did a fall manicure with some Bundle Monster stamping plates.
Last year at some point, once I thought I’d worked out the major kinks in my stamping plate skills, I bought the Bundle Monster Holiday Collection Full Set of 25 stamping plates. But as my nail art trends and skills have cycled, I haven’t used them in awhile. When the Julep Matte Metallic polishes arrived, I was immediately struck by the red, copper, and gold to do a fall leaves manicure. I was considering cutting some nail vinyls to do this when I decided to check my stamping plate collection and found that I had fall leaves, so the plan changed to use it.
I started with a base coat of Julep Jo, the silver in the collection. Retrospectively, perhaps I should have gone with a white or neutral shade instead. There’s not enough contrast for the designs to really pop. After the base coat was all dry, I started on my left thumb with Julep Rashida, the copper. My intention was to alternate between Rashida, Julep Kerry (the gold), and Julep Cheyenne (the red) but after comparing the copper stamping with one nail vs. the red stamping with another nail, I bailed on using the gold altogether and decided that the fine lines of the stamping looked better with the darker Cheyenne and continued with the rest of my nails with that color.
You can click on the image for a larger version, but as evidenced by the smaller picture (and my previous comment), the contrast is really not big enough. I also found that the formula of the Julep Matte Metallic polish really does not lend itself to the fine details of stamping, so some of the lines are lost. I don’t mind so much as it gives it a sort of rustic feel.
I’m still loving the matte metallic line, but my biggest beef with specialty finish polishes is the limited wear time. A standard glossy top coat ruins the effect of the polish, and I made the mistake of putting essie Matte About You on top of the stamping in an effort to protect the work, and it dulled everything a little more than I wanted.
The whole collection consists of 5 colors: Julep Cheyenne, Julep Jo, Julep Kerry, Julep Rashida, and Julep Sonia (blue). I’m excited to use them again, perhaps using nail vinyls for some bolder color blocking next time. If you know someone who’d love a monthly selection of 3 awesome new Julep polishes every month, this year you can give them the gift of Maven!
Food for thought: how do you protect your manicures done with specialty finishes?
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