Julep Maven January Box

I took the Julep Maven style quiz a few months back, and submitted my e-mail address when requested.  After looking around the site, I decided not to participate in the program.  But I received a promo code a few weeks ago to receive the January box for one cent.  I understand their logic, as it gets me into their system and, if I forget to skip a month, I get charged.  But I figured I might as well try it out; for only a penny, who could resist?  Here's what was inside:

Julep Nail Polish in Maria

Julep Nail Polish in Anne

Julep Glow On Age Defying Hand Brightener

Julep Facial for Hands Glycolic Hand Scrub Sample

Julep Everyday SPF Hand Cream

On the positive side of things, shipping was very fast, and I like both the look of the packaging and the design of the nail polish bottles.  On the negative side, this service is simply not worth the money.  It costs twice as much as Birchbox and claims to give you $40 worth of products.  So either that's untrue, or their products are disgustingly overpriced.  The hand cream is clearly a full-size product, but the polishes are only 0.27 Fl Oz - just barely bigger than Zoya's half-bottle sample size.

As for the products themselves, they're not really anything special.  I haven't gotten a chance to try the polish yet (full review when I do so, obviously), but the hand cream sample was too greasy, the glycolic scrub sample was your basic beaded exfoliant, and the hand brightener...well, to be honest, I'm not sure why I need a hand brightener.  What baffles me the most about this one is that I was specifically asked a question during their survey about whether hand aging was an issue for me, and I answered no.  I'm 25, my hands look fine.  So it seems an odd choice of a product to send me in my first box.

So overall, the box is not worth as much as they claim, the products are barely worth the cost of the box itself, and the one full-size product is one I specifically indicated that I do not need.  I'm really glad that it only cost me a penny, and I will not be continuing to subscribe to the Julep Maven program.