Vegan Cuts Nail Box: Review

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had any time to post on the blog!  Busy with good stuff though, mostly working and performing, which is great because I'm absolutely loving my new job!  I've also been in the process of moving into an apartment with a couple friends over the past few days, so I may not be posting very often for a bit until we get wifi set up there.

Anywho, onto today's feature!  I've got a pretty awesome bunch of products to show you today, all from the Vegan Cuts Nail Box.  All of these products are vegan, 5-free, and cruelty-free.  This is quite a lengthy post, so I'll put it all below the jump.

Photo from Vegan Cuts

Click to read on!

The Vegan Cuts Nail Box includes a whole host of vegan nail products.  The typical box will include:

• Adorn Nails in L'Age d'Or (gold) or Vive Le Coquette (light pink)  - .5 oz.
• James Robert John in Just This Once (coral) - .4 oz.
• So Gloss Silver Arrowhead Nail Wraps - 24 individual wraps
• LipGlosserie Cuticle Balm - .25 oz.
• Black Sheep Lacquer in Cloudy Skies (turquoise) - .2 oz.
• Elysian Nail Lacquer in a summer collection shade  - .2 oz.
• Vegan Cuts Special Edition Nail File
• La Fresh Acetone-Free Nail Polish Remover - 1 wipe

I'll cover the polishes first, and then we'll get to the other products.  

Adorn Nails Vive Le Coquette: a dusty rose-pink creme.  This lovely shade is practically opaque in one coat, though you'll probably want to use two like I did for good measure.  The formula was beautifully creamy, and photos show it topped with one coat of LaCC 2013 top coat.  

Elysian Nail Lacquer Queen of the Amazons: a creamsicle-orange crelly.   This polish needed three thin coats to be nearly opaque, but the formula was a little on the goopy side, and despite shaking the polish beforehand there were still some clumps of pigment in it.  Oranges in general aren't really to my tastes, however, this is definitely a super bright and fun summer polish for those of you who aren't as ghostly-pale as I am, haha!  No top coat shown in photos. 

James Robert John Just This Once: a bright coral-red creme.  This polish is a dreamy two-coater, shown with no top coat since it dries nice and shiny all by itself.  Definitely another one that would have been great for summer, but going forward into fall I can see myself pairing it with some more neutral brown shades in nail art as a nice seasonal transition, since on me it leans more red than coral.

Black Sheep Lacquer Cloudy Skies:  a pale- to bright-blue thermal shimmer polish.  It was pretty difficult for me to capture the colour change on this polish, since it was subtle.  It sits at a nice light blue on me most of the time, and I could only get it to really change with hot and cold water. The formula was a little on the thick side to apply but needed three coats for opacity; shown with no top coat.  

The box also included So Gloss Nail Wraps in the Silver Arrowhead pattern.   I used the wraps as accent nails, and the rest of my nails are two coats of Illamasqua Gothiqua.  I was initially a bit skeptical about these wraps because they are applied with the same heating method as Jamberry wraps, which I haven't had great experiences with.  However, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that they heated up and applied smoothly with no issues!  The recommended method was to heat them up with a blow-dryer, but I don't own a blow-dryer so I placed them on the back of my flat iron for about 10 seconds each which worked wonderfully. 

I put on the wraps Thursday afternoon and they lasted well through Friday, but the corners started lifting a bit mid-day Saturday.  Then after spending all day Saturday and Sunday assembling IKEA furniture, they were all peeling at the tips to I removed them.  Obviously the main thing I could do in future to prolong the wear of the wraps would be to avoid IKEA furniture, but I'd also probably wrap my tips in top coat for next time, just to keep the edges protected.  

I'd also like to add that I'm in love with this pattern - it's not as obvious in the photos but the Silver Arrowhead pattern in full-on metallic silver, which is super reflective and definitely not something I could accomplish with normal polish!  I got so many compliments on them! 

La Fresh Acetone-Free Nail Polish Remover:  First of all, I love the packaging on this product, it's so bright and cute!  The remover pad is almost 5x7cm, and has a lovely orange scent.  I used it to remove my mani of two coats of Adorn Nails Vive Le Coquette (the first polish in this post), and I unfortunately could only get the polish off of 8 nails with the one pad, and even that was a bit tight.  Unfortunately I wasn't a huge fan of this wipe - I went easy on it by only trying to remove a creme polish, and I still had to really scrub at it to get it off, but it mostly just wanted to smear the polish around.  There is also a nail conditioner/moisturiser in these wipes, but it left all of my fingers feeling very sticky and oddly oily, to the point where I wanted to wash it all off right after removing my polish.  Overall, not my favourite product, personally.  I just can't get behind regularly using acetone-free remover, but for those of you with very dry or sensitive skin, it could be a good option.  

Special Edition Vegan Cuts Nail File & Lip Glosserie Champagne Sugar Cuticle Balm

The Vegan Cuts nail file is a standard-size file with a fairly rough grit, which I've been using a lot for taking off length when I file my nails.  It's a bit too rough for shaping though,  so I'm still using a more fine-grit file for that.  The file is super cute, it's pink and covered in hearts, with the Vegan Cuts logo on it! 

Lip Glosserie Champagne Sugar Cuticle Balm is a special summer cuticle balm that is formulated to not melt in the summer heat!  I can vouch for that property, as I accidentally left it sitting right beside the vent on my computer (which will turn my Burt's Bees lip balm to mush in a few minutes) for about half an hour, and it was a tad bit softer but hadn't melted nearly as much as my other balms.  As for the moisturising properties, it's definitely good for on-the-go as it is quick and easy to apply, and doesn't leave your fingers feeling oily at all.  It doesn't moisturise as deeply as Lemony Flutter though, so I'll still be using a thicker butter in the morning and at night.  But for quick on-the-go moisturising, this cuticle balm is pretty great!  

The Vegan Cuts Nail Box can be ordered online here, for just $24.95 US, with free shipping to the US; If you're in Canada like me, shipping will be an additional $15, and international shipping is an additional $25.  

Overall, this is a pretty great box with a wide assortment of items, which is perfect if you're looking to try out some new vegan-friendly nail brands!  

Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided for review and my honest opinion.