Thursday, April 10, 2014

Reviews and Swatches: Julep - Felicia

Everywhere you look this season, you see speckled nail polishes. I think this trend started with offerings from  Illamasqua and Deborah Lippmann, but it's spread beyond and into every little nook of the nail polish world.

Julep seems to be the latest to jump on this bandwagon. While it WOULD be nice to see an original polish from them, I just can't hate on such a pretty nail polish







Brand: Julep
Name: Felicia 
Product Description: "Black speckled mint crème" (credit: product page)
Vintage: April 2014; 2014 color #54
Collection: N/A (add on for April 2014 box)
Limited Edition: no 
Size: 8ml /.27 fl oz
Dupes: 




Speckled polishes. EVERYWHERE, speckled polishes. Off the top of my head I know of speckled polishes from Deborah Lippmann, Illamasqua, Hard Candy, Model's Own, Maybelline, and I'm sure a bunch of others that I  missed. I guess there's just something about spring and Easter that just screams for speckled nail polish.



Despite that, when this nail polish - Felicia by Julep - was offered as an add-on with the April Maven box, I just couldn't resist!

I really loved this polish from the moment I put it on. The formula was good, and the distribution of the tiny, matte black glitters that create the speckled effect was perfect.



The color is a bright minty green, perhaps a bit bolder than you might expect from a pastel.  From the time I got the first coat on my nails, all I could think of was how much the polish reminded me of mint chocolate chip ice cream.



These photos show either two or three coats on each finger. In my haste to paint, I might have missed a spot on two fingers when doing my second coat. So, to even out the color on these thin spots, I topped it off with a third coat. The polish is pretty much opaque in two coats, but I think adding that third coat added a bit more depth with the layered "speckles."



The wear was surprisingly good for this nail polish. I wore it for 2 1/2 days before eventually using it as a nail art base. I had no chips by that point, and little to no tip wear. I then work it another two days as part of a  nail art manicure with little wear. Removal was a bit of a pain as this is pretty much a glorified glitter polish. However, the removal is NOWHERE near as problematic as removing something like a full-coverage glitter.



There are definitely possible dupes out there for this polish - or perhaps more correctly, Julep's Felicia is a dupe for one of them.  I don't have any of the other mint-green speckled polishes to compare whether they are exact dupes or not, but if I get my hands on any of them, I'll definitely try to compare them!

Manicures/nail art that use this nail polish:
Overall, I want to just roll my eyes at Julep for jumping on the speckled bandwagon... but I just can't because I love speckled nail polishes way too much. 
What do you think about this speckled polish craze? Try? Pass? What do you think will be the next big nail polish "fad"?

Disclaimer: I will give my honest opinion on any reviews and swatches that appear on this site, regardless of origin. The polish mentioned in this post was  purchased by myself <3

6 comments:

  1. What a nice green. Reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

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    1. EXACTLY the color of mint chocolate chip ice cream <3 And you always shock me with how quickly you reply to my posts :)

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  2. I love the speckled egg polish look. Since I have a couple of overcoats that have the black polka dots and microglitters, I paint on a pastel and topcoat with the glitter. I haven't actually purchased one of the speckled polishes, even though I would love to have a set. With all the other polishes I have been buying, though, I can't justify getting them right now!

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    1. I love them, too. Besides this one, I also have Deborah Lippmann's I'm Not Edible (http://www.deborahlippmann.com/i-m-not-edible), which is a pink speckled. I really enjoy the egg-like effect that you get with these. I agree with you, too, that if you don't have one of the speckled polishes, you can get a similar effect using pastels and a glitter top coat.

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  3. I'm really like these speckled polishes. I was going to say the same that it looked like mint chip ice cream! What perfect green!

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    1. The perfect color, but I don't know if it's a good thing that looking at this polish makes me crave ice cream :P

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