nailbox - October Review

Yey, October's nailbox is HERE and the colours are perfect for my 30 Days of Colour Challenge. This month we have an autumn themed box with three gorgeous polish for the season.

First up is Rimmel's 'Caramel Cupcake' what a great name and also a lovely polish. This was opaque in two coats and it's been a while since I bought or used any Rimmel polishes and they've made the brush much thicker. Just one swipe with this bad boy and my little fingers where DONE!

Really liked this polish and used this as my base and to create the gradient on the manicure below. 

Next is another Gel Effect polish from Nails Inc, I think this is the third polish I've received from nailbox from this brand, This is a gorgeous burgundy/purple colour and one of my favourite colours. This again was opaque in two coats and in the gradient came out much brighter than in the bottle.

Last but not least is a effects polish from Essie called ' Summit of Style' a lovely packed glitter polish with gold glitters of two different sizes. No need for fishing with this glitter just one dip and apply to the nail deposits plenty of glitter. In fact it's so packed in the bottle I wasn't sure if it was in a clear base or if there was black glitters in there too.

This month's nail care items were some nail scissors, useful because I'm always hunting for my pair, and some Drying Drops from OPI. I did use these when doing my Thanks Giving manicure, bit hard to tell if it dried the polish any quicker as I ALWAYS use a quick dry topcoat. Also when applying to the nails I wasn't sure how to apply it so it covered all my nail. Something to experiment with, if you have any tips or experience with drying drops let me know.

Here is the manicure I created using all the polishes in this month's nailbox and is also my manicure for the next prompt in the 30 Days of Colour Challenge 'Fall Gradient'. 

nailbox - September review

September's nailbox was Halloween themed and I couldn't wait to see what creepy colours they had included. I gotta admit that I really look forward to receiving nail polish from nailbox every month as you never know what you're gonna get and it's always a surprise to see what polishes and colours they have included, especially as they may not be the choices you'd necessarily make yourself. Here's this month's goods!

Here we have from left to right, a base coat from Elegant Touch, not one I've tried before as I always use OPI Nail Envy as my base. I'll report back, but let me know if you've tried it and how you rate it.

Next up is this gorgeous bright green from Nails Inc called 'Queen Victoria Street'. This went on like a dream, almost opaque in one coat, but I did two here, formula was spot on!

Next up is a purple metallic polish from Sinful Pro Shine, not to be confused with Sinful Colors and it took me a while to seek them out. These retail at £7.95 each a bottle.

I love the way all of the polish bottles in this months box have the silver cap. Makes me think they're a bit fancy!

This one is a gorgeous colour called  'Show Off' however I found the formula on this a little thick, again I used two coats to get opaque.

This month nailbox included some nail art brushes, which will always go to good use, there is no branding on these so not sure what company they are from.

Last up is a black polish from a brand called True Brit London, this is another brand I've never tried or even heard of. Great formula, have no complains about this one, went on like a dream, may even be a one coater. I layered this over the above polishes as you'll see in my manicure below, so it will need putting to the test. The polish is called 'Taxi Cab' and retails for £12.50, so already you can see that £15 a month for this subscription service is a great deal.

My challenge next was to create a creepy manicure with my new polishes, so had a scout around on the inter-tubes and found this halloween inspired manicure on Lucy's Stash. I created this look using all the polishes above and a white crackle from China Glaze! Here's what mine looks like.

I'm not sure if the green wasn't dry or if it's just highly pigmented as it made the white crackle go yellow, I like it though, more creepy!

Here's some close ups...

Overall another great selection from nailbox, I wonder if we'll be getting something Christmas related in the next box?

nailbox - July Review

This week I received my second box of goodies from nailbox and was very impressed with what I found inside. Apparently nailbox usually post about the content of their monthly subscription service but this month was a mystery with the teaser of a Tropical Theme.

Here's what was inside!

OPI - Kiss Me I'm Brazilian

Barry M - Need for Speed 

China Glaze - White on White

Elegant Touch - Cuticle Eliminator

AND a MoYou Tropical Stamping Plate and Squishy Stamper

Here's the plate with images in full:

These images are slightly smaller that some of the ones I've seen on other MoYou plates, but plenty big enough for my little nails. I did a couple of stamping manicures with this and the squidgy stamper you also get in this box works a treat.

Here was my first go, I painted a black base and then used two MoYou stamping polishes I already had in pink and blue to stamp with and create this gradient stamping. I fancied a matt look so popped a matt top coat over the whole caboodle to finish the look.

Rather pleased with the overall effect. Then I decided to use the polishes in the box to create a new manicure with palm trees.

First I painted my nails with two coats of China Glaze 'White on White' let those dry and then sponged the Barry M and OPI polishes over the top to create the gradient. The Barry M was picking up the previous gradient layer, not sure if this was due to it being a quick dry polish or if my white base wasn't completely dry. So I sponged the gradient three times to get the colours bright. I also used a liquid latex to cover my cuticles before sponging the gradient. Much less clean up.

I topped coated with HK Girl and as it was late, left the stamping bit for the next morning.

I used all three palm tree designs from the Plate and I also wanted some birds in the design too, but didn't have any stamping plates suitable, so just painted these on free hand. Then when dry just finished off with a regular top coat as I didn't want to smudge the design.

As for the polishes the OPI and China Glaze as always were spot on. The China Glaze was a little runny so make sure you do thin coats as it will pool in your cuticle if you load the brush up with polish. Also my step daughter painted her nails with the Barry M polish and it dried super quick.

Well done nailbox I love what you sent me this month, and what I'm also super impressed with is that as I have A LOT of polish, so far not received anything I have already!

Can't wait till August's box. Have you subscribed to nailbox, and what do you think of the service and what designs have you created with this months Tropical Treat? 

nailbox - a monthly nail polish subscription service

In June I stumbled upon nailbox, the first nail polish subscription service in the UK. I'd missed two boxes already so was keen to sign up and see what I'd receive, this was something I'd been looking for...

Nailbox ship their boxes out in the 21st of each month and I picked up mine from the Royal Mail Depo on the 25th as it had been delivered when I was at work and I think needed to be signed for. This is what was inside...

Each box contains four full size bottles of nail varnish and a nail care item. In June the polishes were:

Essie - Roarrrange (A bright orange creme)

Seche Vite - Fast Drying Top Coat

Tanya Burr -Mischief Managed (Red Creme)

Nails Inc - Colville Mews (Nude Creme) 

The nail care item was some cuticle nippers from Elegant Touch which I haven't tried yet and I do try not to cut my cuticles.

I used ALL the polishes to create a gradient starting off with the Nails Inc polish as my base and sponging on the other polishes to create the following manicure.

I'm familiar with Essie and Nails Inc as brands but hadn't tried any of Nails Inc Gel Effect polishes before, the colour was lovely. The red and the orange worked great for the gradient and blended well.

The only couple of complaints I have was that the cap on my Nails Inc bottle perhaps wasn't on tight enough and the bottle top was crusty when taking out the brush which left the polish a little on the thick side, some polish thinner sorted that out. I also wasn't keen on the brush in the Essie polish, I've not had a problem with Essie brushes before, it just seemed a little fanned out.

I was impressed with the Tanya Burr polish having never used this brand before. I topped it all off with Seche Vite which I have used many time before and a new bottle does wonders to blend and dry the gradient.

Overall, very happy with my first box, looking forward to seeing what's in Julys. Have you subscribed to nailbox? If so tell me what you thought of this month's box.