Nail Polish Stress Test: L.A. Colors Animated

I’ve seen the L.A. Colors brand quite a bit lately. They had a display in Walmart over the summer, T.J. Maxx gets in sets of it from time to time, and Dollar Tree stores sell it as well. I have no idea how good this brand is, so I decided it’s time to find out. I went with Animated. I’m not sure how they chose that name for a bright tomato red polish, but eh, whatever.

I had a bit of trouble applying this one. I prefer to apply thin coats when I’m doing my nails, but I had to use thicker coats with this one or it would start getting globby on me. This ended up being a three heavier coat operation. I used one coat of Seche Vite on top. 

The results were pretty good, considering this is $1 polish. I did get significant tip wear after one day, but that’s par for the course for me when it comes to the average lacquer. Someone with a desk job would get more mileage out of it. I could have covered that up with glitter, French manicure style, but I figured I’d see if this polish could be used for nail art instead. 

Turns out, it’s great for nail art. Animated has a lot of pigment in it, so it’s great for nail stamping and gradients. It’s even easy to use for water marbling, although the color does bleed, so you should plan accordingly.

Verdict: Good, especially for nail art

I was impressed by what this polish could do for the money. I will definitely pick up more of these to try in the future.