May’s Julep Maven was sort of funny – this is the box we all pre-ordered to help fund the production of the Plie Wand! I was pretty excited to get mine, but because of the way they did it, I didn’t get any of my upgrade. That’s ok, we popped it open and played with it this morning anyways! I was excited by the card that told me I was getting Yumi polish as a reward for pre-ordering the box… except it wasn’t in my box. Sigh. Anyways, Stay tuned after this review for the rest of my collection plus hopefully improvements on my initial go with the Plie wand!
If you aren’t a member yet, you can use code FREEBOX to go ahead and grab your free starter box! It’s $4.99 for shipping. Plus you get free shipping at Julep! This is the last shot at locking in a month to month non customizable box. Wooo! I think shipping has been cut to 2.99 for the rest of the month.
Updated June 1: New Mavens can customize their box as much (or as little) as they like. Sign up for 1 month and pay $24.99/month ($4.99 shipping for your welcome box), or sign up for 3 months and pay only $19.99/month (FREE shipping on your welcome box!!)! Take the Style Quiz and enter FREEBOX at checkout to get your first box free. I totally recommend picking up the 3 month customizable subscription! I am loving being to pick out exactly what I want!
The Description: Nail polish box and a beauty box. Get either 3 polishes, 2 polishes and a beauty product, or 2 beauty products per month.
The Price: $19.95 per month
The Coupon: Use code FREEBOX to get your intro starter box free! (Pay $4.99 shipping)
Julep Maven May 2014
This is the classic with a twist box. I got the Plie wand, a pack of precision brushes, and the two Classic With a Twist Colors. If you’re not a Maven and want to try the wand, sign up for your free starter box and add the wand to your first order. It’s available now. My 2 cents: I think I need more practice with it. I did OK. I’m so so so glad they took Maven feedback and didn’t make us replace all our caps. That was a stupid idea.
A pull-out booklet describes how to use the wand. Here’s my WARNING right now… In some positions the wand will cause your polish bottle to tip over when resting inside the bottle. put your polish inside a glass (shot glass) or something similar to prevent that from happening. 
I don’t know if this is right? One of the brushes is just a cap, no brush. Also, in case you miss the information, use polish remover on the brush before using., it has icky stuff on it. (this is on the information sheet)
Ramona & Maddy. Ramona is Muted lavender rose crème. Maddy is Raspberry sorbet shimmer. Maddy is just as I’d expected, and I think Ramona is a little more purple than I thought! I haven’t swatched it yet.
The Plie wandwas easy to set up, but I’m not sure if I got any better results from using it. This was using my dominant hand – when you do so, you use the Plie Wand in the “paintbrush” position. I haven’t spent a lot of time with it. I definitely need to experiment, and I will be updating you in my daily posts and certainly my next Julep post about how it’s going.
When you use the Plie wand in the non-dominant position, this is how you do it! I nicked my polish setting this up and flipping hands, but I’d probably do that anyways.
I would say that painting with Plie wand in my non-dominant hand was much less successful. This is much worse than I normally do. I may need more practice. 
This was a train wreck. HAH. I was sort of hoping it would turn her into a nail polish Van Gogh, but that didn’t happen! I would love to hear how the Plie wand is working for you! Let me know!
Also FYI Julep Mavens can get 30% off with coupon PERK30, or you can get the freebie mom’s day gift. Use coupon FORMOM – with any $35+ purchase. Julep’s Secret Store is open if you took the box this month. If you didn’t take your box, visit the Secret Store tomorrow. Everything is food themed!
You can check out the rest of my Julep Reviews or sign up to get your free intro box – just use code FREEBOX to give it a try! (Pay $4.99 shipping)
Comments
I just got my box yesterday and haven’t used it yet…how do you clean the brush on the plie wand?
That… is an excellent question. Right now I’m only using the wand with Julep polishes, so I’ve been using the built in brush. I assume maybe pour out a little puddle of acetone and clean it off? I *do* keep 100% acetone around for cleaning off glitters etc quickly.
My Julep should be here soon and I want to try the Plie wand. I somehow missed the crowdfunding thing when it was going on so I just ordered like normal. Not sure I will switch over completely but it will be worth trying it.
I found the plié wand works best for me just straight no bend on both hands. I’m gonna toot my own horn here lol I am very good at painting my nails (I never need to do clean up and I get a good even line with a cuticle gap) BUT I found the plié wand helped me do an even nicer job! I think with practice the wand will help those who need to steady their hands.
Looking forward to seeing your progress with the wand!!!
I actually suspected that might be the case, especially given how bad it was with my non-dominant hand. I definitely need to practice and I can always do with a fresh manicure 🙂
I have NEVER been able to do a cuticle gap. Jealous!!!!!
I’d give up being able to do my nails nicely for being able to style my own hair! Haha I always end up with a rats nest, you win some you lose some lol
You’ve probably already seen something similar to this, but once I read this tutorial I had an A-HA! moment and learned how to do a cuticle gap http://www.lacquerized.com/2010/05/how-to-how-i-paint-my-nails.html I’m nowhere near as good as the nail bloggers but this helped me soooo much 🙂
ohhhh i see. And how does that work with the plie wand? i think i need to spend some time with it tonight after the kids are in bed. i figure if *i* (you can tell i’m not very coordinated) make it work, ANYONE can. So I guess I’ll work on that tonight, barring a pile of boxes this afternoon. Hair, nails, well, the extra comes off your nails in the shower… I agree.
Haha I do the same, I paint my nails in the evening so that any on get on my skin comes off in the shower the next morning lol I can avoid getting any on my cuticle now but it’s inevitable to get polish on the skin on the sides of your nails sometimes.
I would say the tutorial above worked well with the wand, but it does take practice. You can do it!
I am glad that I didn’t get the Plie wand.
Thank you for knocking some sense into me – I think it’s because I’m really starting to get the hang of doing my own manicures now! Finally after trying so many years of perfecting the art of painting my own nails so, polish excites me!
And about the MAC eyeliner – SO worth it! They make the best eyeliners and eyeshadows. It’s worth the price and you deserve it!
Yes, that is AFTER the deduction of the Mom gift. I can’t use Perk30 because I used it a few weeks ago. I’m going to go back and clean up my cart to make it at the most $50. I can’t spend $93. on polish – my husband will kill me!
yeah no you can’t do that. i’m here to protect you. i’m going to buy some crazy MAC eyeliner though. help enable me.
Ugh…my total in my shopping cart is $93.14 with the “FORMOM” promo – I think I have a problem. I’m going to leave the items in my cart and think about everything before I take the plunge.
that’s after the deduction for the free thing? I think you should either buy enough to get the for mom promo, or get what you really want and use the PERK30. I mean really, I have my affiliate links up because if you use them, great, but do you really need $100 of polish after your monthly box? Besides, I totally have other links where I make more than Julep. HAHAHAHAHA. No but really, that’s too much. And if you REALLY have to buy $100 of polish, split up the orders so part is on the formom promo and the rest is on perk30.
I was able to get the creativity add on with mine, I’m hoping they are easy to use for dots and stripes.
I hope so too! My creativity add on will be with the rest of my upgrade. I originally chose the upgrade because the add-on went out of stock. It came back in but I just said whatever, I’ll take the upgrade with the double points!