Meebox Nov '17 - Through The Looking Glass, Review + Nail Art

So it finally happened, the cold/flu that everyone has had recently has caught up with me, and I'm regretting all the time that I was well and didn't appreciate it (you know the feeling I mean). Before I slip into a deep sleep (... I wish) I want to show you the latest Meebox*. This month's theme was Through The Looking Glass*. I was asked to review it because 'it has my name written all over it' but it really does, and I find it hard to turn down anything Alice in Wonderland related! This month box is worth a whopping £54.22, so you're definitely getting value for money. It includes:

Zoya - Saint* (£13)

iZ Beauty London - Front Row* (£6)

iZ Beauty London - Wonderland Inspired Decals* (£2)

Sally Hansen - Sleigh All Day + Miracle Gel Topcoat* (£14.99)

MoYou London - Alice 04 Stamping Plate* (£5.99)

Clear Jelly Crystal Clear Stamper* (£7.24)

I wanted to try and use everything from the box but in the end I used everything except the Sally Hansen polishes, which wasn't too bad going. 

Pumpkin Spice - Meebox October Review + Nail Art

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a good week so far, this is my first 5 day week at work in a few weeks so it's feeling like it's dragging a bit. Today I've got a review of the October Meebox* for you. This is my fourth review of the monthly subscription box, you can see all my previous reviews here. Each month comes with a new theme, and this months theme is Pumpkin Spice*, just in time for Halloween. Each months box costs £20 if you subscribe on a month to month basis, or you can subscribe for 3 months and it costs £18 a month. This might sound like a lot but you get so much value out of a box that it's well worth it. This months box includes:

- Crabtree & Evelyn - Clementine (RRP £6) 

- Lauren B - Nude 01 (RRP £11)

- Leighton Denny - Venus Desire (RRP £12)

- Bundle Monster Giant Stamper & Stamping plate (RRP £12)

With a total value of £41 you're definitely getting a lot for your money. I also like the surprise element of it, and also that there's always at least one nail art look to create out of the products you receive. And, even with an extensive collection such as mine I've only ever encountered one duplicate shade to one I own in a Meebox, which isn't too bad going. This month they were all pretty much new brands to me, except for Leighton Denny. I was also intrigued (and a little intimidated) by the giant stamper from Bundle Monster which I ended up loving once I got the hang of it. I know my stamping skills aren't the best and I don't claim for them to be, but I wanted to give the plate a try nonetheless.

Negative Space Stamping

Hey everyone! Can you believe it's already Wednesday? I've been to the cinema tonight to see Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, which by the way is hilarious but if you don't like inappropriate films it definitely wont be for you. They really don't hold back. But if you don't mind that kind of thing then I'd definitely recommend it because me and my friend were in stitches. I love a good cheesy comedies, and I'm a huge fan of Anna Kendrick so it was great for me. 

Today's nails are some that I created ages ago and I was so proud of them when I did them but before I took pictures I ruined the thumb bail and when I tried to fix it I didn't like how it came out second time around. Nevertheless, I still wanted to post the design, which I did when I was experimenting with stamping quite a lot. I seem to go through phases of experimenting with it and then going back to freehand and I'm in a freehand stage at the moment.

Winstonia Henna Plates Review

Hey everyone! I've had such a lovely weekend, it's my boyfriend's birthday today and it was really nice to give him his presents, which I've been wanting to see his reaction to for weeks. Luckily he really liked them (or so he said!). I love giving presents, I'm sure my 10 year old self would be shocked to hear me say that but as I've got older I've really started to appreciate it more. I'm especially excited when I can't measure what their reaction will be! 

Anyway, today's post is a review of the new Winstonia Henna stamping plates*. I've recently been trying my hand at stamping a bit more, so when I was offered the chance to try this new plate duo by Winstonia I jumped at the chance. There are two plates in the collection, each containing intricate henna-inspired designs. When I first saw them I thought they would be out of my skill set but the Winstonia stamper picked the designs up with ease. I created 3 looks with the stamps to showcase them, but there are so many possibilities for great designs so I'm sure you'll see them again!

