Last month, I received a set of Julep hand care products to test for a focus group. While I already shared my feedback in the surveys for the company, I figured I might as well share it with you too. I was sent a bag with five products, three of which were the ones I was to test and two of which were supplements to ensure all my hand care needs could be met by Julep products.
They came with a reusable bag. I received the hand cream, oxygen nail treatment, mighty nail and cuticle cream, glycolic hand scrub, and nail polish remover pads.
Four of the items out of their boxes.
I was only testing the three items in white boxes, but let me share my thoughts on all the products.
One-Step Polish Remover Pad – The very first item I tried was one of the nail polish remover pads because I had some nail polish that I needed to remove before I could start testing. It was a pretty fibrous pad that was very wet and it almost got all of my nail polish off, but the solution evaporated a bit too fast so I couldn’t quite get all ten nails. It performed better than the La Fresh travel wipe nail polish remover (which has acetone), but nowhere near as well as the La Fresh eco-beauty nail polish remover acetone-free pad (my all-time favorite nail polish remover). Would I buy these? In a pinch, maybe, but as long as I can get my acetone-free, amazing-smelling La Fresh eco-beauty wipes then I have no need for others.
The wipe on the right is my fav.
Glycolic Hand Scrub – Every morning of testing, I got up and exfoliated my hands with the glycolic scrub. It is a thick creamy texture and you only need a small dollop. The little exfoliating beads/grains are actually from apricot seeds and the product smells fabulous! The scrub was smooth and created a slippery sensation as I scrubbed my hands. I really enjoyed this product and I definitely noticed a difference in my skin immediately after use. My hands were softer and the skin felt very supple. It was fantastic! I would definitely continue buying this product and I have actually used it for my body as well, which feels wonder as well. This was my favorite of all the products.
Oxygen Nail Treatment – Every three or four days, I was to apply the oxygen nail treatment and keep it on until the next application. It’s very similar to nail polish, except that it is less drippy. I found that because of this thicker consistency, each layer on my nail was much thicker than nail polish would have been. You brush on two layers of the treatment and your nails have a subtle pink finish – they call it “nail makeup” – and it’s nice whether you want to feel like you have nail polish on or you want it to be practically invisible. My nails definitely looked brighter and whiter after using this, but I didn’t feel like it made them stronger. In fact, a split I had in my nail got worse so it didn’t seem to help slow down damage. I might consider repurchasing if I found my nails were really yellowing, but if I needed to strengthen them I’d try something else.
Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum – Once the nail treatment dried, I could brush on the cuticle serum. Now here’s where I got confused – first, what should cuticles look like? I tried searching around but got no satisfying results. I think mine look pretty healthy, so I really didn’t know what to look for in terms of improvement. I did have one of those weird bits if skin on the side of my nail that was sticking out, so I wondered if it might help that? That seemed too ambitious though. Second, the serum is supposed to help with nail ridges and strengthening them as well, but now could I do that when I already applied the oxygen nail treatment? Alas, it’s a mystery to me. I was never sure how much I should put on (so I erred on the side of too much) and I had no idea how to determine if it was working, so I don’t know what to make of this product. The good thing is that I still have plenty, so now that I’m not using the oxygen nail treatment, I will apply it directly to my nails to see if it helps with the ridges.
Hand Cream with SPF 30 – Once everything else was applied and dried, I finished off with the hand lotion since the scrub makes your skin more vulnerable to the sun. This hand cream has SPF 30 protection and it really minds me of a thicker version of sunblock. Luckily, it doesn’t have that weird smell but it is the same kind of white. It applies non-greasy but I felt it wasn’t as hydrating as I would like. I would probably pair this with one of my non-SPF but more moisturizing hand creams to get the best of both worlds.
All in all it was great to test these products and get a chance to find out if I’d ever want to buy them. Depending on your needs and preferences, you might want to purchase some of them to use as well.
[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review, though I did receive compensation for participating in the focus group and providing private feedback.]
Oops! Got a little carried away with reading blogs and I nearly forgot about today’s 365great! So, I might as well make it about blogs, right? I remember first starting off like most – writing about my life for select friends to read. I preferred using LiveJournal over Xanga and I went through a couple iterations of my blog. At some point (Jan 1, 2009 to be exact), I switched over to WordPress and have been using that ever since. I worked out well since I had been used to keeping a daily journal for most of my life (13 years) and I had only recently stopped (I blame meeting Panda and having too much fun with him). So, this new blog was a way for me to sort of continue documenting my life, albeit in a very different manner.
