Hello hello! It's time once more to take a look at the goodies contained in March Nailboxuk. Each month has a theme and each box contains 3-4 polishes and 1-2 nail related items which means either treatments or nail art items.
This month the box contained 3 nail polishes, fake nails and polish remover. Now I'm not really going to be saying much about the fake nails as these are not something I will personally use but they are really cute and look like speckled eggs.
Second nail item in the box is this Nails Inc Express Polish Remover. Now I have to say I was going into reviewing this negatively and I had to eat my words as I actually loved it! This bottle contains a sponge with a hole in the middle and is soaked in polish remover. Now I'm funny about two things: the feel of sponges (I know... I'm weird) and using acetone just to remove nail polish. Great thing is this contains non acetone polish remover so brownie points earned there. Secondly the feel of the sponge is actually quite smooth and I had no issues with putting my finger in there to remove my polish. The polish removed quickly and neatly, with none of that skin staining you sometimes get with dark coloured polish and cotton pads. Really nice product and one that I will use again.
Polish one is Eye Candy London in shade Naughty But Nice. We received one of this brand last month and I wasn't overly impressed with the brand. This shade had a much better consistency and only required two coats to become opaque, proof that it can be a really nice brand to use.
Pastel shades are very Easter and Spring in my opinion so this was definitely a good choice for the box. My swatch shows two coats of colour and no top coat. It's a very pretty shade. Anything purple and I'm pretty much in love :)
Polish two is an interesting one. A brand I had not heard of, this is Emerald Dust by Invogue. It's also advertised as a matt suede effect polish. Upon reading the back of the bottle I found out that this goes under the Eye Candy London website so they appear to be sister polishes.
Very impressed with this one. Pictures are showing only one coat as it's extremely pigmented. It dries to a matt finish as described and the colour is gorgeous with that shimmer of glitter running through it. I can't decide if its gold or green glitters that's in it, either way I like it.
Last polish of the box is from MoYou London. This company is most well known for it's stamping polish and image plates. Now it didn't come with a name on but after searching the website I'm pretty sure this is Cerise Pink. It's on the smaller side as this ones just a 9ml bottle but it is a pretty colour.
This is very pigmented and I only needed one coat for the swatches. I think this would also work as a stamping polish due to it's consistency. I didn't use any top coat for the pictures.
Overall thoughts for this month? Pleasantly surprised at how much I loved the Nails Inc polish remover bottle. Little disappointed at the fake nails being included but this is only because it's not something I will personally use. I see why it was included in the box and the pattern was perfect for easter/spring. Colour choices were a good variety and I got to try two new brands and said two were also one coaters. You can get your own if you are in the UK from £15 a month; check them out here. Thanks for reading, Lyn
With the end of the month fast approaching that means it's time for subscription boxes to arrive again. This months theme was kawaii and the box contained pastel shades, cute decals and cat shaped nail clippers.
The decals are provided by a company I had never heard of before called Yrnails and they do some really cool water decals (I found a husky one!). At an affordable price of £1.50 per sheet I think that is really great value for money and they offer designs I've never seen before.
Polish number one is a mint green pastel that is most likely showing up like white on the monitor. This is My Private Cabana by Lauren B Beauty This was a new brand to me and I love getting new brands to try out. This polish is 5-free along with being cruelty free and vegan friendly.
Application was a little streaky on the first coat but I find this to be a normal trend with pastel shades. Second coat evened everything out and that is what you see here. No top coat added. These polishes are made in the USA and on a quick glance at the sight most of the product is retailing at around $18-£20.
Polish two is yet another brand that I haven't tried; Cuccio Under A Blue Moon. This is actually just one coat of colour here, it is really opaque! It was really easy to apply and dried quick too.
A tricky shade again to try and capture in it's true light. It is a lovely shade and the three polishes in the box compliment each other nicely. I'm looking forward to trying more of this brand in the future.
Last up we have Color Club Hot Hot Hot Pants. It's an interesting name thats for sure and not one I would have come up with for a pastel pink! Application on this one was a little more tricky. First coat as expected was a bit streaky and the second still just wasn't 100% perfect to me so I added a third.
