Nailbox! UK Subscription Polish Box

I was so excited to be asked to review the June Nailbox! I've seen so many of these subscription boxes around for everything from dog toys to makeup to sweets, and only fairly recently heard about Nailbox. I'd heard good things, so I jumped at the chance. 

Nailbox is a subscription service where for £13.50 a month, you get a box with
three or four different nail polishes, and one or two nail care or nail art items. These include lots of big brands like OPI, China Glaze, MoYou London, Nails Inc and many others.  I was skeptical at first - I have so much nail varnish already, surely I would get a duplicate or colours that are similar to what I already have? 

The June 2016 box is themed around Festival Fever, and contains 4 polishes and some nail art tape. 

OPI Is Mai Tai Crooked - usually costs at least £9
Bourjois Turquoise Block - usually costs around £5.99
Rimmel Cheeky Chap - usually costs around £2.99
Essie Jazzy Jubilant - usually costs around £7.99
Elegant Touch Metalllic Nail Art Tape - usually costs around £4

So I calculate the value of the box at around £30, which is obviously lots more than the £13.50 the box costs! In fact in some shops, you couldn't buy one bottle of OPI for that amount. 

It was also a big plus in that there were no duplicates in my collection, and the OPI and the Essie weren't even similar to any polishes I own. The nail art tape is gorgeous! There are five long strips each of 6 different colours. I use striping tape from time to time, and not as often as I'd like, because I generally find the rolls really fiddly to use. I love the idea of having nice short strips all ready for you to peel off the card! Plus, look at that third one down! It's copper, but it's full of rainbows in the light!

 
So, what did I do with the contents?  I decided to try two different looks. First up is a floral design. I started with a base of the Rimmel, which is a one coater that applies nicely and dries to a matte finish. Then I freehanded some leaves with the Bourjois, and flowers with the OPI. I found that the green didn't really contrast with the blue enough to show clearly in the photos, but it was more obvious in real life.  I sponged a bit of the glitter from the Essie into the flower centres and topcoated everything. I wore these nails for two days. 

My thoughts about the polishes after making this first design was that the Rimmel was really nice, and I really really like the peachy orange of the OPI. I didn't feel I used enough of the Essie or the Bourjois to really comment. 

Next up I wanted to swatch all the colours individually.  I made a skittle across all my nails, and then used the tape to make a rays design on two of my nails. 

The green swatched beautifully - it applies really well and is another one coater. The OPI is a gorgeous colour, but is a bit thinner and streakier than the other two, and needed two coats. I preferred to topcoat the Rimmel one, as I wasn't crazy about the matte finish. 

I did the ray design freehand and then added the tape to cover any wobbles on the joins.  I topcoated over everything just in case the tape wasn't sticky enough (I think it was though) and because I want to wear these for a couple of days. 

Overall, I'm massively impressed! I'm trying really hard to spend less at the moment, but I am so tempted to sign up. The August box is called "Into the Sunset", which sounds gorgeous. It's my birthday in early September, so maybe I need to treat myself!

You can check out Nailbox on their website here. 



This box was provided by Nailbox for my honest review. See my Disclaimer for more details. 





 

Zombie Nails!

So, I went over my pretty pink manicure from yesterday with Bourjois Lime Catwalk and a striper pen, and ended up with this:

I taped off the ends (and wasn't careful about making them even, or all facing the same way) and painted one coat of the lime. This is a colour I don't think I'd choose to wear on its own, but I think it's a good colour for what I wanted today. I like greens, but I tend to prefer dark, sparkly greens for actually wearing.

Anyway. Once the green was dry, I painted on the stitches with the black nail art pen (it was Andrea Fulerton's Dot & Flick). I was worried that I'd find the right hand really hard to do, but it actually turned out more even than the left! Once these were dry, I did a coat of Seche Vite to seal it all. Unfortunately, the SV caused the stitches to melt a bit and make a bit of a smear. Oh well, I don't suppose anyone will be looking too closely. It annoyed me though.

I'm also disappointed with how dry my cuticles look in every photo these days! I am being very good to them, I'm covering them in hand cream and in neem oil, and when I look at them with my eyes, they look fine. Then I take a photo and they look dreadful!  So I'm wondering whether it's my eyes... I hope not!  Again though, I suppose nobody's going to be looking THAT closely. I just wish I had the perfectly clean finish that the other nail bloggers have.