So I made this promise to myself that I was going to stop buying Julep polish for a while... unless my monthly Maven picks were some kind of amazing and I couldn't resist. See, that's the kind of permission that I give myself that opens the door to all kinds of shopping... But I mean... Can you blame me?

Last year when Julep had their big sale, I got some absolutely amazing deals on various polishes and body products - particularly the body products, so I was hoping for some of the same this year. I was a little disappointed by the selection, but I did find a handful of polishes at an incredible price and one little beauty item that I had to have. 

SO, let's take a closer look.

 Premium Synthetic Kabuki Makeup Brush Set

A while back I saw a post on one of the blogs I read about essential brushes, and a couple of these brushes were mentioned in that post. (I apologize that I can't remember which blog I read this on or even which brushes were listed.) Pretty much immediately, I did some Youtubing about the brushes and then some Ebaying and, within a couple of days, some ordering. 

These brushes are said to be Dupes for the Sigma Sigmax® Essential Kit, which I do not own but have thought about ordering more than a few times in the past. It's always been the price that has held me back. At the moment, I simply can't justify over $150 for a brush set. Just can't. So these, at a whopping US$16.80 with Free Shipping and a few pretty good reviews on their quality were more than worth a shot. It took about a month (which is about standard for me when items are coming from Asia) and one weird anxiety spurred dream about them and now they're mine all mine.

PACKAGESSSSSSSS!!!!

Ahem. Keep reading for a closer look.

I hadn't ordered a Julep Mystery Box in a while after having been disappointed with a couple that I got last summer. However, this month with a coupon code that actually worked for me, I only ended up paying $14.99 and I really loved the speckled polishes that came with the boxes, so I went for it and I have to say I'm pretty happy with what I received. I'm feeling pretty lucky when I look at my account and see that they didn't charge the extra $10 to my credit card like they did with some other people. While I definitely didn't get one of the coveted high value boxes, I would definitely say that I definitely got a good box full of products that I'll use. However, I will get to one issue that I have with these boxes at the end.

Keep reading for a closer look.

I was actually really excited for this month's IPSY bag after seeing all of the sneak peeks and even though I didn't get exactly what I wanted, I'm actually really happy with what I received. I think I was in the definite minority of people who didn't even want the Benefit Lollitint, so I wasn't the least bit disappointed. Also, I'm glad that everyone received the Urban Decay 24/7 Liner, because it actually feels pretty rare that a universally coveted item like that actually goes out to even the minority. 

Let's look at what I got!

Okay, I feel a little bit like this blog into turning into an Ode To New Crap I'm Going To Try... but I can't resist. In the future, every item in this haul will be reviewed. Well, maybe not the body scrub... because what can you say about a body scrub? Unless it blows my mind or makes my skin fall off, I'll probably skip it. 

Anyway... PACKAGES!!!!!!

I ordered this last Friday because the 40% off everything and the promise of free shipping once I got $50 worth of stuff felt like it was giving me permission to order a bunch of things I'd been wanting to try. So I did. I feel a little bit like I am the person that 40% off sales are designed to attract, because it feels like a license to shop to me.

ANYWAY... Keep reading to see what I picked up in closer detail and with descriptions from TheBodyShop.ca!