Skin & Tonics : Skincare Guides & Product Reviews

Do I need more nail polish?  I totally don’t, if I’m being honest with myself. However, my self-discipline is severely lacking when it comes to nail polish, so last month I signed up for SquareHue, a nail polish subscription service that was just announced in November. Each month, SquareHue sends subscribers three half-ounce bottles of polish in unique colors that are fresh made, high quality, and free of toxins.  At the time I subscribed they were running a special introductory price, and though I tried, I just couldn’t pass it up.  I got my first polishes this month, and I’ve never been so happy to be so weak willed.

The welcome card signed by the SquareHue team was a sweet personal touch.

The square bottles are adorable (and large)!

I love the icy theme for the January colors, which is appropriately named the “Arctic Collection.”   I am also excited about how big each bottle is!  At .5 oz. each, these bottles offer a very generous amount of polish.  The colors for January are:

Arctic Frost: A frosty shimmer that can be worn alone or used as a topcoat over another color
Glacier Skies: A creamy, pastel, blue
Midnight Flurries: An icy, sparkling, medium blue

I’ve been painting the Arctic Frost over pretty much everything since it arrived. It provides a really beautiful sparkle over any color. It also looks lovely and understated on its own, but unfortunately my oft-painted nails are too yellow for that sort of thing.

Arctic Frost

This is Arctic Frost on its own. I’m sorry about my yellow nails and jacked up cuticles.

This is what Arctic Frost is like as a top coat over another color. Amazing, right? (The base color shown here is Glacier Skies, also from The Arctic Collection)

Tar Heel fans will go bananas for Glacier Skies.  It’s a really perfect Carolina Blue. The formula for this one is more of a cream than your standard polish, so it takes a couple of coats to get it smoothed out, but two coats is all it takes for full, smooth coverage.

Glacier Skies

This is two coats of Glacier Skies.

My favorite of the bunch is Midnight Flurries.  It’s a wonderful shade with just enough sparkle to be noticed without being over-the-top.

Midnight Flurries

This is two coats of Midnight Flurries.

The price of a SquareHue subscription is $21 and offers free shipping. If you think that sounds like a lot, consider that a Julep Maven subscription is $20, but here you’re getting three polishes (as opposed to two polishes and a mystery product) that are each double the size of a Julep polish. I should also mention that the formula for these polishes are outstanding – they’re smooth, easy to work with, and the pigments are spectacular. They also dry relatively quickly – faster than your standard polish, but not quite as quickly as a speed dry polish.

With SquareHue, you don’t have the option to preview or select colors like you would with a Julep Maven box, but you do have the option to put your subscription on hold and start it again whenever you choose. This is an especially nice option if you happen to sign up when they’re offering a special– it gives you the opportunity to lock in the price and still take a break when your polish collection is bulging at the seams.

Speaking of which, my collection is bulging at the seams right now, actually.  I even considered pausing my SquareHue subscription, until I saw that next month their color theme is “Vintage Love.”  Uh, vintage romance themed colors? There’s no way I’m missing out on that.  If you don’t want to miss out either, you’ll probably want to go ahead and sign up.  February boxes ship at the end of January.

Skin & Tonics Rating: A