Nail Polish Stress Test: Candie’s My Kinda Teal

Ever have a store you visit on a regular basis, never buy anything there ever, and then wonder why you bother going? For this lacquerista, that store is Kohl’s. I stroll through their nail polish section every time I’m in there, but they never seem to put any on sale. I’m not familiar with most of the brands they sell either. Imagine my surprise on my last pass through when I saw actual genuine for reals clearance! I’m wary of trying $8 polish for science. $2.40 clearance polish? Sure!

My Kinda Teal is…well… my kinda teal! It’s pretty close to the bottle of Head Over Teals I picked up recently, My Kinda Teal is more green. The cap makes me think of Ring Pops.  

Application was easy enough, although this polish appeared to be on the crelly side. I went with three coats plus my usual layer of Seche Vite on top. I kicked in some glitter on my ring finger just for fun.

As for wear, it didn’t do well at all. I lost a good amount of polish over the course of my shift. By the end of day one it was definitely game over for this mani! I found it stained my nails somewhat when I took it off.

I had no luck stamping or water marbling with this polish. 

Verdict: Loser Polish

Had I paid full price, I would have been super pissed instead of merely disappointed. I expect more from $8 polish. I'm sorry to say this one’s another bottle of fail.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Wet n Wild Wildshine: D’oh!

So I just had to move my polish collection from storage bins to a storage cabinet. In the process, I discovered that yellow polishes comprise a mere 1% of my collection. I have nothing against yellow.  It’s just that I’ve found yellow polishes seem to be problematic for me. That brings me to today’s polish: Wet n Wild D’oh!

D’oh! is one of the recently released Wildshine polishes that are supposed to be new, improved and even come in a redesigned bottle, yet I found this one for $.49 in the clearance bin at Walgreen’s. It’s a Simpsons yellow crème. I definitely like this shade. It’s not too bright, dull, or obnoxious.

I’m not a fan of the bottle redesign. I don’t like tall skinny bottles; they’re just too easy to knock over. Furthermore, the brush seems flimsy. It kind of reminds me of the e.l.f. polishes I reviewed a while back.

Application was a problem. Even though I let each coat dry before I applied the next one, my nails were patchy and streaky after three coats. I thought it might have been operator error, so I took it off and tried again. Nope, same results. I decided to leave things as they were, put a coat of Seche Vite on top, and called it done. 

So, how did it do? There was some pretty noticeable tip wear by the end of the first day, so I decided to take it off. No major destruction, but it didn't look presentable in this condition.

One thing that surprised me big time is that it stamps! It actually does better than the yellow stamping polishes I own, so I’d say that justifies my $.49 purchase right there. No luck watermarbling.

Verdict: Good

I wasn’t terribly impressed with the application and wear of this polish. My hunt for a good yellow creme continues. This is definitely worth tracking down if you need a yellow stamping polish though!

Nail Polish Stress Test: Finger Paints Endless Wear I Louvre You

Any time I hear about a polish that is allegedly long wearing, I find myself both curious and suspicious. The last one I tried didn’t fare well at all. Even so, when I learned Finger Paints had come out with their own line of long wearing polish I figured I’d give it a shot. Was that a mistake? Let’s find out!

I picked up I Louvre You, a bubblegum pink polish with a very pretty shimmer and microflakies. I’d say this is a jelly, but it can be opaque in three coats, which is what I went with. I used the matching Endless Wear top coat to finish it off. 

   This polish dries very quickly, which is great in the sense that you can move on to doing other things in the meantime, but also renders this polish useless for stamping or water marbling.

On to the critical part; how well did it hold up?

It didn’t. At the end of the first day I had noticeable tip wear, but I decided to push it to a second day. That was a mistake as I had catastrophic polish failure.

Verdict: Loser Polish

I’m being a bit harsh here as I’ve rated other polishes that have lasted one day higher than this, but they didn’t promise to last up to ten days either. Save your money and buy something else instead.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Orly Color Blast Snow Queen

I like Orly polishes a lot. It seems like I’m buying something from most of the collections they’ve come out with, so when I saw the Color Blast line at my local Walgreen’s, I thought I’d pick one up. Was this a good idea, or was my brain frozen from the eternal winter we’ve been enduring here? Let’s find out!

Right off the bat, this polish had something to prove. It’s $6.99 a bottle, yet it’s half the size of a bottle of standard Orly polish. I couldn’t help looking at the two together and thinking “O RLY?”.

 Snow Queen is from the Frozen collection. It’s a white crème with a blue flash that only seems to exist in the bottle. I found that to be quite frustrating because that’s what attracted me to this one in the first place. It definitely didn’t show up on my nail, and I couldn’t get it on camera either. The formula wasn’t the easiest to work with either. It was patchy as heck even though I let each coat completely dry before I added the next one. In the end I used three coats, and tried to patch up the bare spots as best I could before I finished it off with my usual coat of Seche Vite. 

 

I had pretty low expectations considering my application issues, but it turns out Snow Queen will stamp and water marble! I did not see that coming!

 As for wear, this looked pretty bad after one day. The tip wear was super obvious because of the bright white, so off it came. Bummer.

 Verdict: Party Polish

This would be loser polish if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s good for nail art. Even so, I wouldn’t buy this again unless it was on sale. A good one.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Ulta Blue Holiday

If you happen to meet a courier out of New Vegas offering polish, say yes, because they find awesome things! Case in point, Ulta Blue Holiday, a creme polish she scavenged for the ridiculous price of $.47!

Blue Holiday is more blurple or indigo than straight up blue in my book. Whatever color you want to call it, it’s one of my favorites, and I was overjoyed to receive it! It went on in two easy coats. It looks a bit darker on than it does in the bottle to me, but nothing major. I put my usual coat of Seche Vite on top.

 

Did it last? Yes it did. It went a solid two days before I felt the need to take it off. I could have pushed it to three if I'd touched it up. I'm definitely pleased with how this did.

A color this dark should stamp, right? Right! I was able to successfully water marble with it as well. 

Verdict: Excellent

It did well considering its color. It stamps. It water marbles. This is definitely going to be a go-to polish in my collection!    

Nail Polish Stress Test: Finger Paints Violaceous Vase

Ever see a polish in the store, and want it, even when it’s not on sale? That was my reaction to Violaceous Vase, a recent release by Finger Paints. Was this a foolish and impulsive move? Let’s find out!

Violaceous Vase is a purple shimmer with small and large hex glitters. I would argue this is almost a duochrome in nature. I noticed it looked more pinkish or bluish depending on the light. This would obviously make a killer topper, but I was able to get full opacity with three coats. Is it ever pretty. This is one of those polishes where it’s hard not to keep staring at it. The shimmer is almost luminous!

The only downer is that polishes like this are no good for stamping or water marbling. Ah well, someday maybe. 

As for durability, it did great. I was able to wear it for three days before it got noticeably damaged. 

Verdict: Excellent

I feel totally justified for jumping on this one as soon as I saw it at Sally’s. I can’t speak to the chain as a whole, but I find waiting for my local store to get in polishes I want (if they ever do!) is no end of frustrating. I’m glad I don’t have to regret my impulsiveness!