Top Coat Stress Test: Claire’s Ombre Top Coat

Claire’s is an interesting place to shop for nail polish. From what I can tell, they’re one of the few brick and mortar places I check that put out some fairly innovative polishes. They’re the first place I ever encountered thermal and solar polishes. The quality of their polishes can be hit or miss, but I’ve bought enough hits over the year to justify buying more for science. Good sales don’t hurt either. That’s how I ended up picking up their Ombre Top Coat.

It’s not completely clear (no pun intended) how this is supposed to work. I asked the associate on duty, who genuinely had no idea either. There are no instructions on the bottle to provide guidance. She thought it was supposed to change like a thermal polish once it was applied based on the sticker on the cap.

That's a reasonable guess. However, it turns out this is a sheer white polish that’s meant to be layered to create an ombre effect.

I got out my bottle of Ulta Blue Holiday, my go to polish for testing out top coats. I used two coats of Blue Holiday, and then applied three coats of Ombre Top Coat.

Here’s what it looked like after I tried making an ombre mani.

It took me three tries to get these mediocre results. I started out with two coats of Blue Holiday, then layered three coats of Ombre Top Coat over that. The polish really doesn't really start building up until at least the second coat, and the glossiness of the finish makes it ever harder to see. I had hoped the darker polish would make the effect more pronounced, but no such luck. 

This is not a fast dry top coat, so it took ages for it to dry. I’m so spoiled on using Seche Vite on everything that I forgot I actually had to wait with this one. Whoops! I also found I needed to let each coat dry before I applied the next one. This stuff definitely requires patience. It does look nice and shiny though.

So, how did it hold up?

It did pretty well; it made it two days before the chips started. When it did, it actually started happening near my cuticles instead of at the tips of my nails.  

Being as this is a top coat, and a sheer one at that, it's useless for stamping and water marbling. I tried using it with nail vinyls to see if I could get the ombre effect to be more pronounced. Nope! The only thing that was more distinct was how hard this polish fails. If I used more than one coat, it built up too much and pooled in the vinyl and by my cuticle. Air bubbles, yay! No nice clean lines either. 

 

Verdict: Loser Polish

If I were to rate this strictly on the basis of durability, this would be Good. However, I don’t recommend buying it, especially at its full price of $5.50. If you want to do an ombre effect mani, I would say either use a regular sheer polish that has a use on its own, or go with three shades of the same color. This top coat requires too many layers to do its one job, and by that point it’s just not practical. Pass on this one. 

Nail Polish Stress Test: CVS Pop-Arazzi Lovely In Lilac

Earlier this year I reviewed a couple of CVS’ Pop-Arazzi polishes. They were Good.  Since it’s been a while, I thought I’d try another one that’s been in my stash of untested polishes; Lovely In Lilac.

This one does what it says on the bottle. It’s a lovely shade of lilac. It has a slight shimmer to it in the bottle, but the reality is that this is a crème polish.

Pop-Arazzi polishes have something of a reputation for being foul smelling. It definitely smells stronger than most polishes. If you’re sensitive to this kind of thing, it’s worth being aware of, but I found it to be well within my tolerance level. I’ve dealt with worse for sure.

I used three coats here, with one coat of Seche Vite on top. The formula was nice and smooth. It was a bit streaky but it went away with that third coat. I have to say, I really liked how this looked when I was done. My collection doesn’t have a lot of pastels, so I was hoping this one would do well.

Sadly, it’s too sheer to be of any use in water marbling or stamping.

So, how well did it hold up?

Unfortunately, it didn’t do well at all. It was game over after one day. Normally I get better wear out of lighter colors, but that definitely didn’t happen here. I also got a surprisingly large amount of chipping on my thumb for some weird reason. That's unusual for me.

Verdict: Loser Polish

Lovely In Lilac doesn’t wear well, stamp, or water marble.  It’s a crying shame because it’s such a great color. At $2.99 (which no one should pay for this brand ever), it’s just not worth it. Hopefully I can find something better in the same color.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Sinful Shine Royal Flush

A little while ago, I reviewed my first Sinful Shine polish, Prosecco. It ended up being the highest scoring polish I’ve ever reviewed, so the natural thing for me to do was buy a couple more when they were on a buy one get one free sale at Rite Aid, including today’s subject, Royal Flush. Is it as good as Prosecco? Let’s find out!

Royal Flush is a fuchsia purple crème. I was a little worried as I applied it. While it went on fine and all, the formula reminded me of previous wannabe gels I’ve reviewed. It had that same lacquer like texture when it dried. I used two coats here, with one coat of the Sinful Shine topcoat.

