WHOOPS. Bondi went bust. I’ll have a post about that later, but my recommendation is to NOT get involved in any enterprise led by Bondi or Richard Annington.

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW WAS TRUE AT THE TIME:
I’m really excited to finally share a new subscription service: Bondi New York! Bondi offers 5-free polish in a variety of pretty cremes and metallics, with all of the net profits going to their foundation that supports charitable causes. Their subscription box is $19.99/month, with scaled discounts for 3-, 6-, and 12-month purchases. I purchased a 3-month sub, and the first one arrived yesterday.

Bondi August 2013

As you can see, Bondi threw in some goodies. The boxes come with three full-sized polishes (0.5 fluid ounces) and a beauty gift. Mine came with a face mask sample and a firming cream sample. I also got a full sized eye shadow from 100% Pure, worth $15. The color is Walnut, a “shimmery golden taupe” according to their website. It’s a lovely base color to brighten the eyes or to help a no-makeup makeup look, less pink than Stila’s Kitten, which I’d been using. I’ll be using this probably every day.

Walnut

So the first nail color is a gold metallic called Fool’s. I so did not need another yellow polish. Since this is the first month, Bondi sent out blind items from their existing line. Next month they’ll send colors from their fall collection before they’re available to the public. After that, though, they plan to send colors made only for the subscription boxes. Based on Facebook communication, I think they’re trying to figure out how to offer the most customization for the boxes: they asked if we would prefer to choose between two curated sets of three or choose any three of six polishes. The overwhelming response seemed to be for the latter, so I assume they’re working on it, which would be amazing. Regardless, starting with next month’s box, subscribers can preview what they’re getting and skip the month if they’d prefer. Anyway, Fool’s went on easily, fully opaque at three thin coats. I love the Bondi brushes — they’re soft and easy to work with, so they cause less streaking than, say, SquareHue.

Fool’s

Just to show you how I’m not kidding that I have enough golds, I swatched Fool’s beside SquareHue’s Pale Ale (March 2013) and Honor (July 2013). No dupes here; Fool’s is richer in color than Pale Ale and Honor is a foil finish.

golds comparison

Next is Blue Skies, a pretty light blue creme. Now this is a color I can have a million of and love every one. The formula was perfect, opaque in one careful coat. I was going to swatch this beside other blues, but I was losing the light, and when I lined my bottles up next to each other, they didn’t really look like duplicates anyway.

Blue Skies

Finally, Central Park Blossom is a delicate shade that Bondi calls pale pink, but looked a little more cream in real life than shows in this photo. I really love this neutral, work-safe color, and decided to keep this one on for a couple of days. It took three thin coats for full opacity, and it looks a bit lumpy mostly because I was getting impatient after reorganizing my entire polish collection and I didn’t take as much care to apply it as I should have.

Central Park Blossom

Let me say a word about Bondi’s customer service. They have a live chat on their website, making them the most accessible polish company I’ve encountered. They respond very quickly to emails, Facebook, and Twitter. Often the CEO himself, Richard Annington, will personally respond, which is amazeballs. Right now, a customer has very politely expressed mild dissatisfaction with getting repeat extras (she ordered two boxes) on FB and Richard has messaged her asking to get in touch, presumably to send her something more to her liking. I mean, they clearly can get away with such prompt and over-the-top customer service because they’re comparatively small, but I get the sense that CS is Richard’s #1 priority no matter how they grow. Which is refreshing and makes me happy to subscribe.

Anybody else thinking of trying Bondi or has gotten their box? Tell me what you think!