Nail Box || Review

A while back I reviewed a nail polish subscription box from Coloristiq and I absolutely loved their box and thought it was such a good idea however I stated that I thought it could be improved by being allowed to keep the nail polishes. Then I discovered this brand Nail Box which you guessed it, does exactly that! Sends you four brand new nail polishes to keep every month and to top it off they also send you a nail tool as well. I love that a nail tool is added because that is something I really lack in my collection and never think to pick up. 

The April box was the perfect Spring coloured shades:- a gorgeous baby pink by Essie called 'muchi, muchi', a bright coral from China Glaze called 'Peachy Keen', a pastel yellow from Revlon called 'Buttercup' and a bright pink from OPI called 'Kiss Me On My Tulips'. It also contained an Essie nail file which is already in my hand bag for those nail emergencies.

All four of these colours are colours that I love and I've already used all four. They're of amazing quality which doesn't surprise me considering they're all from good brands which is one of Nailboxes policies. I love the yellow shade Buttercup because I've been on the hunt for a good thick pastel yellow polish for so long and this is 100x better than Topshop's the 'Bees Knees'. Muchi Muchi is great at making your tan look even better and the colour reminds me of strawberry milkshake.

There are several different payment options for the box, you can pay £15 to buy a one off box or as little as £13.50 if you subscribe for an entire year. The box is carefully put together to try and include the very best nail trends. The value of the box is definitely worth it because even two of these nail polishes would be more expensive than the entire box.

The colours are all stunning so there's a high chance you'll like them all but if you don't you could always give them to someone as gift or use it as part of someones birthday present etc. Nailbox also promise to never send you the same colour twice and I think it would make a pretty cool gift to buy someone a years subscription for their birthday or Christmas etc. 

The boxes are limited edition so you do have to be quick in signing up for one because once they're gone they're gone for good. It is now too late to get your hands on this box but May's box is now available to buy and by the sounds of things it's gonna be a good one!

What do you think of nail polish subscription boxes?

Lots of Love,

♥

* This post contains PR samples

My Little Dream Box || April

This month I was extra excited about my My Little Box arriving because normally before it arrives you get a despatch email telling you what the box is but this month we just got a few hints. I always am excited for this box to arrive but it was an extra surprise not knowing what the box theme was until I opened it.

The box packaging this time is probably my favourite yet, the design is amazing, I love that it's a girl sitting on her roof at sunset and you can tell so much thought goes into these designs. I was also super happy to see that the little illustration cards are back and back with the best yet - a blue cloud with a Walt Disney quote on it - "If you can dream it, you can do it.". I love Disney, I love quotes and I love cute illustrations so this made me happy instantly and I will definitely be putting this up somewhere in my room.

The first thing in the box is the lifestyle product which is a cute little stamp. It has lots of French phrases on it like 'oui, non", "avec plaisir', 'merci beaucoup' and then it has english phrases like 'to do', 'made with love' and little clouds and stars. I think the to do list one will come in handy and so will the 'made with love' for little homemade gifts. It is a novelty thing, it reminds me of playing library's with my little sister when I was nine but I like cute, old school things like this.

The fashion item this month was a necklace and I was so excited for this because I thought it would be a pretty statement piece for Summer, I envisioned big colourful gems but it was far from that. However it did come in the most perfect packaging which was a little cloud with 'once upon a dream' on it which unfortunately you had to rip to get the necklace (I'd very much have liked it in tact for my wall). The necklace is a little, delicate gold plate with bonne etoile in it which is pretty and delicate and I think it means lucky star? which is cute but I don't know if it's something I would wear. It comes on a pink cord and I think that's what ruins it for me, I just don't think wearing a pink cord necklace would be very fashionable. I think it would be much nicer in bracelet form for the Summer with denim shorts and a checked shirt.

I do however think this box would be an absolute nightmare for someone who had no background in French, I did higher French and can just about get the idea of what the products are and what they say. However, the little explanation cards they come with are super handy for learning what the products are for because the description on the products themselves is in French. The magazine it comes with is in English and usually I love it but this month they've made the magazine in newspaper material and it folds out like a poster. I'm hoping they only did this because it has a poster inside it because I know I won't read it when it's got to be folded out to be read and the pages feel horrible. 

