Cult Cosmetics Blackbox June 2013 Review

I recently heard about a new nail polish subscription called Blackbox by Cult Cosmetics. Normally $19.99 a month plus $5 shipping, they are offering your first month for half off at 10.00 plus $5 shpping (I kind of wish the whole price had been half off instead of just the box, but close enough). This box comes with 3 full sized polishes (always 3-free polishes – free of toluene, DBP, and formaldehyde) and a nail tool of some kind, along with some suggestions of nail looks to try with your new stuff. I love polish and while I’m really happy with Julep (July review coming soon), I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try this new subscription out.
I ordered my box on June 24, it shipped June 27th and arrived a couple days earlier than tracking predicted on July 1st. Not bad. The box was pretty big, so I was excited to see what was inside.

Opening the box. Purple confetti packing, and bubble wrap ensured nothing spilled or got damaged. The info sheet listed all the contents.

My 3 Essie polishes were packaged together.  I got Avenue Maintain, a pretty blue from Essie’s Spring 2013 collection, Tarte Deco, a coral from Essie’s Spring 2010 collection, and Come Here, a neon coral from Essie’s Resort 2013 collection. I was a little disappointed to see something from a 2010 collection. Does that mean the polish is old or it’s just a hit that they keep remaking? Either way, the sign up page does state “no out-of-season overstock”. I’m not sure if the 2010 polish fits into that category or not. They were all pretty polishes and I like Essie, but I was also a little disappointed that, while they’re both pretty, the 2 coral colors were kind of similar. The blue is great, though. Each polish is valued at $8.00 on the Essie site, so right there, the box is more than paid for at the discounted first month price. Almost at the full box price, too.

Essie Tarte Deco, Avenue Maintain, and Come Here.

Next up is a Mash Nail Design Pen in black. This is not bad, but I already have quite a few Sally Hansen nail art pens, including black, so I was a little bummed to see this. With it you can draw designs on your nails. Again, it’s fine, but easy enough to find at any drug store. It’s valued at $5.99.

Mash Nail Design Pen in black

Finally, in it’s own little baggie, I found 2 sponge applicators (not sure how to value these since you can buy a 500 pack on Amazon for about $29 – I guess about 6 cents each?) and a pot of large silver glitter. The pot was a little loosely closed, so a a few bits of glitter came out, but the bulk of it was contained. I’m also not sure how to value that without a trip to the craft store – maybe a dollar? It wasn’t a huge sample. This also was a tad disappointing. I have a glitter polish that contains glitter about the size of the glitter in my box and it seems like it would be easier to just put that on. I guess maybe I could try using the glitter just at the top or bottom of my nails and make it more concentrated. I can try that. Maybe it’s not so disappointing. We’ll see. The note says the sponges can be used not only to apply the glitter, but also for ombre effects. I guess maybe that’s why I got the 2 similar colors? I don’t know – I think if I were going to do ombre, I’d still probably want the colors to be a bit more different. Like white into blue or something. Though I probably wouldn’t try the coral into blue. I wish the info card came with pictures of their suggestions instead of just stating “ombre and glitter effects”.

Sponge applicators and silver glitter

My June 2013 Cult Blackbox

So, all together, my box had a value of approximately $31.06. It’s over the price of the box, promotion- or full-priced, and technically, this is more than the one tool they promised, but I was still left a little disappointed. I saw some other reviews with cool things like nail studs with tweezers as well as more varied polish selections and got my hopes up for that kind of stuff. I guess I was hoping for things that you can’t necessarily find at the drug store. I’ve been pinning so many new nail designs that I don’t have the tools for and hoped this would be a fun way to get them. I think maybe if the price stayed at $15, it might be a bit more enticing to me. But $25 seems a bit high.
In the end, I decided that it’s more the tools I want, not more polish since I’m happy with Julep (if I’d never found Julep, I’d probably be happier with this box and keep it), so I canceled my Cult Blackbox subscription and ordered a bunch of inexpensive nail tools on Amazon! I got some nail tape, various sized and shaped studs, and a set of dotting tools and brushes! They’re shipping from China, so it may be a while, but I can’t wait to try them!
I still don’t think this is necessarily a bad box, so if you want to look into it, go to the Cult Cosmetics website – they’re still running the 50% off sale for your first month. They also sell individual nail kits, which actually look a bit more exciting to me, since you can pick the look you want and get all the tools required to make it. I’m kind of loving the Great Gatsby set and the Gone Sailing set. If you get the box, what did you get this month? Did you like it more than I did?

(And just a disclaimer: I bought this box myself and was not compensated for this review in any way. All opinions are my own.)