Month end is almost here again (eeek!) but that does mean it's time to receive my subscription boxes. Today I'm going to share with you June's Nailbox goodies which had the theme Festival Fever.
The overview of this months haul. Four polishes and one nail art item. The nail art item this month comes from elegant touch and is actually striping tape but this is pre-cut and on a sheet. I've never seen it like this before, only ever on rolls. Plus side is, no hunting for that pesky end of the roll! They are really nice metallic colours also.
First polish is a glitter topper by Essie called Jazzy Jubilant. I wanted to test out how dense the coverage was, hence the two nails with no base colour. I did two layers of glitter and as you can see the glitter is quite sparse. I think this is one that might be better sponged on.
It looks much better over a base colour but it was still tricky to apply with even coverage. You can see over the blue base the blank patch of no glitter. I expected this with the type of polish it is but these aren't my favourite types.
Now polish two was super pretty. It took me ages to eventually find the name hidden with the other writing on the back! This is Bourjois Paris Turquoise Block. The bottle has an unusually long neck and is quite strange to work with. The bristles of the brush are dense but this actually works in favour with the curved shape to neatly go around the cuticle area.
I really like this shade! You have to be careful of polish strokes with this one but it did smooth out a lot with top coat. I want to use this soon in some nail art.
Polish three is Rimmel London and the shade is Cheeky Chap. This is a matte finish and I did find this one a little tricky to apply. It did dry quickly after each coat (I did two) and went very rapidly to that chalky-matte finish.
My brush strokes are noticeable with this one even with the application of a matte top coat. I have to say that matte isn't really my thing and I would quite happily wear this with a gloss top coat instead.
Last polish comes from OPI and is called Is Mai Tai Crooked? I actually just recently purchased this one so now I have two! I've always been a fan of OPI and this one doesn't disappoint.
Normally I would have thought this shade too pale for my skin tone but it has just enough orange in it that I find it is warm enough.
There we have the contents of June's Nailbox. If you would like to check them out for yourself, you can visit their WEBSITE
Keep an eye on my YouTube Channel for my unboxing and live swatch videos. Thanks for reading and until next time, Lyn
Hope you are all enjoying the nice weather that we've been having recently. I have been so busy with work recently that I am very late to getting this blog done for May's Nailbox goodies so let's just get into it.
This months theme was tutti frutti and the box contained three polishes and two nail items. The first item was a wavy nail file by stylfile that has a furry leopard print side and then the file on the other. Due to having square nails, this file isn't really of any use to me but I can see the benefit of this for someone who has rounded nails. I'm going to gift this to my mum so it gets used. The second nail item was an elegant Touch treatment, this time being a nail growth treatment. I'm making quite the collection of Elegant Touch goods thanks to Nailbox!
Let us move onto the polishes for May's box. First up is this vibrant deep pink by Essie and is called Haute In The Heat. This is a really pretty colour and I just adore the shape of the Essie brushes. They are rounded and allow for perfect application around the cuticle.
This was so pigmented it only took one coat to get the colour shown here. Pink is a close second to purple when it comes to my top choices of polish colour and this one is just amazing. Essie never fails to impress me.
Polish two is my first ever Orly polish and is called Orange Punch. An apt name for a vibrant, slightly neon-esque shade. This once again had so much pigment it only took one coat for full coverage!
This macro shot isn't a true representation of the colour but it does show you just how opaque it is with one coat. I didn't use any top coat either for these swatches as I like to let you see the true effect of the polish.
Polish three is a favourite of mine as it is a pastel shade. This is Mint condition by Cuccio and I love it. I'm starting to build up a little collection of Cuccio now (I actually just put an amazing glitter polish by them on my toes the other day!) and I'm always happy with the polishes they produce.
As is common with pastel shades, this one was streaky on the first coat but smoothed out perfectly on the second to give this finish you see here. Personally I have no issue with polishes that take two coats of colour as to me that is standard, I'm not so keen when a polish takes three. So there we have May's (late) Nailbox blog! I have also uploaded a couple of videos to my Youtube you can feel free to check out too. I have the unboxing video here:
and if you would like to watch me live swatching these three polishes then you can check that out here:
Thank you all for reading and see you in the next blog! Lyn
Hello readers! As the end of the month fast approaches (eeep!) it does mean that another nail box has arrived at my door. This months theme is retro and the box contained 4 polishes and 1 set of nail wraps.
These nail wraps are made by Eye Candy which also is the brand of orange polish. I'd not heard of this one before. I have yet to have time to try out the wraps so can't comment on those yet but I'm thinking my thumb nail might be bigger than the biggest in the pack. It's hard to say until I try them though and they do look super pretty.
So this funky orange is Juicylicious by Eye Candy. It's coming across more in the yellow toned in the pictures, but I assure you its definitely orange. Now this one had a bit of a tricky formula. Looking at the bottle it appeared sheer so I made sure to give it a good shake before applying.
The first nail I did after shaking had okay coverage, but as I moved on to the other nails I felt like it was getting streakier and streakier. I tried giving it a shake every couple nails and that helped some. It's still a very "watery" kind of polish I want to say. I ended up doing three coats as it was not as opaque as I wanted in two and there was some streaks showing after two coats. Overall it is a very pretty shade, I just think the formula lets it down.