I like this shade as I do have a soft spot for pastels but a bit disappointed it took 3 coats for full opacity. I'd have liked the formula to be a little bit thicker as it can be done as I managed just one coat with Under A Blue Moon.
So how do I feel about this months box? Thumbs up for the kawaii theme. It means cute in Japanese incase you didn't know. The three colours compliment each other perfectly and are just begging to be used in a spring-time mani. Throw in some cute cat shaped nail clippers and kawaii decals of toast and toasters and you have a pretty amazing box.
If you want to check out this subscription box for yourself take a look HERE
I realise that it has been a little while since I wrote something other than a review post on here so today I'm going to fix that! I've been working hard behind the scenes on a new collection for my indie polish brand Nail Pop Polish and it shouldn't be too much longer now until it is released. I decided to go with the theme of Mythological Creatures and came up with six new shades. If you have been following me on other social media you might have already seen the sneak peaks I've been posting lately. I regularly use Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so feel free to give me a follow on there.
Let's get into the collection details. Like I said there is six in the range; Unicorn Dust, Dragon Scales, Minotaur, Pegasus, Mermaid Tears and Phoenix.
Polish number one is Pegasus. This pretty is a pearlescent white with some scattered holo glitter. I've done two coats of colour and no top coat. As soon as I made this one I knew it would be my Pegasus, the mythical sheen on the white just screams out Pegasus' wings to me. You also know I can't resist through that holographic glitter into the mix too. I think I'm a bit of an addict!
Minotaur is an orange-brown with scattered holo glitter. This is also only one coat as it's very pigmented. Naming this one was easy as most depiction of Minotaur's show them as brown furred so this creation fitted the bill. I'd like to try out some other brown shaded polishes in the future as I feel it's a shade that is quite often avoided.
Polish three is named Phoenix due to its fiery orange-yellow shimmer. This is again a good pigmented product so you can get away with one coat. How do people feel about one coat polishes? Is it something that's high up on your list when you choose a polish? Let me know your thoughts. Personally I like any polish that is opaque in 1 or 2 coats.
Say hello to Dragon Scales, a mint green with scattered holo sparkle. At first I went down the route of making a darker green shade but it wasn't what I was looking for. So why not go the opposite way and make a lighter shade? I love this mint green and besides, dragons can be any colour you want them to!
The fifth polish is Mermaid Tears. This blue based polish is packed with micro blue flakie glitters. I had tried this polish first of all using blue glitter instead of the flakies but this is the one that won in the end.
I saved what I think is the best for last. Here is Unicorn Dust. It is a holographic topper so you can put it over a base colour of your choice and make that holo sparkle goodness come alive! I posted a video of it over blue, black and red on my social media HERE
So there you have it, six polishes that are my Mythological Creatures Collection and will be out by the end of the month. I hope you are excited as I am for the release and like I said keep a look out on my social media for regular teasers and updates.
Hello readers, It's time for my thoughts on February's Meebox goodies. This is a monthly subscription service for a box full of nail products. If you would like to find out more click HERE.
The theme for the month was Red Carpet and there was even 5 special boxes that contained a Chanel Polish. Unfortunately my box wasn't a lucky one but I still liked what I got, so lets jump into it.
This month is three polishes (or four if you were one of the lucky five) and some gold nail studs from Sparkly Nails. This website sells some cute nail art items, so feel free to take a look HERE.
Polish number one is by Leighton Denny called Feel The Burn. Now one of the great thing I think about these boxes is receiving brands that I haven't ever bought and this is one of two that arrived in the package I'd never tried. This polish is amazing! If all his other polishes apply to this standard then I am impressed.
This is just ONE coat! It is completely opaque and shown here with no top coat. Application was really smooth, it dried really fast and the formula was just over all great to work with. My monitor is making this colour show up pillar box red but it is a much deeper, burnt shade of red. I can't wait to try more of this brand.
