The Color Box: Blue

If you had not noticed yet, blue is one of my favorite polish colors. I probably own more blues than any other color, yet polish makers world wide keep managing to create lovely hues of blue that you couldn’t find a match for even in my vast collection. While perusing a few of my favorite blogs, I saw that The Color Box, a quarterly collaboration box that releases five different polishes from five different indie makers in the same color family, chose blue for their spring color. I have never tried any of these brands before, but you better believe I whipped my credit card out in 0.2 seconds after seeing the blue deliciousness that could be adorning my nails. Although you will probably not be able to get any of these specific polishes any more, I thought I would share my experience with The Color Box with you anyway! There’s never anything wrong with getting exposed to a few more indie polishes, right?

All my swatches today are over Butter London Nail Foundation. My top coat of choice is Seche Vite.

Baroness X Sakura Skies, 3 coats plus top coat

We’re going to kick it off with Baroness X, who crafted this lovely sky blue polish full of flakies that shift from pink to gold. In pretty much all lightings the pink shift stood out much better, but in person I caught a few glances of gold.

Baroness X Sakura Skies, 1 coat

Baroness X has a medium width brush (think Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear) which made applying this polish a breeze. Sakura Skies has a smooth formula that probably would be thin were it not for all the flakies. The color shift that you see in the bottle already appears on your nails at one coat, wowza! It is a tad streaky, not bad for a lighter color, and looks more sheer in the photos; the flakies distract from vnl in person.

Baroness X Sakura Skies, 2 coats

It looks mostly opaque in two coats, but I’m part of the picky police and was not satisfied with leaving it here. The flakies are distracting enough, but the bright lights captured some lighter patches.

Baroness X Sakura Skies, 3 coats

Three coats definitely gets Sakura Skies as opaque and as evenly colored as it is going to get. I used three medium coats, so perhaps you could go in with a thicker second coat and get the same result. I found the formula to be so awesome that I did not mind using three coats at all. When it comes time to remove this pretty, beware of the flakies! Wash your hands after and scrub your nail area with a nail brush and some soap and you should be good.

Baroness X Sakura Skies, 3 coats plus top coat in indirect natural light

Baroness X Sakura Skies, 3 coats plus top coat under lamps

Blue-Eyed Girl Niagara Sunrise, 2 coats plus top coat

Next up we have Niagara Sunrise by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. I do not know if any description I give can do this polish justice, but I’ll try. It’s a slate blue crelly filled with pearlescent flakies and a strong red-gold shimmer. At least that’s what my eyes see, and what a lovely and unique sight it is!

Blue-Eyed Girl Niagara Sunrise, 1 coat

The formula is fairly thin so I used a thin coat to start it off. Blue-Eyed Girl’s brush is also thin, think Revlon, but it fans out well enough to do a three-stroke application (at least on these little nails of mine). The first coat is streaky and the darker base makes this more apparent. Just like the previous polish, the flakies and shimmer are already super intense with the first coat. Yum!

Blue-Eyed Girl Niagara Sunrise, 2 coats

Niagara Sunrise looks mostly opaque after 2 coats. If you squint, you can maybe see some nail line on my middle finger. I spent quite some time hemming and hawing over whether to do a third coat. Finally, I decided against it because it really would be a stretch to say that this isn’t opaque.

Blue-Eyed Girl Niagara Sunrise, 2 coats plus top coat in indirect natural light

Blue-Eyed Girl Niagara Sunrise, 2 coats plus top coat under lamps

Tonic Manna’s Mystical Masterpiece, 2 coats plus top coat

The third polish I have for you today, the alliteratively named Manna’s Mystical Masterpiece, is by Tonic Polish. This is a duochrome, not a strict blue, shifting between a royal blue and royal purple (not sure if that’s actually a color, but it is now). There is also a healthy dosage of holo sparkle which really brings this polish to life.

Tonic Manna’s Mystical Masterpiece, 1 coat

This masterpiece is truly a piece of art, you can see the blue-purple shift as you paint with it. I really wanted to lick it, the color is just so tempting and delicious. The first coat was a tad patchy because the formula is thinner and there are some slight brush strokes, but I did not pay them any mind. Because WOW. Y’all need the experience of painting your nails with a polish this beautiful at least once in your life.