Daisy Dixon Rose Gold Floral Nail Art

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a lovely weekend, I spent mine exploring the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and eating ice-cream in the unusually warm weather. It was nice to have a whole day relaxing and not having to think about anything. Normally I spend Sundays doing all the washing (it's boring being an adult sometimes), but our washing machine is currently broken so I managed to escape that task for this week. In my review of Gelish - Last Call I mentioned that I wouldn't be able to resist using it again, and it seemed like the perfect colour to use for this nail art inspired by this Daisy Dixon watch*. Daisy Dixon recently contacted me and asked if I would like to pick out a watch from their collection, and of course I said yes. It took me a while to decide which I wanted as there are so many to choose from on their site, but I eventually decided on the Chloe White Floral Print watch*, mainly because I knew it would work so well for nail art. 

Hitched - April Meebox Review + Nail Art

Hey everyone! This weekend in the UK was the May bank holiday weekend, so we've had a nice three-day weekend. It's been great to have that extra time off but I'm actually more tired than I should be as I didn't get to sleep until 3 last night. Today I've genuinely spent the whole day re-watching Sherlock and not doing much else really because I was too tired to contemplate being productive. 

Today's review is of the April Meebox*. Meebox is a monthly subscription box (you can see my previous review of February's box here) I must stop you before you roll your eyes and say 'another subscription box?' because Meebox's stand out from the crowd in my opinion and are consistently great. I've been really impressed with both boxes I've received (and other boxes I've seen across social media that I haven't received). For just £20 a month you're getting value for money, this month's box would total almost £40. 

Each month the box has a theme, and this month's theme is 'Hitched', their first bridal theme. Each month you are emailed what the theme will be on the 1st of the month, and you can choose whether or not you would like to receive the box. There's no contract, you can opt in and out whenever you want, and I think that freedom makes them quite unique. I decided to create these simple heart stamped nails with some of the products from this month's box (read on after the jump to see the products).

A-England Stamping

Hey everyone! Although I've got tonnes of reviews to show you at the moment, I'm really missing posting nail art, so I thought I'd take a break from the reviews for tonight and post a design instead. I've been experimenting with stamping a lot recently, it's always been one of those things that I really couldn't master, and whilst I still wouldn't class myself as 'good' at stamping, I'm definitely starting to see improvements. I still make mistakes, and I'm sure I will for a long time, but it's great to see where I've been going wrong and try to improve on that. Whilst swatching some A-England polishes recently I decided to try stamping with them, and I think the final look really suits the 'rustic'/historic theme of A-England polishes. 

Evixi Gel Polish Review + Nail Art

Hey everyone! After doing the Paint All The Nails link up last week I was so inspired by the other ladies who all creating amazing stamping marbles (where you put polish onto the stamper and smush it onto your nail essentially) + stamping, that I couldn't resist giving it a go myself. I love saran wrap nails, but these are even easier to create, and much less messy. I'll definitely be trying them again. I love how with the colours I used here they look like a really beautiful set of clouds at sunset/sunrise.

Trying out this technique seemed to also be the perfect excuse to get cracking on my review of Evixi Gel Polish, I've been trying it out for a couple of months so I can give you a proper review, but this is the first nail art I've done with it on my fingers. I did some nail art on my toes, but this is definitely a fingers-only blog (so don't panic that I'm about the show you pictures of my feet). The design on my toes lasted for well over a month before I got sick of them growing out and took them off, but they were still going strong. I also did some nails on my friend Alice, which lasted her 3 weeks before she picked them off (tut tut), so I can definitely attest for them being long lasting. 

The bottles and lamp are also gorgeous, whilst the bottles are similar to Gelish in their shape, their design is unique and is what really enticed me to reviewing the polish. They look classy and expensive, whilst actually being cheaper than most gel polish, if not all, priced at just £7 for one bottle. You could get a full kit with multiple polishes for under £100 which is virtually unheard of for gels.  Just as a warning this post is quite image-heavy, but I wanted you to get a good idea of the kit and the polishes so bear with me! Full post after the jump.

Stamping with Gelish

Hey everyone! I hope you're all having a lovely week so far, today I've been super stressed trying to sort out bills etc. for our new house, who knew moving was so stressful eh? Anyway, today's nail art is something a little different. I was sent a couple of polishes by Gelish last week, and I knew straight away I wanted to create some nail art with them. I wasn't really sure where I was going to take the design, but then it hit me that I've never tried stamping with gels, and it was SO much easier. I'm not claiming these are anywhere near perfect, but they're a lot better than I can normally manage, and that's because Gelish makes it easy to sort out any mistakes. 