Polish two is Nicole by OPI in shade Sky's The Limit. This one is a sheer blue with lots of micro shimmer contained in it. It is a jelly polish so if that isn't quite your thing, you can layer it over a blue base.
For these swatches I did three coats and as you can see it's still very sheer. Personally I'm not a fan of having my free edge shining through so I will be using this one as a layering polish in the future. What do you think about jelly/sheer polish?
Third polish is by Rimmel London and is called Wedge Of Lime. I love this name! It's basically as it sounds, a lime green shade and it had really good coverage.
Now green is not a colour that I would pick out for myself but I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It was a good application, dried to a pretty finish and most importantly was full coverage in two coats. It's starting to feel a bit more spring-like with these shades.
Another purple for the collection! (Yes they are all different and no I don't have one like this.) Since starting my subscription to Nailbox, my Essie collection is slowing growing and I am falling in love with the brand. I don't have a bad thing to say about Essie as their polishes have never done me wrong.
This is two coats of Essie Flowerista. The shape of the brush is perfect for getting a nice rounded cuticle without clean up. The colour was pretty solid in just one coat and I believe if carefully done you could certainly have a one coater here. The first picture is a better representation of colour as this macro shot has got it leaning to a pinky-purple and its definitely a solid aubergine purple.
So there you have it, February's Nailbox. If you want to check them out for yourself click HERE
Hey :) It's time for another Coloristiq mani box! This month the theme was Mr bond to coincide with the release of the movie.
I go on about this every box, but look at the packaging! This month your polish was contained within 3 small black tie boxes. I actually still have previous months packaging also as I find it too cute to throw out! So now that you know the theme, lets get into the polishes sent which all kept in line with the Bond trend.
First polish is an OPI mini. Now there is 4 different ones available so you might not get the same one as me here. This colour is Love Is In My Cards. This had good coverage in one coat but I've done two here to make it completely opaque.
It's a deep red shade and looks stunning. Even in in a mini bottle the application with the brush is flawless as it's not actually much smaller than a standard sized brush. I do find it a little awkward to hold the small lid though!
Which colour did you end up with?
For polish two we have Essie Partner In Crime, a rich chocolate brown. This is not a shade I would normally buy so I was looking forward to trying it out with my skin tone and I actually quite like it on me!
This is two coats of colour and no top coat. This was actually very good coverage with just one coat and I'm sure you could get away with just one if you were short on time.
What do you think of this shade? Is it something that you would wear? I think I need to do some experimenting using this in nail art soon.
Third polish to share with you is Silver by Calvin Klein. I didn't even know they made nail polish! This silver is gorgeous though with a light dusting of glitter flecks through it.
This is two coats and no top coat. Once again the coverage with just one coat was nearly enough to stop with that. The polish formula worked really well with smooth application.
The only thing I didn't like about this one was the square lid. I just find it a bit awkward to get a comfortable grip on the lid when they are shaped like that.
Our last polish is a full size OPI called Int'l Crime Caper. It's best used as a topper though as you can see on the pinky and ring finger, two coats does give a nice coverage.
Over black you get this amazing red/blue/purple glittery effect! This was just one coat and no top coat.
How about white? Though it's hard to pick up in the picture the effect over white is subtle yet eye catching so I would recommend it. This polish would also look great over a classic french.
Two coats and no top coat. It really is a beautiful colour. I love using this type of polish either over black or over a french.
So that's the contents from November 2015 Coloristiq mani box. Just to clarify that I paid for this box myself and I'm giving you my honest opinions here. I like that you can see what is in the box before committing to buying it as I actually ended up not buying October's box as I didn't really like the contents. This way you are never going to get something you don't like. If you want to check out Coloristiq you can find them here: Coloristiq Website
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
The overview of this months haul. Four polishes and one nail art item. The nail art item this month comes from elegant touch and is actually striping tape but this is pre-cut and on a sheet. I've never seen it like this before, only ever on rolls. Plus side is, no hunting for that pesky end of the roll! They are really nice metallic colours also.
First polish is a glitter topper by Essie called Jazzy Jubilant. I wanted to test out how dense the coverage was, hence the two nails with no base colour. I did two layers of glitter and as you can see the glitter is quite sparse. I think this is one that might be better sponged on.
It looks much better over a base colour but it was still tricky to apply with even coverage. You can see over the blue base the blank patch of no glitter. I expected this with the type of polish it is but these aren't my favourite types.
Now polish two was super pretty. It took me ages to eventually find the name hidden with the other writing on the back! This is Bourjois Paris Turquoise Block. The bottle has an unusually long neck and is quite strange to work with. The bristles of the brush are dense but this actually works in favour with the curved shape to neatly go around the cuticle area.
I really like this shade! You have to be careful of polish strokes with this one but it did smooth out a lot with top coat. I want to use this soon in some nail art.
Polish three is Rimmel London and the shade is Cheeky Chap. This is a matte finish and I did find this one a little tricky to apply. It did dry quickly after each coat (I did two) and went very rapidly to that chalky-matte finish.
Last polish comes from OPI and is called Is Mai Tai Crooked? I actually just recently purchased this one so now I have two! I've always been a fan of OPI and this one doesn't disappoint.
Normally I would have thought this shade too pale for my skin tone but it has just enough orange in it that I find it is warm enough.