Sparkle sparkle! How about this beauty of full on gold glitter? Made by NailsInc this is Chelsea Embankment. Now on first appearances of the bottle I had the impression that this would be more of a topper polish or one that needed multiple coats (or even sponging) to achieve solid colour.
Well I was amazed at the coverage that came out in the first coat. The glitter is very dense but this does not effect the thickness of the polish - in fact the polish had a nice thin, easy to work with consistency. I applied a second coat and got what you see in the pictures. Look at the sparkle! Love this polish. Now does it come in silver.....?
Final polish of the box is a second brand I had not heard of; Smith & Cult. Interesting choice of name, this is called Porn-A-Thon. It is a peachy-nude and actually looks quite nice, though it would suit better a darker skin tone than mine.
There was one thing I wasn't so keen on with this polish and that was the brush. I'm finding it hard to get the words to describe to you what it was like. I guess it was almost like it was slightly clumped together and didn't have the softness of other brushes to spread out neatly on application. I managed to use it okay though and got the picture result in just two coats. The formula is really nice, I just would like a different brush. So there we have it. February's been and gone and even with the extra day it still seems way too fast. I'm looking forward to this months box which has the theme Kawaii. Did you receive a Meebox this month? What are your thoughts?
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
Hello readers! Well the holiday is over and it's back to work :( On the plus side I got some new items to share with you all from BornprettyStore They also gave me a 10% off code AIJW10, so if you do fancy treating yourself to a few things, feel free to use it. They do more than just nail art items, however that is the only items that I will be reviewing.
The items I choose were: a set of full nail stickers, silver stickers, a ring pallete, a stamper and scraper set and finally some silicon putty stuff for picking up rhinestones and gems.
I was keen to try out these stickers. I love the design on them. You get two sets of stickers and they range in size from 10mm up to 17.5mm. Find the size that fits your nail. If you can't get an exact fit, choose a slightly bigger one and then trim the sides down to fit. You can find the item HERE and it comes in different options.
To use the sticker you peel off a top film and then using tweezers carefully peel off the silver tab at the top and your sticker comes free. Next is the only tricky bit of the application; you have to place the sticker with the rounded edge at the cuticle and then gently smooth out over the entire nail. This can get a little tricky to avoid any bumps especially if you have quite curved nails like I do.
Fold down any excess over the end of your nail and gently file to remove it and your super cute manicure is complete! I do recommend you add a top coat just to help the manicure last longer by sealing the free edge in. I really liked this product, but I do need a bit more practice on smoothing the design out completely. You can check out my video of this manicure on My YouTube
These stickers are different to the first I showed you. These ones need cut to your desired shape and the black that you see is just the backing paper and the actual sticker is hollow. I think this would make a great accent nail design or even if you cut it into small strips for part of a nail design. You can find it HERE and once again there are different options to choose from.
Now here is an interesting little item! This block of pink silicon is actually for picking up your rhinestones and gems. You can find it HERE Checkout my review video to see how you use it by cutting a piece off and wrapping it round the end of an orange woodstick.
Next up we have a stamper and scraper set. This is one that has the see through top so that you can see exactly where your stamp is going on the nail! Cannot wait to try this out. I will have a video up soon for it. I don't use stamping too much and one of the reasons for that is being unable to accurately place the image in the same place on each nail. I think this little gem could change all that though! If you would like one yourself, you can find it HERE.
Last item is this super cute paw shaped ring pallete. Now I know there will be people out there just like me, that when you are doing some dotting you look for the nearest object to hand that will suitably hold polish while you dot. No..? Only me then. Well now I don't have that issue anymore thanks to this cute ring. It's easy to hand and I can put any colour of polish on it that I want to use and easily clean it up when I'm done. Genius! Want one for yourself? You can find it HERE.
So that's all the items I have for sharing with you today. Thank you very much to BPS for sending me these items to review. Though I have gotten these at no cost to myself, I can assure you that I will always give you my honest opinions on items. Keep an eye on my YouTube channel for upcoming videos using and demoing these items.
