Welcome back :) As the title says this blog is going to be me sharing with you my swatches and opinions on Nailboxuk's October edition. I'm still loving the products they are sending out each month and the £15 price tag is really affordable for what you are getting. Another big plus is the fact I get to try out brands/colours I wouldn't normally go for.
So here is this months contents; three polishes, and two nail products. Nailbox works closely with Elegant Touch having already sent out their branded cuticle nippers, toe nail clippers and cuticle pushers and the quality of these items have been fantastic so I expect the scissors to be of similar quality.
This was an interesting item in the box; Nicole by OPI drying drops. On the back it claims to make nails dry to the touch in 60 seconds and completely dry in 5 minutes using 1-2 drops per nail. When doing my swatches I gave this a try and found it was closer to being 1.5-2mins before they became touch dry, though this is still obviously quicker than letting them dry themselves. Another bonus for using this product is it contains jojoba and vitamin E to nourish your cuticles as it drys the polish.
The first polish I swatched was Rimmel London Caramel Cupcake. This is one of their 60 seconds fast dry polishes. When in the bottle I didn't realise it actually had a faint shimmer to it that only came out when I applied it.
For these swatches I did two coats of colour and that was it. I feel this colour isn't particularly suited to my skin tone as I'm so pale already I like to use bolder colours. I have no complaints about the application and the colour was opaque on the second coat.
Second polish is by NailsInc and is called Kensington High Street. Now this shade is more suited to me! It's a beautiful deep berry shade and its beautiful. Out of the three pictures I took this one is the most accurate for colour. My other two pics came out more on the red side.
This shade is gorgeous! I can't wait to use it in a nail design. It fits perfectly with the Autumn season colour pallet and was a great choice for this box. I've done two coats and top coat for these pictures though it was almost a one coater, I just always prefer a second coat to make sure its perfect. I'm starting to see why everybody loves NailsInc so much as I've yet to be disappointed by any of their products I've received in these boxes.
For the last polish we have Essie Summit Of Style, a gold glitter topper. For the above macro shot I did two coats of the glitter on its own just to show you how thick a coverage you can get. It's actually an amazing amount of glitter in just one coat!
Here I've given you some ideas of what this will look like over a coloured base. This is just one coat of Summit Of Style over each colour with top coat. See what I mean about the quantity of glitter in one coat?! I tried it over black, Kensington High Street and white. I'm really impressed with how thick the glitter is. Usually with these types of glitter toppers, you have to try and pat the polish on to get a good coverage but this wasn't needed. Thumbs up for this one Essie!
So that was the Nailboxuk October edtion. My review video will be up Monday 26th so feel free to check it out there. If you want to find out more about this subscription service have a look at the website: Nailbox Website
Hello, After my last post chatting to you about indie polish, I have started to look more into who actually makes it in the UK and thought why not share my finds with you. One thing I noticed through my searching of indie polish is the number of holographic polishes made. I can understand why as I myself also bought holographic polishes from Dark Metal Lacquer. One thing I noticed though was the holographic effect on polishes from USA were much more prominent than those available in the UK. After doing research into how to create my own indie polish I found out why this is. There is a pigment called spectraflare and its holographic properties are amazing. However it is not passed as safe for cosmetic use in EU regulations so the UK indie polish makers cannot use this in products they sell. I actually purchased spectraflare a few years ago after reading a blog saying this is what they used to create a polish and tried adding it to a clear. Now thinking about it, it must have been an American or possible even an Australian blog I had read this in. Anyway I have digressed from the subject at hand!
