Vegan Cuts Nail Box Review

*press samples*

Nail-product-by-mail boxes are quickly becoming a huge business: whether you're into polishes, nail wraps, nail care, or some combination of the three, there's probably a box out there that suits your tastes and can get you a collection of complementary products shipped right to your door.

Personally, I love that we're seeing more and more of these curated boxes—I think there's a certain artistry to putting together & packaging up just the right items, and it's so much fun seeing what different companies come up with. So when I heard from Vegan Cuts recently asking if I'd be interested in reviewing their vegan nail box, I jumped at the chance!

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention right off the bat that I'm not vegan. However, I think supporting cruelty-free beauty products is always a great thing to do and I love the idea of an all-vegan, all-indie collection. Even better, it's clear that Vegan Cuts put a lot of thought into the products they chose, so I think this box has appeal for just about any nail fanatic, regardless of your personal vegan status.

Now, then—on to the review!

Vegan Cuts states that box contents may vary slightly (different polish colors or brands may be included), but here's what I got with mine:

• Adorn Nails polish: Vive Le Coquette
• James Robert John polish: Just This Once
• Black Sheep Lacquer (mini): Cloudy Skies
• Elysian Nail Lacquer (mini): Night With No Moon (...I think? The shade wasn't labeled anywhere!)
• So Gloss silver arrowhead nail wraps
• LipGlosserie Champagne Sugar Cuticle Balm
• La Fresh acetone-free nail polish remover wipe
• Vegan Cuts special edition nail file

The Packaging

The first thing that struck me about the Vegan Cuts box was its physical size. It's tiny! That seemed strange to me initially, especially considering how many products are included, but once I thought about it, I realized this is actually a great thing: the tiny box uses less packaging than most nail boxes, so it's less wasteful. And it also fit just fine in my little mailbox—no package locker or trip to the post office required! Everything was packed well and I don't feel like polish breakage would be an issue at all.

The Polishes

Overall, I was really impressed with all the polishes included in the Vegan Cuts box. All four brands were new to me, and I would happily buy & use any of them again in the future.

Adorn Nails Vive Le Coquette is a beautiful baby pink creme. I was super wowed by this polish! I used two coats plus top coat for swatching, but the formula was so opaque and applied so well that I probably could have gotten away with just one. That's truly unheard of for such a light color!

James Robert John Just This Once is a fun, eye-catching coral creme that was created just for this box. This polish went on really nicely and was quite flattering: I'm often wary of coral/orange shades, but the strong red tones in this one were really nice. I even did some nail art with it (which will be positing soon!). This is two coats with top coat.

Black Sheep Lacquer Cloudy Skies is a shimmery thermal that transitions from medium teal/turquoise when cold to a delicate light teal that's almost verging on white when fully warmed up. This one applied well, but I did need to build up to four thin coats for full coverage, especially for the warm state. I also used top coat here.

Elysian Nail Lacquer Night With No Moon, assuming I'm identifying this one correctly, is a bright, shimmery blue that actually looks... completely different in person! I love the look in the photos, don't get me wrong, but there's a gorgeous teal shimmer to this one as well that my camera just couldn't capture. This is two coats with top coat.

The Other Stuff

Calling it "the other stuff" sounds so anticlimactic—my apologies for that! That wasn't my intention; my creativity just failed me when trying to come up with a good umbrella term. And even worse, I don't have individual pictures for all of these. But, like the polishes, these were all new brands and products for me and I was very impressed.

So Gloss Silver Arrowhead Nail Wraps - I'll be honest: I was a bit dubious about these wraps. They're made with vinyl & are heat-activated, so they're pretty different than a lot of the ultra-thin, made-with-nail-polish wraps on the market right now. I was thrown for a loop to have to pull out my hairdryer and warm them up for application, but after I got over that minor inconvenience, I found that I actually really liked these! The vinyl feels super sturdy and is easy to work with, so if you need to pull them up a bit and trim/re-stick/etc. during application, they can handle it with no issues. And because they're more substantial than other wraps, I didn't feel like I needed to add top coat to make them feel secure. Finally, they're chemical- and fume-free, so if you're sensitive to that kind of thing, these wraps would be a great option for you!

LipGlosserie Champagne Sugar Cuticle Balm - This is a great cuticle balm! It's packaged like a lip balm and has a very similar consistency, so you just kind of rub the stick all over your cuticles like a crayon. Because the surface of the balm is flat and fingers/nails/cuticle are all very curvy, it does seem to work best to rub it in with fingers after you apply some to your general cuticle area, but I don't have any issue with doing that. The balm itself is not greasy or sticky at all, so it's been a great option for me when I'm at work and can't go all out with some of my other cuticle care products. It also smells amazing: LipGlosserie calls it champagne sugar, but to my nose, it smells like honeysuckle.

La Fresh Acetone-Free Nail Polish Remover Wipe - I don't use prepackaged polish remover wipes very often, but these have got to be among the best ones out there—especially if you prefer acetone-free products. I almost got all 10 nails clean with the one pad (La Fresh promises all 10, but I was removing some bold, stain-prone polish, so I'll forgive them), and the remover itself has a really nice blood orange scent. And, best of all, my nails & cuticles were super moisturized after using it.

Vegan Cuts Special Edition Nail File - This is just a standard coarse-grit nail file, but it was nice to have for trimming off the ends of those thick vinyl nail wraps. And it's so cute!

***

Whew—I think that's it! Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with the Vegan Cuts nail box: I'll definitely use everything in it again and it's great to see a box focused on vegan, cruelty-free products. If you're a vegan yourself or have a vegan friend who's into nail stuff—or if you're just interested in a nice collection of indie products, you should give this box a look!

Disclosure: The products in this post were provided by Vegan Cuts for my consideration. All opinions are my own. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.