Nail Polish Stress Test: Claire’s Frosted Metal Blue

Ever buy a bottle of nail polish you thought looked cool but wasn’t what you expected when you put it on? That’s the story behind today’s test subject, Claire’s Frosted Metal Blue.

In the bottle, it looks like what it says on the bottle; a frosted metallic light steel blue polish, albeit one that needs to be shaken up a little. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to have glitter inside! If you read my review of Sea Temptress a while back, you’ll know I am not a fan of this kind of thing, so I wasn’t very happy to discover this. You can see the glitter in my bottle shot below, but at normal not magnified viewing range, it’s not obvious there’s stuff in there.  

Nonetheless, I foraged on. I will say this polish was easy to apply. The formula was on the thicker side, which was more like paint than lacquer. There’s micro glitter and bar glitter inside that gives more of a lumpy effect rather than frosty.  I used two coats and no top coat. Drying time was very short. This would be a good polish to put on if you wanted to do your nails just before heading out.

With all that glitter, there was no way this was going to be any good for water marbling or stamping. That’s a real bummer because I really wanted to try doing some nail art with it. I doubt one could even stamp on it!

So, my complaining aside, how did it hold up?

Not well. One day did it in. However, it’d be easy enough to put another coat on top to extend its wear.

Verdict: Loser Polish

As long as I’m griping, I’m also going to note that Claire’s really, really needs to do a better job of labeling their polishes in general.  *cough*ombre top coat*cough* If I’d known what was in that bottle, I never would have purchased it. At least it’s not terribly expensive. It normally goes for $4.50, but they run sales often enough that there’s no reason to pay full price for this. And you shouldn’t.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Broadway Sand In Heaven

So the other day I was killing time with my friend before we had to go to work, and she suggested I check out Dollar General. Me being me, I sought out the nail polish. I came across a whole display of a brand I’d never heard of before; Broadway. I chose one, because, hey, it’s $1! That polish is today’s subject, Sand In Heaven.

I was hoping this was going to be textured due to the name. Nope! This is an almost neon greenish yellow pearl, with some sparkle in it. I had to color adjust my pics as this one photographs more green than it truly is. Another problem is that this looks different on my nails than it does in the bottle. I’d picked this color because my polish collection doesn’t have many yellows, so I’d been hoping this would make a nice addition

The formula was nice and smooth, yet after three coats it definitely did not look good on my nails, and I found the results far from heavenly. Who named this? The polish itself is on the sheer side, so the color of my nails affected how it looked on me. What looked like a fun greenish yellow in the bottle, ended up looking like vomit on my nails.  I applied my usual layer of Seche Vite and let it ride. This looked ugly enough that a couple people actually commented negatively about it!  

Sand In Heaven didn’t stamp or water marble.

So, how did it hold up?

 It only lasted a day, and honestly, I’m glad of that. I was over this color pretty quickly. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see my polish chip!

Verdict: Loser Polish

Maybe they should have named this one Toxic Waste Beach instead. It’s a moot point though, because this polish just isn’t worth buying. 

Nail Polish Stress Test: Sinful Shine Prosecco

So over the past few months, I’ve tried various polishes I consider wannabe gels. These products claim to have extended wear and gel like shine for a fraction of the cost. So far, I have yet to find one that wasn’t loser polish. I keep hoping I’ll find one that actually works though! That brings me to today’s test subject; Prosecco from Sinful Shine.

Prosecco is a cool toned beige with golden glass flecks in it that have quite a bit of sparkle. It looks more iridescent up close. I used three coats, and the Sinful Shine topcoat you’re supposed to use with these polishes. It went on as if it were ordinary polish.

Let me be up front; this shade is not my thing. The main reason I went with Prosecco is that by the time I was aware my local Walmart finally got these polishes in, the display was pretty bombed out, and my choices were down to this, and basic colors like red and pink. I’d rather avoid reviewing the same color in twenty different brands, so Prosecco it was. Enjoy, because you won’t be seeing much of this kind of color here!

Furthermore, I’d just gotten a couple new stamping plates in the day before. Based on my track record, I figured I’d throw this on, fail it, and play with my new stuff. Did that happen?