So the first site I'd like to share with you is Rainbow Connection. This one has a variety of different indie brands in one place. Rainbow Connection What's great about this site is it actually also has international brands stocked here for sale! As you'll all know, there is restrictions in place that makes it very hard to order polish from out of the country as if it is found by customs it will be destroyed. Buying from here means you don't have to worry about that at all. This site also stocks Gelibility (I done a review on this product for my channel) which turns any polish into gel polish. Another great thing about this website is the monthly themed box you can purchase. You all know I love the monthly boxes I purchase from Coloristiq and Nailboxuk, but how about a box that is strictly full of indie polish and the polish is specially created around a theme for said box?! Have a look here to see what I mean: Paint The Rainbow
For the next website, there is Danglefoot Nail Polish. I found out about this one after a polish was included in a Coloristiq box. You can find Hayley's Etsy store here: Danglefoot Nail Polish
Up next one we have Dark Metal Lacquer. Now I have done a previous post going into detail of my purchases from Kami so feel free to go back and read that one for more in depth information. Check out her page here: Dark Metal Lacquer
Moving on we have Freckles Polish, check out the website here: Freckles Polish
These are the ones I've found so far, I'm sure there is more I haven't come across yet. If you know of any I should check out, please let me know! I'm going to try delving into polish making in the coming days as my products will be arriving very soon. I'll share with you how I get on and maybe in the future I'll be able to sell my own brand!
Hello readers, So recently I have been taking my nail polish obsession in a different direction. I've been looking into the world of indie polish makers. For those of you who don't know what that is, an indie polish is one that is made from scratch by someone small scale (so not your standard big chain companies) I knew these kind of polishes existed but I'd never taken the time to actually research those available in the UK until I received one in a Coloritiq mani box. Now one of the main trends I seemed to find with indie polish makers is the quantity of holographic polish varieties available to order and its really no surprise when I am another one of those who take to that shiney glitter goodness!
Surprised at what I ordered?! I thought not :) I picked myself out 4 holo polishes from Dark Metal Lacquer. Check out the website here: Dark Metal Lacquer Website You may be asking the question "how safe is this polish?" especially as there was some controversy over a US makers polish recently. I had read the blogs and seen the pictures of previous mentioned maker but I was not put off trying out DML. I think its easiest if I give you a link to DML's ingredients and info page. Ingredients Page The main part at the bottom says "every polish is tested well in advance of the release." I wore a design using two of these polishes for a week and there was no issues at all for me, not that I was expecting there to be any. I trusted in the creators ability to produce an amazing product and I trusted in all the great reviews she had.
The holographic effect of these polishes in amazing as you can see from these macro bottle shots. I've actually started to look into creating my very own nail polish, for now as personal use and to see if I can actually do it! Maybe if it works out as a success small scale then I could work to make it something bigger!
Let's get on to the polish! Firstly we have Bare Grace Mistery which is described as a coral pearl holo polish. Application was perfectly smooth and there was a good coverage in one coat but I've done two for this picture.
Trying to get the best picture of the holo effect is rather difficult and something I need to work on! You can certainly see the sparkle in this shot though. The bottles come in 12ml size and this one cost £6.50.
You all know I couldn't go polish shopping without picking up a purple and what better than one that's holo? This is Wish I Had An Angel in 12ml and cost £6.50.
This is described as an electric purple linear holographic polish. The application was the same as above, it applies just like your mainstream brands. This is two coats and top coat for the picture.
This next one doesn't actually have a name and is referred to as single batch shade #1 and cost just £2.00. This is because the creator was unhappy with the overall finish of the product but had accidentally bottle some up so they went for sale at a reduced price.
It's described as a pale frosty/pearl holo pink. You can see from the picture that the holo effect is no where near as pronounced as the previous two but it is still a lovely shade. I've done two coats and top coat for the picture but three is recommended to give full coverage.
I saved the best (in my opinion) for last! This little beauty is Whisper and once again is 12ml and cost £7.00. So much glitter in this one! You might be thinking that with all the glitter in it, it makes a bumpy finish, but this is not the case! It was nicely contained within the base and had a smooth finish to it.
This one's described as full coverage ultra holo silver polish. Scattered and linear all in one , with glitter and holo pigment! I think you can see why it's my fav, just look at it!
