SquareHue April 2015 Review

Wow! Two months of nail mail in a row? What was I thinking? I was thinking a) just paid off my credit card - hooray! b) last month's was nice and c) can't do much on bed rest. . . lots of manis!

For those unfamiliar with SquareHue, they make and sell 5-free polishes through a monthly subscription service.  They do not, at this time, sell the polishes outside of this monthly service.  Unlike some monthly nail polish subs, SquareHue does not offer choices or previews, instead promising 3 full-size colours and finishes according to a particular theme - truly a mystery box! This year, each month is inspired by a different decade and April's is the 1930s.  Let's see what SquareHue came up with for this decade:

From left to right, we have:  Boardgame 1934, WPA 1935 and Tomorrowland 1939

(all High Gloss Creme finishes).

First impressions:  

Wow! These are bright and springy! I also don't have colours like this at all as I tend to purchase glossy pale shades or dark vampy ones.  These could be really fun to play with.  That said, I'm a little bummed that after SquareHue ventured away from the high gloss cremes last month, they're back with a vengeance this month.  Don't get me wrong - I don't have anything against a creme, but SquareHue tends to do a lot of them.  A lot.

Boardgame 1934:

Boardgame is a bright (and I do mean bright) orange-red shade that is probably my least favourite in this box.  Don't get me wrong - it's a great-looking colour but it doesn't go well with my colouring.  I will probably reserve this for toes and nail art.  I haven't tried it yet so I can't comment on the formula but I will post an update when I do.

WPA 1935:

This is a bright turquoise shade that I actually quite like.  Unfortunately I'm not as big of a fan of the formula.  It isn't particularly glossy for a "high gloss creme" and, after two coats, feels a little chalky on my nails.  I decided to remedy this with a shiny top coat and, despite having almost 24 hours to cure, this still dragged a little when I applied the top coat.  I'm going to reserve judgement - maybe I need to mix this a bit more and that will help things? But first impressions of this formula are not great despite the nice shade :(

*Update:  The issues I had with this polish continue.  It actually settles bizarrely - the colour all sinks to the bottom leaving chalky white polish up top.  It requires a lot of mixing to make it at all usable. . . so I don't use it as much as I'd like to (it's really pretty though).

Tomorrowland 1939:

This one, I love.  The shade is a bright grape-y purple but a little bit greyed (?) - it's kind of hard to describe.  The swatch above isn't that true to what I'm actually seeing on my nails. . . the shade is more like the colour of these:

"Thrills" gum, apparently a Canadian thing. . . and, yes, it totally tastes like soap.

Anyway, connection to soapy-tasting gum notwithstanding, this shade is gorgeous and will get a lot of use in my house.  This doesn't have the formulation issues I noted with WPA (at least with my bottle of WPA) and looks great in two coats.

Overall Verdict:

This month was a hit for me.  I love the bright shades - they just say "spring" to me :) Tomorrowland is a definite new fave and I really like the colour of WPA and am hoping the formula will be better next time I use it.  Otherwise, I'll just have to fiddle with it a bit more to get an even coat and be extra cautious when applying a shiny top coat.  I think Boardgame will be great for pedicures (and would suit others much better than me) but I still quite like the shade.  I also like how all of these colours seem to work together well.  They truly do look like part of a collection.  That said, I'm taking a break from SquareHue for the next few months.  There's only so much polish one person needs (and my husband keeps telling me it's a "want" not a "need" - what does he know?).  That said, I'll keep an eye on the boxes as they are released - apparently they are sometimes able/willing to sell the box after the fact if they have leftovers so if there's a must-have shade or two, I'm in! And, of course, I'll be back for the 80s and 90s at least!