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: 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.