I am certainly impressed with first purchases from an indie polish maker. You may think the prices are a little expensive for "someone who makes them at home" but I ask you to think of it in a different light. It's like choosing to support a small private run business instead of going to your multi chain store, you are helping the little guy and I love that I am part of doing that by buying these indie polishes. I look forward to sharing more posts with you all in the future and please let me know of any indie makers you think I should know of!
Hi all, In today's review I'm going to show you some items I was sent by bornprettystore.com. This is an amazingly good priced website for all your nail art needs! I had actually been buying from this site for a while before they contacted me asking if I would like to review for them. You might have seen some of the previous reviews I've done for this company. If you would like you can check out their website here: Bornprettystore Website They also gave me a 10% off code you can use: AIJW10.
Let's take a look at what I received to review with you guys. I had seen the squishy xl stamper advertised and shown on the Youtube page bornpretty had but I was desperate to try it out first hand for myself. Now I consider myself to be a pretty novice stamper. I do ok at it but I sometimes take two or three attempts to get the design looking like I want.
Here you can see the other two stampers I own and they are tiny in comparison. With my long nails the middle round stamper was only good for picking up a small image such as a flower. This led me to buy the rectangle one as it was the length of my thumb nail and I thought I could pick up larger full nail images this way.
My red and green stamper are made of a firmer material. As the name suggests the XL stamper is this really strange feeling squishy-ness! It has a feel that makes you think it should be sticky but it's not.
So along with the stamper, Cynthia suggested that I also try out a couple of their stamping polishes. If you aren't aware, stamping polish is a thicker consistency. They had lots of colours to choose from but I went with purple and red.
I was really impressed with the items. As you can see here the polish comes out very opaque. The stamper picked up the design effortlessly and although I had a fail on the first nail I tried (I rolled the stamper over my nail as I was used to doing with my other ones) the next four nails I done were better. You just have to line up the design then push down, firmly once and the design is transferred.
Here is the red stamping polish, again very opaque. I would recommend these to people who like me are novice with stamping. I wish I had found this stamper earlier as compared to the other two I own this one is way superior. Now before you think I'm saying all these nices things just because I was sent these items for free, please check out my youtube video, where you can hear how honest I am in my review. I'm not being paid to tell you this product is amazing, I'm telling you its amazing as I think it is!
Watch out for a tutorial video coming up soon for a star stamping design I did after getting these products. Thanks for reading and until next time, Lyn
So here is this months contents; three polishes, and two nail products. Nailbox works closely with Elegant Touch having already sent out their branded cuticle nippers, toe nail clippers and cuticle pushers and the quality of these items have been fantastic so I expect the scissors to be of similar quality.
This was an interesting item in the box; Nicole by OPI drying drops. On the back it claims to make nails dry to the touch in 60 seconds and completely dry in 5 minutes using 1-2 drops per nail. When doing my swatches I gave this a try and found it was closer to being 1.5-2mins before they became touch dry, though this is still obviously quicker than letting them dry themselves. Another bonus for using this product is it contains jojoba and vitamin E to nourish your cuticles as it drys the polish.
The first polish I swatched was Rimmel London Caramel Cupcake. This is one of their 60 seconds fast dry polishes. When in the bottle I didn't realise it actually had a faint shimmer to it that only came out when I applied it.
For these swatches I did two coats of colour and that was it. I feel this colour isn't particularly suited to my skin tone as I'm so pale already I like to use bolder colours. I have no complaints about the application and the colour was opaque on the second coat.
Second polish is by NailsInc and is called Kensington High Street. Now this shade is more suited to me! It's a beautiful deep berry shade and its beautiful. Out of the three pictures I took this one is the most accurate for colour. My other two pics came out more on the red side.
For the last polish we have Essie Summit Of Style, a gold glitter topper. For the above macro shot I did two coats of the glitter on its own just to show you how thick a coverage you can get. It's actually an amazing amount of glitter in just one coat!