The beauty products this month are ones that I'm not too sure about. The first is My Little Box's own product 'masque reparateur' which is meant to help split ends and dry ends. I have long hair so anything for dry ends is always welcome, although last month we did get a hair mask too so I think this was possibly the wrong month to add another hair mask in. However, it smells good enough to eat and I look forward to trying it and seeing what it can do. I love the little bags the beauty products always come in too but have yet to find a use for them other than storing things in but they're just too cute to get rid of!

The second beauty product is a cow shed 'wild cow' invigorating body lotion which hasn't really got me too excited. I'm not too bothered about the brand Cowshed and the lotion smells very strongly of ginger which puts me off it so I might donate this one to my mum.

The last beauty product was a loved by Lou Lesage lip balm in red velvet. Again, not too excited by this it's a tinted lip balm and it doesn't appear to have any smell to it but hey hoe maybe it'll surprise me and end up being in a favourites post! I think it could also double up as a cheek tint if you wanted to use it as a blusher, I do like that it's diddy and won't take up too much handbag space.

I'm still pretty unsure on how I feel about this box. I love, love, love the design, the packaging, the thought process and the stamp was a really sweet touch although I'm not sure how practical it will be. However, the beauty products were a bit of a let down and I'm not sure many people will like the necklace. Again, I think I'll stay subscribed for now, I'm a sucker for pretty packaging and it makes me really happy receiving surprises each month and there's always a few things that I love but I do hope they up their game with the fashion and beauty pieces next time.

Did you receive this months box? What did you think of it?

Lots of Love,

♥

Coloristiq || Review/Unboxing

Firstly I want to apologise that I've been M.I.A. for a week as university well and truly got on top of me and I've been super stressed out. It was between putting up scrambled half hearted posts or taking a week off so I opted for the latter and I hope you don't mind but now I'm back. It's the first 'break' I've ever taken from my blog since starting over a year ago and I really missed it!

Now we all know by now that I'm not a massive fan of beauty boxes, aside from My Little Box no other beauty box has appealed to me as anything more than glorified samples. However, I discovered this brand Coloristiq who have quite possibly created one of the best concepts for a beauty box, ever.

If you're anything like me then you'll probably have a massive nail polish collection but not one of them is finished, in fact not one of them is even close to being finished because you constantly add new colours and brands to your collection. This is all good and well but it's also a pretty expensive habit to keep up so Coloristiq essentially offer a nail polish rental service on a monthly basis.

Every month you get sent 3 nail polishes from your wish list that you create on their website. You get to apply 2 coats per application and 3 applications per bottle which is their fair use policy. For me when I paint my nails I mostly use three coats generally unless it's a pigmented polish but of course you could do three coats and only use each bottle twice. However, with my polishes all three of the nail varnishes I received were perfectly wearable with two coats, maybe I need to up the quality of the polishes in my collection! I wear nail polish all the time and usually can get a week out of polishes when they're high quality brands like this so nine applications of nail polish a month is definitely more than necessary to get by on these polishes alone.

They also work with high quality salon brands, as much as I love my Barry M gelly's, it doesn't really compare next to Essie, China Glaze and OPI. In my box I received this stunning coral colour from China Glaze which is called 'More To Explore' a beautiful purple metallic shade by Essie in 'the lace is on and a silver metallic by OPI in 'Birthday Babe'. I have waited to post this review until I had tried every single one of the polishes and now I have and can truly say all three have made it up there on my list of favourite nail polishes.

One of the best things about this box is that I would never have picked up 'Birthday Babe' in a shop cause it doesn't strike me as my sort of colour but actually on the nails it's really beautiful. The brand gives you a chance to not only try shades you're lusting after but ones you don't want to invest in but want to try out. Coloristiq even hygienically clean the bottles so that you know that despite different people using them there aren't any germs or nasties on them.

I did intend to take pictures of all three polishes on my nails but I'm so bad at painting my nails I can't do the polishes justice. However, if you pay close attention to past and future posts you may notice these three beauties on my nails!

The only negative I have with this is one that you have to be in to get the parcel, if it was an inch or two smaller it would fit through the letter box and our post office is a nightmare to get parcels from if you work full time/student full time. I also do wish that it was a box that sent you three nail varnishes a month to keep however that would only add to my ever growing nail varnish collection so its probably a good job they don't!

The subscription costs £14.49 a month and that includes postage and packaging, once your month is up you repackage the polishes, stick on the pre-paid label and pop it in your nearest postbox. I think I will definitely be subscribing to this service as soon as I've got through some of my massive nail varnish collection.

What do you think of Coloristiq?

Lots of Love,

♥

* Post done in collaboration with Coloristiq but as always all views are my own.