Hello readers! Surprised at another post so soon? I had to get these squeezed in this weekend as I'm off on my holidays Monday (woo!!!) Let's get talking about what was in January's Nailboxuk which had the theme Valentines. You can find all information here on how to subscribe and get your own box.
As I'm sure you will have guessed the shades were in pink and red but they also included a tiny packet of Love Hearts and some orange woodsticks. For this months nail related item you were sent the Elegant Touch 24k Gold Ridge Filler Base Coat.
How pretty does this look? You can see the flecks of gold in it. Now I do have very slight ridging in my nails, though I don't use any of the special ridge filler base coats. However the sparkly gold nature of this one meant I couldn't wait to try it.
Look at the gold shining through! It dried nice and quick and when I applied the other colours on top, they all applied smoothly. I would also use this as a perfect base for a french manicure as the gold flecks would add extra class to your manicure. After all, what girl doesn't love some 24k gold?
Our first polish is by Seche. You guys should know by now how much I adore their top coat and refuse to use any other, so I had high hopes for this polish to live up to my expectations.
This colour is called Rendezvous and it's a beautiful deep pink that is a one coater! As expected the formula of this is just perfect. I've shown it without top coat and I think its beautiful. Being my first impression for the Seche colour range, I have to say that I'm impressed and look forward to trying out more in their range!
Second polish is by Sinful Pro Shine and is called Babydoll. As it sounds, its a pretty pastel pink. I've done two coats and no top coat for the pictures. It's a little sheer on the first coat and you have to be careful of brush strokes showing through but I do really like the shade. Pink is a close second in what colours I like to use the most so I'm always happy to have more shades in the collection.
This macro shot actually ties in with the third "polish" in this months box. I feel I can't truely use the word as the nature of the product means you don't apply it like one though it comes in a polish base. Confused?
This macro shot might make more sense of my words for you. As you can see this is jam packed with small red hearts in a clear suspension base. This polish by NailsInc is called Alex Hearts. It's got a tiny polish brush to help you fish out the hearts to use. I found the brush pretty useless for doing so and ended up pouring out some polish onto tinfoil and then picking out the hearts I wanted that way. With Valentines Day coming up (and for some reason me completely forgetting this fact) that means its time for me to create a design for this theme soon. I see me using these hearts as part of it so stay tuned for that!
Well that's everything for January Nailboxuk. What do you think? My favourite this month has to be that Seche polish for its beautiful coverage formula and application. Close second is the base coat with the bling gold sparkle. I'm looking forward to seeing what next month holds!
This month the box contained 3 nail polishes, fake nails and polish remover. Now I'm not really going to be saying much about the fake nails as these are not something I will personally use but they are really cute and look like speckled eggs.
Second nail item in the box is this Nails Inc Express Polish Remover. Now I have to say I was going into reviewing this negatively and I had to eat my words as I actually loved it! This bottle contains a sponge with a hole in the middle and is soaked in polish remover. Now I'm funny about two things: the feel of sponges (I know... I'm weird) and using acetone just to remove nail polish. Great thing is this contains non acetone polish remover so brownie points earned there. Secondly the feel of the sponge is actually quite smooth and I had no issues with putting my finger in there to remove my polish. The polish removed quickly and neatly, with none of that skin staining you sometimes get with dark coloured polish and cotton pads. Really nice product and one that I will use again.
Polish one is Eye Candy London in shade Naughty But Nice. We received one of this brand last month and I wasn't overly impressed with the brand. This shade had a much better consistency and only required two coats to become opaque, proof that it can be a really nice brand to use.
Pastel shades are very Easter and Spring in my opinion so this was definitely a good choice for the box. My swatch shows two coats of colour and no top coat. It's a very pretty shade. Anything purple and I'm pretty much in love :)
Very impressed with this one. Pictures are showing only one coat as it's extremely pigmented. It dries to a matt finish as described and the colour is gorgeous with that shimmer of glitter running through it. I can't decide if its gold or green glitters that's in it, either way I like it.
This is very pigmented and I only needed one coat for the swatches. I think this would also work as a stamping polish due to it's consistency. I didn't use any top coat for the pictures.
