Nail Polish Stress Test: Pacifica Abalone

Recently, a friend of mine came across a brand of polish I’d never heard of called Pacifica. She ordered one called Abalone, and asked me if I wanted to take it for a test drive. Would I? Heck yeah!

The interesting thing about this brand is that it’s 7 Free.  According to Ulta’s website, that means it’s formulated without parabens, phthalates (dibutyl phthalate), toluene, xylene, camphor, formaldehyde, resin, and animals. The less bad stuff in there, the better, right?

Abalone is a gray based polish with duochrome iridescent shimmer. It’s one of those fun polishes that looks different depending on what kind of light hits it from which angle. It shifts between pink, green, blue and purple. It reminds me of Sally Hansen’s Silver Scallop without the big honking pieces of glitter.  Application was a breeze. The formula was nice and smooth, if a bit sheer, but I got full coverage in three coats. I used my usual coat layer of Seche Vite on top.

This polish can water marble, but it’s sheer enough that I don’t know that it’s worth it. Stamping wise, it can work. However, when I stamped it over white, it mostly just looked gray. Now to me, the whole point of using a polish like this in nail art is to be able to get a shimmery design. So, I tried it over black. I got shimmer, but it was subtle. I’d probably pass on stamping with it and reach for something else instead.

So, how did it hold up?

It did great! It lasted a solid three days before I felt it needed to come off. A person on Team Office Job could easily get a full week out of this.

Verdict: Excellent

It’s always nice to discover a new to me brand of polish that turns out to be worthwhile. I’m looking forward to trying out more from them. I ended up ordering my own bottle of Abalone after I returned the one I borrowed from my friend. As of this writing, you can order it from Ulta for $6.75.