This polish will water marble. I used another Sinful Shine along with it, Diamond In The Raw, which I will be reviewing at some point in the future.

It turns out that Royal Flush also stamps, although I had some issues with that. Royal Flush is opaque enough to stamp over darker colors. However, you can see from this picture that the silver underneath makes it look different. More importantly, the top coat smudged the design somewhat. The formula has some “grip” to it when it’s applied, even when I used a fairly heavy coat to avoid that problem. I don’t want to make a judgement call based on my experience with one polish, but I’m kinda thinking this kind of polish may not be ideal for stamping.

So, how did it hold up?

It didn’t, and that makes me very sad. It was wrecked after one day.

Verdict: Party Polish

Looks like we’re back to standard wannabe gel performance. Phooey. I really wanted this to be another polish on par with Prosecco, but that definitely didn’t happen here! I’m not giving up on this product line yet though. I have three more Sinful Shines to check out. I hope they’re more like Prosecco, and less like Royal Flush. Being usable for nail art is no good if it’s not going to last. Definitely skip this one.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Bonita Golden Girl

I’m finding I like Bonita polishes. They’re affordable, and generally of good quality. I suspect this is why every time my local Rite Aid gets any in, they blow out quickly. I was fortunate to grab a couple from their winter 2015 Forget Me Not collection, including todays test subject, Golden Girl.

Golden Girl is a gold jelly with small holographic glitter. This is easily the blingiest polish in my collection now. If I were going to be stranded on a desert island, I could probably use this to signal for help. It almost seemed like it was too much for everyday wear. That totally didn’t stop me!

Application was easy. I probably could have achieved full opacity with two coats, but I used three here as I hate seeing visible nail lines. It dried slightly rough, but one coat of Seche Vite took care of that.

Now, remember how I said this was a really blingy polish? Well, it’s so much so that I had a heck of a time getting a picture of that. Sunlight, fluorescent light, lightbox, no matter what I tried, as soon as the picture was in focus, the holo effect went away. I really wanted to convey how awesome this polish looks though, so I deliberately took a terrible out of focus shot. It might be blurry, but it definitely captures the bling.

As a glitter, it’s no good for stamping. It’s not worth water marbling with either. The base is so light and the glitter spreads enough that you might as well just use it as a top coat after you marble with something more worthwhile.

So, how did it hold up?

It did great! It lasted a good three days before I decided it had to come off. With all that holographic sparkle going on, it’s almost too blinding to spot any chips!

 Verdict: Excellent

At $2, this is a must have polish, especially if you love holos. If you come across it, grab it!

Nail Polish Stress Test: Color Club Cash Only

I’ve been super curious about Color Club’s Oil Slick collection. So far, I’ve tried Burnt Out, which was excellent, and It’s Raining Men, which was party polish.  Next up is Cash Only.

Cash Only is a duochrome with a lot of color shift to it. This one shifts between a cool brown, gold, silver and green. I saw the brown shift the most. I would almost call this one a neutral. I’ve never seen a polish quite like this one, that’s for sure.

The formula is a bit thicker than average, but goes on smoothly. I used two coats with my usual layer of Seche Vite on top.

This polish is great for stamping. It looks absolutely amazing on black! Even better, it water marbles!

So, how did it hold up?

It did great! It went a solid three days before I needed to take it off.

Verdict: Excellent

Cash Only is definitely a worthwhile addition to anyone’s polish collection. I’m especially happy that it stamps so well. It’s not every day I come across a duochrome polish that does!

Nail Polish Stress Test: Vernis Classique by Cherimoya Metallic Red

On a recent polish hunt in TJ Maxx, I came across a new to me brand of polish; Vernis Classique by Cherimoya. They were only $1.99, so I picked one up for science. I chose Metallic Red.

Metallic Red definitely does what it says on the bottle. It’s metallic and it’s red, although the way it looks in the bottle is a little misleading. When I put it on, it was a more intense red than it first appears. This went on nice and easy, nearly a one coater, but I went with two coats to get full coverage. I used one coat of Seche Vite on top.

I had no problem stamping with it. While it’s possible to water marble with this, it’s a bit tricky to use. It likes to spread out a LOT, not unlike the polishes I used to make Christmas ornaments last year. If you’re determined to use this polish for that purpose, you’ll want to experiment a bit.

So, how did it hold up?

Not well. I trashed it in one day.

Verdict: Party Polish

I think this polish is best used for stamping. However, if you do that, you might want to use a double layer of top coat. I noticed the design I’d stamped wore off pretty easily, and that’s a bit unusual. If you’re not into nail art, maybe skip this one.