Julep Maven October "IT" Girl unboxed, swatches and a dupe alert

Guess what I got in the mail yesterday? That's right! My October Julep Maven box!! Featuring a frost finish silver name Leighton and a creme blue named Jaime as well as age defying hand creme I was really looking forward to this one (and if you go watch my unboxing you'll see how excited I was to "open" it).
Anyhow onto the good stuff:

Like my last box I both swatched and stamped to see how these faired in the many areanas of stamp-aholic showdows. When I pulled out Jaime was pretty certain, right off, that it was a dupe for Zoya Breezi (more on that).

So the good and the bad. I love both of these colors. They are stunning and easily one-coaters (I do two because that just feels right to me for some reason). Big warning here: like many super-saturated blues Jaime stains BIG time. I mistakenly painted my accent finger and went to take it off while it was still wet. Stained the entire nail bed, finger and fingertip. Oy!

Leighton....well I didn't know Leighton would be a frost finish and I don't ever seem to mesh well with frost finish. I can not get it to paint out non-streaky or without bubbles. I don't shake my bottles - I always roll - but bubbles persist on this finish type. If someone knows what I'm doing wrong PLEASE tell me!
Stamping, however, both excel at! It's just a little sad that I smeared the silver one. I didn't want to redo it because I didn't want blue fingers again.

Now what's this about a dupe alert? Alright not ENTIRELY a dupe but pretty darned close. Here's the Zoya and Julep bottles next to each other:

Look's pretty close right? Well they certainly are!

I'd have to say that Jaime is brighter and slightly more vibrant while Breezi is just a touch dustier and slightly darker. My husband liked Jaime better, but I'm a little attached to both honestly. It'll be hard to boot one from my collection but I do have a friend who is crazy about bright blues so one may just be moving on. We'll see.

The Julep Glow On lotion. I LOVE the smell. It's incredible! Lemony deliciousness and the formula is so silky and smooth. Also free of mineral oil so it's actually getting into my skin (seriously my skin feels like it's drinking it in). It retails at 32.00 which feels steep to me, but we'll see how it works out on my hands. 32.00 felt steep for the hand scrub but after using it everyday I'm not sure I'd want to be without it. Hat's off to you Julep.

Interested in the program and want to get your intro box for 5.00? Click here and enter the code "FB" into the promo code area when checking out and viola! 5.00 and you can get started on this fabulous program!