I also decided to experiment a bit with a different camera and natural light, I've included the images after the jump so you can compare the difference. I love how clear they are, but at the same time I don't think I'm able to make a jump to using natural light because I do so many designs at night. But I'd like to see I can set the new camera up with my lightbox to see how they look then. But I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new images!

Lilac Stamping

Hey everyone! I have another try from when I decided maybe I could stamp after all to show you today, and then I tried again and realised I couldn't and knocked my confidence once again. These were from the middle point in between the two. I'm sure it will be another two years before I give it a go again (I hope not though), unless a magical stamping fairy comes along and helps me out. Today's nails are just a really simple design that I wanted to try whilst I still had the confidence. Whilst they didn't turn out perfect, I was still pretty happy with them and I wore these for a whole week - so they can't have been that bad!

Glitter Stud Stamping

Hey everyone! Since trying stamping with July's Nailbox I've been wanting to try stamping again as it seemed a lot easier than I remembered. My friend Emily of Very Emily showed me a picture of a design she created on her toes recently and I knew I wanted to recreate them as soon as I saw the design. However, the stamping just didn't work for me as it did with the Nailbox. I'm not sure what I was doing differently, although this time I was using a Bundle Monster Plate rather than a Mo You plate so that might be the defining difference. Either way, I liked how these turned out and I wore these all of last week. I even managed to keep the studs on for a whole 5 days (although I was starting to get very annoyed with them) until one fell off and then I picked the rest off.

Little Ondine Water Based Nail Polish Review + Nail Art

Hey everyone! Today I have a new brand to show you, one I hadn't heard of before I was sent these polishes to try out. They're called Little Ondine and they make water based polishes, which are free from all the chemicals we're usually putting on our nails. I was really intrigued to try these as I've only ever tried one other water based polish and it was very, well, watery. I'm pleased to tell you that these are the complete opposite. They also dry insanely fast, no exaggeration. They were dry before I'd even put the brush back in the bottle (which made it a little difficult to touch up any mistakes!), especially the topcoat which was very impressive. These also peel off once you're done so that you don't have to use chemicals to remove them. 

Unfortunately I didn't read the 'How To Use' section of the website before applying, admittedly I felt rather cocky and didn't think I needed to after years of painting my nails! The section specifically says not to have a bath straight after applying, which is exactly what I did... Oops! So the polish started lifting straight away, and most of them had completely peeled off 24 hours later, but that is entirely my fault. I know from having spoken to other bloggers such as Brit Nails that they do last if you follow the instructions, so let that be a lesson to all (mainly me).

I was sent three polishes from their wide range of colours, two colours and one topcoat. I was surprised at how many colours they have in their collection, and even glitters. This definitely makes them very appealing to those who hate removing glitter polish, because all you have to do is peel off, with no damage to your natural nail. The colours I was sent were Nirvana* and Stellar*, and I also received 'Secret'* their topcoat/basecoat. I decided to create some nail art with them, which you can see below. More info on the nail art after the jump!

July Nailbox Review

Hey everyone! Today I have a review of the July Nailbox* to show you. Unfortunately I received it only a couple of days before they shipped for the month so it's no longer available, but you can subscribe to receive August's Nailbox here. July's box has a tropical theme and it contained: OPI Kiss Me I'm Brazilian, Barry M Need For Speed, China Glaze White On White, Elegant Touch Cuticle Eliminator, MoYou London Tropical Plate 12, and the MoYou London Rectangular stamp and scraper which came in a neat little pouch. There was a great selection of colours and plenty of opportunities for nail art. You might know that I don't actually tend to do stamping as I usually miserably fail at it. In fact I've never posted any stamping nail art on my blog I don't think. However, this stamper was much much easier to use (it's a lot stickier than usual) and somehow I actually managed to create something that could be passed for stamping and is worthy of putting on my blog! So I present to you... my first official stamping manicure!

If you don't know what Nailbox is, they're a monthly subscription service based in the UK. Each box contains a section of nail polishes and nail products, and they're always from top end brands like OPI, China Glaze, Essie, Barry M etc. You can subscribe on a monthly basis, or on a 6 or 12 month basis. To find out more about the plans check out their subscription page here.