Tonic Manna’s Mystical Masterpiece, 2 coats

Manna’s Mystical Masterpiece is completely opaque after two coats. I found the thinner polish easier to apply on the second coat, it built up well on itself. Again, you might see a few brushstrokes but they are so faint and the holo is so distracting that I do not think you need to worry about them. Check out how this polish changes in the different lightings, it is beautiful and shifty just like you would expect from a good duochrome.

Tonic Manna’s Mystical Masterpiece, 2 coats plus top coat in indirect natural light

Tonic Manna’s Mystical Masterpiece, 2 coats plus top coat under lamps

Blush Blue a Fuse, 3 coats plus top coat

Blue a Fuse by Blush Lacquers is the main reason I purchased this box. The combination of black shard glitter with a holo deep blue was too much for me to handle, it looks like a black-hole marked galaxy on your nails. I did not really understand the hype around black shard glitter until I saw it in this polish. So freakin’ cool.

Blush Blue a Fuse, 1 coat

Blush’s brush (rhymes) is a thin Revlon-type brush and it works very well with the formula which is that Goldilocks-type – not too thick, not too runny. The jelly base is sheer, but it has to be for those glitters and holo to stand out. I found the number of shards I got for each coat was fairly inconsistent, but that’s okay because DAMN. They look so cool!!!

Blush Blue a Fuse, 2 coats

Blue a Fuse builds up nicely with the second coat. I noticed it looked slightly more tealish than royal blue on the first coat, but now it is getting towards matching the color in the bottle. It does look opaque here, but in person there were still some sheer spots I wanted to cover so I went ahead with a third coat. Plus, a third coat means more of those shards!

Blush Blue a Fuse, 3 coats

Here Blue a Fuse is definitely, unquestionably opaque. I have zero complaints about the formula, it was a medium consistency, which is awesome for a jelly polish, and though the shards required some manipulation to spread out, it was easy to do so. You will want a good top coat for this one because it does dry uneven and a tad dull. Actually, all of the polishes in this box dried a tad dull so top coat really improves them all.

Blush Blue a Fuse, 3 coats plus top coat in indirect natural light

Blush Blue a Fuse, 3 coats plus top coat under lamps

Supermoon Texas Treasures, 2 coats plus top coat

Last up, we have possibly the prettiest color I have ever laid eyes upon. Look at the teal gorgeousness that is Supermoon Lacquer’s Texas Treasures. It is a navy base packed with copper shimmer and holo. I think the copper shimmer is what makes this look teal, because I could not pick out where that shimmer specifically (I had to look it up because I knew there was SOMETHING more to this shade), but you can definitely tell there is more than holo going on here. Mega ultra heart eyes for this one!

Supermoon Texas Treasures, 1 coat

Supermoon’s brush is medium verging on wide brush and the formula is of a perfect medium consistency. It was so close to being opaque in one coat, but I did have some lighter spots. If I used a thicker coat, it easily would have been one and done.

Supermoon Texas Treasures, 2 coats

A second coat of Texas Treasures clearly gets this one opaque and it seems to deepen the color a bit. Easy and buttery to apply. I want to paint EVERYTHING with it, this was a surprise favorite for me!

Supermoon Texas Treasures, 2 coats plus top coat in indirect natural light

Supermoon Texas Treasures, 2 coats plus top coat under lamps

This Color Box was, for me, some of the best money spent EVER. The only color that does not get me super excited is Sakura Skies (not a pink fan) but it is so pretty and shifty that I have been mostly able to overlook my pink prejudice. Blue a Fuse is everything I wanted it to be, but I did not realize how much I would love Texas Treasures and Niagara Sunrise until I had them on my nails. Manna’a Mystical Masterpiece is of course gorgeous and another of my favorites, but I was pretty sure I was going to love that one. Who can say no to blue and purple? I would happily purchase polish from any of these polish makers because I had no issues and saw no red flags for their quality. I’m going to keep my eye on future color boxes and if you would like to as well, here is their website. Thanks for sticking with me through all the pictures and blabbing despite the fact that the blue box is gone :]

Have you tried any of these polish makers? Do you like the concept of The Color Box?

xx, Ashley

 

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