Imagination In Colour UK Nail Polish Blog
Hello everyone! Apologies again – I’ve been neglecting the blog a little this week. The job hunt, ya know, blah blah etc etc fill in the blanks :). I hope you’ve all been having a good few days. I am pretty excited about the subject of today’s post, which feels like the product we’ve been waiting for for a good couple of years in the nail polish community!
This week, “nailbox” kindly sent me a preview box to review ahead of this month’s box going out to review for you all. What is nailbox? It’s only a monthly nail polish subscription box! Yay! As far as I know, this is the only mainstream nail polish subscription box in the UK (with the exception of Coloristiq, which is a nail polish rental service – you get to keep the polishes you receive in nailbox).
In this review I’m going to show you what you receive for the April 2015 box, and give a brief review of all the products, as well as explaining price points, delivery details etc. – more info below! 🙂
Products included in April 2015 launch nailbox:
- OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips
- Essie Muchi, Muchi
- China Glaze Peachy Keen
- Revlon Colorstay 100 Buttercup
- Essie Padded Nail File
All the nail polishes are full size.
How it works
Each month, nailbox will send out their subscription box on dispatch day, which will be the 21st of each month. The products inside will be a surprise I believe, so you won’t know ahead of time what you’re receiving. There isn’t an option to choose your own colours, I assume because each box will be the same. Apparently the colours will be “on-trend”, so presumably the colours will be seasonally themed. They do promise never to send out the same polish twice! Each box will contain three or four nail colours, and one or two nail tools or treatments. They mention that on occasion they may send out a beauty or cosmetic product instead of a nail tool or treatment.
How much?
For a one-off subscription, nailbox charges £15. If you choose a 3 month plan, it’s £14.50 per box, 6 months = £14 per box, and 12 months = £13.50 per box. The plans are prepaid options. You can see the pricing here.
Delivery
Delivery is included in the cost of the box, and it’s sent by Royal Mail 48 Tracked Delivery (so in theory should take 2 days to get to you, from dispatch day on 21st of each month).
On a side note, the packaging is foam ‘s’ packing peanuts (I didn’t actually know the name of these before today, hehe!), so the nail polishes are well padded and shouldn’t break.
Additional info
All nailbox subscribers will be entitled to a 15% discount from nailpolish.co.uk by using a code at the checkout. Any other info is available through their FAQ page here.
April 2015 products
OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips
This is a lovely bright pink creme. I believe this nail polish was released as part of the Holland collection from 2012. I never bought it before, but I’m glad to have received this as it’s very very pretty!
Application: This nail polish applied perfectly and was practically opaque in 1 coat – I added a 2nd coat out of habit though. It dries quickly and to a lovely shine. No complaints!
Essie Muchi, Muchi
This one is undoubtedly my favourite of the four. It’s a lovely soft pink jelly, that actually builds up to full opacity in 3 coats. Where have you been all my life?! Lol. I’m not entirely sure which collection this is from, but it’s pre-2012 I think.
Application: As I said, it’s 3 coats for opacity. It applies neatly and evenly, and dries pretty quickly to a glossy finish.
China Glaze Peachy Keen
This is a nice pink-leaning orange (basically peach) creme. Not a favourite colour for me, but definitely appropriate for spring! Peachy Keen was part of the Up & Away Collection circa 2010, but is now part of their core line I think.
Application: This was a little streaky on the first coat, so took 2 careful coats for full opacity. It dries quickly, to a glossy-ish finish – I’d recommend adding topcoat for extra shine.
Revlon Colorstay Buttercup
You’ll have to excuse the slightly corpse-ish appearance of my fingers in this picture – my camera couldn’t seem to compute the different tones! Buttercup is a nice pale yellow with a hint of warmth that makes it a little more flattering to my skin colour. I actually quite like this colour, which is unusual for me!
Application: This was a bit streaky on the first coat, so takes 2 careful coats for full opacity. It dries quickly to a semi-glossy finish – I’d add topcoat for the best finish.
Essie Padded Nail File
Nail files are often a bit of a throwaway item for me – I don’t tend to use any one brand, neither have I found one that really *works* for me. This file may have changed that, though! I’m not sure how it differs from other files as I can’t seem to find much info on it online, but I shortened my nails the other night and somehow it was the most pleasing filing experience I’ve had to date!
The grain doesn’t dissolve or disappear unless you’re really going at it. I reckon I could get quite a few good uses out of the file before it’s not so functional any more. The powdery residue of the nail is much softer than normal for me, and doesn’t smell of that slightly unpleasant keratin aroma. The file is a nice length and shape; short and narrow enough that it doesn’t bend when you’re filing. I’m not sure how else to describe the file other than to say that I’m a convert, when it comes to padded files, as of now!
Price value
Is £15 worth it? Do you get that value and more from the box?
I’ve shopped around a bit and the lowest prices I can find for each item are as follows – linked:
- OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips £5.86 -TNBL
- Essie Muchi, Muchi £2.49 – Fragrance Direct
- China Glaze Peachy Keen £3.95 – Nail Polish Direct
- Revlon Colorstay 100 Buttercup £1.99 – Xtras
- Essie Padded Nail File £1.99 – Xtras
The total cost of these is £16.28, plus whatever delivery cost is from each place. So you are ultimately saving money. Especially if you go for one of the pre-pay options. There isn’t one single place where you can get all 5 items together, as far as I can tell. Of course you might not necessarily want to buy all 5 together, but I suppose that’s the beauty of a subscription box!
Just for fun I did a little dotticure using all four nail polishes – as you can see they go really nicely together for a springtime manicure!
Overall
I really like this idea, and (if I had any money to spare!) I’d probably sign up today 🙂 I think it’s a great way to keep your collection up to date with some good quality products, and some seasonal colours, that is if you like keeping ‘in season’ with your nail colour! (we all know how little I adhere to the seasonal fashion rules lol).
The price point is good, and I think nailbox have managed to include a really good selection of brands in this month’s box. Unfortunately they only service the UK currently, due to postage restrictions.
So, will you be signing up? Let me know in the comments! 😀 If you want to keep up to date with nailbox, you can follow their Facebook here, their Instagram here or their Twitter here.
