Hey there gaming fans! Today’s blog post is for the Mario themed Polished Gamers box! As a lifelong Mario Brothers fan, I am very pumped for this box! I have 3 brands with 3 very different polishes to share with you all this month. I also have a new-to-the-blog brand called 1422 Designs to share today! The PGB shop opens this Friday, January 15th! As always, sale info and links will be at the end of the post.
The Polished Gamers Box aka PGB is a monthly collaboration between handmade indie brands. Each month has a different theme and themes are always related to video games. Items available range from nail polish to wax melts to stamping plates and even jewelry!
Disclaimer: I was sent these products as PR in exchange for photographs and an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. My photos were taken indoors with daylight/LED bulbs and outdoors in natural light. I used the KB Shimmer Clearly On Top glossy top coat, Glisten & Glow Glitter Grabber (for glitter polishes) and the Glisten & Glow Matte top coat for my photos.
1422 Designs – Cruisin’ In My ATV
Inspiration: Waluigi from Mario Kart Wii
Description: A dark purple jelly base with red-orange-yellow shifting shimmer and matte blue hex glitters in 2 different sizes.
Price: $12 for 15ml Cap: 35 bottles
Cruisin’ In My ATV This is my first time trying this brand and color me impressed! Great formula, easy application and the brush was great too. This polish is a jelly, so it was sheer on the first coat. The shimmer is very strong in this. In the bottle, I didn’t realize it was a shifty shimmer. For the most part it looks like a dark purple shimmer polish but once you start moving your hands, you can see this has some color shifts. I used 3 coats for my photos.
The glitters give this is a unique look in my opinion. They spread out easily and evenly on the nail. The glitters don’t give off much if any texture after 1 coat of top coat. I have some VNL where my nail extensions are but I don’t think natural nails will have VNL with this polish. I didn’t have any issues removing this with the soak off method.
1422 Designs
website | instagram | Facebook | Facebook group
Alter Ego – Yellow Toad
Inspiration: Yellow Toad
Description: white base with neon yellow microdots
Price: $10 for 17ml No Cap!
Yellow Toad had a great formula. It wasn’t too thick or too thin and applied really well. The glitters spread out well but I did find myself dabbing them in to a few places. I didn’t need to fish for the glitters and I didn’t notice a difference between the number you get on the brush between holding the bottle upside down or just letting it sit between coats. I LOVED this one matte! Because these glitters are neon, this is black light reactive. I’ll have a pictue of this under the blacklight on my Instagram story later today!
This polish will be a 2-3 coater depending on personal preference. I prefer white crellies in 3 coats so I swatched this in 3 coats. These glitters will dry down textured so I used a glitter eating top coat before my glossy top coat. Removal will be tricky so be sure to soak this off or use a peel off base coat.
Alter Ego
5 free, Vegan & cruelty free
Shop | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Color Spectrum Polish – Luigi Time!
Inspiration: Luigi
Description: A gorgeous emerald green to navy blue duochrome with green shimmer and blue to green shifting iridescent flakies.
Price: $12.50 for 13ml Cap: 40
Luigi Time also had a great formula! It wasn’t thick or thin and applied really well. It started out sheer but it builds up really great in 2-3 coats. This polish is *extremely* color shifty on the nail. I was seeing blue, green and a hint of purple at extreme angles. The flakies pair really well with this base and don’t give off any texture. I used 3 coats for my photos. I didn’t notice a difference in depth/opacity with the third coat but it did cover up a small light spot I had towards the tip of my nail.
This is going to be one of those polishes where you check out your nails in every type of lighting to see what color it is! The flakies really pop when you matteify this polish. Removal is easy.
Color Spectrum Polish
7 free, vegan & cruelty free
Website | etsy | instagram | facebook | facebook group
Sale Info
The Polished Gamers Box opens for orders the 15th of each month (this Friday for January) at 2PM Eastern time on the website, polishedgamersbox.com. There will be a ton more items than what I have shown available. All items are capped so be sure to get there when the shop opens! All PGB items are sold on preorder and will ship in around 4 weeks after the sale period.
Shipping within the US has a flat rate of $4. International shipping is available and priced at checkout. Multiple orders in the same name will have shipping overages will get refunded.