NO! Not even close! I put this on Monday, and although it did get some tip wear, it was still looking acceptable on Friday, when I took this pic. Just to be clear about what I do to my manicures, this was on through two showers a day, washing dishes, cleaning, sticking my hands in boxes eight hours a day, and getting pretty filthy in the process, so the fact that this looked passable after all that is amazing! In fact, I kept it on through Saturday, when it finally started to chip.

Sadly this won’t stamp. Water marbling isn’t impossible. This polish takes significantly longer to dry in water for some reason, so I would recommend using the decal method if you want to do this.

Verdict: Outstanding

This is THE best polish I have reviewed so far. At $2.99 each for the polish and top coat, it’s also a fantastic value. Obviously the color hides some of the damage, but still….wow! I am totally checking out more of this line!

You know what the funniest part is to me? Sinful did not make any claims about wear time; believe me, I checked. If you see this polish, GRAB IT.  

 

Nail Product Stress Test: Sinful Colors Henna I Do Nail Wraps

Continuing on my nail wrap journey, I came across this set from the Sinful Colors Bombay Nights display for $2.99. As of this writing, it’s still available in Rite Aid and Walgreen’s.

I honestly wasn’t sure how to use these. The directions on the package said how to apply them, but I was unsure how these would look on bare nails. Was this supposed to be like a negative space manicure? I debated for a bit and decided to put them on my nails straight. Nail wraps traditionally don’t go over polish, right?

The designs themselves are pretty, and have a little bit of sparkle in them. I was hopeful when I applied them, but when I was done, I got……..

…that.

These look awful.  Application was difficult. These things wrinkle like crazy for one thing. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t avoid it. The fact that the wraps are clear helps make it less noticeable, but I know this looked bad. Then there’s the design. It’s not nearly dark enough so it looks…..well…..like crap. There’s no way anyone with a darker skin tone could wear these on their own.

Then there’s the matter of trimming them at the end. I tried using a file left over from the Essie wraps, a nail file, my buffer, it didn’t matter. I ended up with horrible looking ragged edges.

They reminded me of Essie’s wraps in that it feels like I coated my nails in a heavy layer of glue. At this point, I really didn’t like how they looked or felt on my nails. I was thiiiiiiiiis close to taking them off, but I figured I’d wear them to work and see how they held up.

The fact that they’re mostly clear helps, but the tips got pretty messed up by the end of the day. Granted, they had a head start, but this was total fail.

Just for science, I thought I’d try using a couple of the leftover wraps over some neutral polish. This is more like it. You can actually SEE the design, but application is still a problem. I found there was no way to reposition the wrap if I wasn’t happy with how it looked. They seemed to stick to the polish somewhat, and when I peeled it off afterwards, the wrap lost its adhesion. Basically, if you can’t nail it the first try, it’s not happening.

Using the wraps over polish had no bearing on their durability, they still got messed up after one day. If you do decide to buy these, using them over polish is definitely the way to go. 

Verdict: Loser polish

This is a great concept, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Don’t buy this. For $3 you could get three bottles of their polish instead. 

Nail Polish Stress Test: Finger Paints Sea Temptress

I grabbed this one from Sally Beauty Supply’s last 50% off red tag clearance sale.  Sea Temptress is part of Finger Paints' Enchanted Mermaid Collection. It's supposed to have “real mermaid texture”. I’m not sure what that even means. What it actually is; a very pretty polish that is ruined by the addition of texture it didn’t need.

It’s actually quite sinister. When you look at the bottle and see the beautiful pearly blue green shimmer within, there’s no way to tell there’s clear glitter pieces inside that provide texture that in my opinion makes it look like you ruined your manicure and couldn’t be bothered to fix it. I really want to like it, but that finish…..ugh! I used three coats with no top coat.

Disappointment aside, how did it hold up?

It did okay. I had a couple chips on the first day, but again because of the shimmer, they weren’t easy to spot. After the second day, it was pretty much game over.

Verdict: Good

It’s a decent polish if you can look past the texture. Only paying $1.65 helped.