OPI Tokyo Collection VoxBox

**All polishes, base coat, and top coat were sent to me complimentary from Influenster for testing and review purposes. All opinions are my own.**

Everyone makes mistakes. I think Influenster certainly did when they sent me this VoxBox! I remember taking a survey related to OPI and being super excited, hoping I would finally get something nail polish related (none of my VoxBoxes since my first one have had anything nail). When I got the box, I excitedly tore it open to find… gels? I have never used or even worn a gel polish in my life! I did not even have a light! And, apparently, OPI gels are not super readily available. OPI won’t even sell them to you on their website unless you have a pro account. I do not know what I did to make Influenster think I was the target audience for this, but I’m actually glad it happened. I have had a fear of gel polish and I hope this is the first tiny baby step towards conquering that fear.

My fear has not been totally overcome with just three polishes, and for a few good reasons today you are not actually going to see swatches on my nails. I still have a slight fear of removing gels and thought it would be super time consuming and possibly cuticle and nail destroying to swatch and remove all three polishes I received. Today you are going to see my swatches on a swatch wheel. All polishes are shown at one, two, and three thin, thin coats respectively. All swatches are done with the OPI GelColor base coat and the OPI GelColor top coat. I found that you needed to use the whole system to cure the polishes thoroughly. All of the formulas were really similar; easy to apply and worked really well with the brush.

The first polish up is Another Ramen-tic Evening, the color I am least interested in. It does have a great name, though! I would call this a more subdued version of bubble gum pink. I have no doubt there are a million dupes for this one out there, probably even in OPI’s own closet.

This one definitely needed three coats! I tried to do super thin coats with all the gels to ensure that it they cured properly. From left to right, you can see it at one, two, and three coats. It looked a little worse at two coats in person than it does here.

This next color is right up my alley! Suzi-san Climbs Fuji-san is a gorgeous bold, lighter teal.

Because I used such thin coats, I felt that I personally needed three to get the color looking very solid. Please bear in mind that this is my first time using gels. I am showing it here at one, two, and three coats left to right. I bet the pros can get this one opaque in two.

Finally, we have Chopstix and Stones which is my favorite of the group! It is a squishy cobalt blue base that has a bunch of blue shimmer that totally wacked out my camera.

Chopstix and Stones has such a sheer base that I think you would really want to use three coats to get it looking deep and shimmery. The shimmer is what makes this so perfect for summer. I imagine it would be really fun as a pedicure! Actually, so would all of these. You are seeing it, if you look from left to right, at one, two, and three coats.

I want to give a shout out to the YouTube channel Nail Career Education for having some great information and making me less scared of gels. I am going on about a week long vacation this summer and might break these out. Or I’ll just wear Revlon Dealer’s Choice which I have been itching to get back on my nails. We’ll see. Anyway, I feel like I still have a lot to learn with gels considering these were all three coaters for me. I am looking forward to playing with these some more and, who knows, maybe getting them on my nails in a year or two ;]

Have you tried gels? What are your tips and tricks?

xx, Ashley

**Influenster sent me these products complimentary for review.**

Advertisement