Julep Taylor

Here's the first polish from my $.01 Julep Maven box that I received this weekend.

Julep's Taylor is described as "The perfect periwinkle creme" on the card that came with the box.

On the Julep website, Taylor is described as "Deep, sky blue. An Editor's Favorite on Allure.com (2010): Taylor is 'somewhere between periwinkle and denim funky, but not too flashy.'"

$14.00 / .27 fl oz
Finish: Creme

Personally, I wouldn't use the words "periwinkle", "denim" or even "deep, sky blue" to describe this shade. It reminds me of the blues used in those vintage blue and white floral patterns seen on fabrics and china pieces. With 3 coats it's a tad bit lighter than your typical cobalt blue, but just as striking to the eye and very, very attractive to look at! When swatching, I only applied this to my left hand and used my right hand to swatch Maya - after getting my blog photographs done, I removed Maya and applied Taylor to my right hand. It's a beautiful blue, and I'm loving it so much - I can see this being one of my staple Summer polishes this year!

As for the formula - not a fan. Probably because it is a creme finish polish, it goes on a lot thicker than your standard polish does. By the time I painted 3-4 nails, I had to close up the bottle and rub it between my hands again because the polish began to get thick and stringy. After re-mixing the polish, it was good to go for another 3-4 nails. It's a time consuming process, and as the first Julep polish I had tried it really upset me that it's worth $14.00 and my Butter London polishes are the same price but none of the 4 I own need re-mixing between painting nails. The polish dried to a super shiny finish - I really didn't need to apply a top coat, but for swatching purposes, I did anyways.

The polish applies a bit streaky, not in a striped kind of way like a thinner polish would do - it's more of an uneven thickness kind of way. The polish is on the thicker side, but not enough to be opaque in one coat. The first coat goes on semi sheer and uneven, the second coat makes it 90% opaque and evens it out much more - but you can still see the unevenness in the application, the third coat is when you get that rich, even, full opaqueness that you're wanting to achieve.

Overall, I adore this shade and I wish the formula was better - I wouldn't pay $14.00 for this polish, but it was the highlight of the Julep Maven box I received for only $.01!


Base Coat: Zoya Anchor Base Coat
Top Coat: Zoya Armor Top Coat
Cuticle Oil: ELF Essentials Nourishing Cuticle Pen