Dark Metal Lacquer - Mystery Box Review (September)

Hiya lovelies!  Today I have something exciting to show you all.  Last month, Dark Metal Lacquer launched a monthly mystery box, where each month there will be a theme, and the box will include polishes to fit that theme, plus a few little extras (some of which may be beauty items, or even something edible.) The polishes are exclusive to the boxes, and the price will vary from month to month, depending on what the theme is for that month. (For example, a holo themed box would be a little pricier than others, due to the cost of the supplies) The theme for the first month was Glitter, and the box was only £12.  Even if it had been a little pricier I probably would have still bought it, but £12 is a heck of a bargain!

The whole thing came packaged in a plain white box, instead of a jiffy bag, and the polishes were wrapped separately in black tissue paper, and popped into pretty pale blue organza bags.  From left to right the polish names are: I'm Not Springy, Around in Circles, and Such Jelly Much Glitter.  Under the polishes were a pen of Kamila's chocolate scented cuticle oil, and a little flat brush which looks like it will be perfect for clean-up. The oil smells amazing, I could smell it even before I pumped any oil down to the brush.  I actually wondered if it might be a little too strong, but I tried it before bed that night and it was great.  You could really smell the chocolate, but it wasn't so strong it gave me a headache, which some sweet scents can. I'm not going to say anything more about the oil yet though, as Kamila has kindly sent me the grapefruit one to review, so that's the one I've been using.  I'm hoping to have that review up pretty soon.

Anyway, enough talking, let's get on to the good stuff shall we - the swatches!

I'll start with the one I liked the look of most, Such Jelly Much Glitter. This is a deep red, glitter packed jelly polish.  I can see matte black and white squares, smaller black glitters, red holographic hex's, as well as red, and possibly also fuchsia micro glitter.  I can't be 100% sure, but I think that's what I'm seeing anyway :D

In the photos I'm wearing 3 coats, no undies, and 2 coats of topcoat to smooth out the glitter.  The formula was quite easy to work with, although I did find that due to the amount of glitter in this it was a lot easier to get an even coverage by using the dab and drag method.  I do that with most jelly glitters anyway :)

I love how juicy this looks, it reminds me of pomegranates, and actually makes me kind of hungry.  It also helps that the name made me chuckle when I read it :D  Safe to say I'm really pleased with this polish.

Next up is Around in Circles, a pale blue crelly base, packed full of blue microglitter, medium sized metallic blue hexes, and metallic silver hexes.  If I'm not mistaken there are a few larger metallic teal hexes scattered around too.

In the photos I'm wearing 3 coats, no undies, and 2 coats of top coat to smooth out the glitters.  On the first coat, the blue crelly base was almost invisible, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that it built up quite nicely.  I found that the glitter to base ratio was really nice too, it gives a real depth to the finished mani, but I didn't have any issues with them clumping up on the nail.

I've never really been keen on crelly's. but I found myself actually liking this one a lot.  It looks so cool on the nail, and I can see this making some awesome frosty blue mani's this winter.  Removal was as hard as you would imagine for this amount of glitter, but I managed to get it off with my non-acetone remover eventually, so it could have been worse.
 

And finally we have the topper, I'm Not Springy.  This is a mixture of matte pastel glitters in a clear base.  There are small creamy coloured hexes in 2 sizes, small peach squares, large red hexes, and lilac triangle glitters.  In these photos I'm wearing one dabbed coat over Barry M Greenberry.  I was initially going to use more of a jade green, but this was calling to me and I couldn't say no.  I just love wearing Greenberry!

The formula was, again, easy to work with.  I didn't find it to be too packed, or too sparse, and I didn't need to fish for any of the larger glitters.  I used 2 coats of top coat, as I always do with glitter.  I really love the colour combo in this topper, I would never have thought of putting red with pastels, but somehow it just works.  Plus, those lilac triangles are awesome.  I definitely think the world needs more triangle glitters :D

So, for anyone who's either having a slow day, or just scrolled through the pictures and not the words, I am really happy with this box.  The 3 polishes this month were are really nice, and had equally nice formula's.  And the little extras were lovely.  Yummy yummy chocolate oil, and, in my opinion at least, a clean up brush is an excellent thing to put in.  Even if you have one already, it's always good to have a spare, because you just know the time you realise your brush is beyond salvation is always the time you really want your clean up to be on point!

In case you're wondering, next months box will be £15, and the theme is Vamp/Dark.  Naturally, I really want to get my hands on it, despite the no buy I'm supposed to be sticking to.
Um, yeah..........about that.... ;)

 The last day for orders is 25th October, and the box will ship out on the 27th. You can get yours by visiting the DML big cartel store here.  And as always, you are welcome to stalk Kamila and her pretties on Facebook here and on Instagram @darkmetallacquer