Nail Polish Stress Test: Color Club Rays The Bar

I love color changing and other gimmicky polishes. When Color Club came out with their new Heat Index collection, I had to try at least one.  I chose Rays The Bar. Was that a good idea? Let’s find out!

Rays The Bar is a thermal polish that is supposed to change from pink to orange depending on temperature. Looking at the label on the cap, that color change is supposed to be pretty distinct. It isn’t. Most of the time it looked like a bright coral to me. Occasionally it’d look slightly more orange or more pink. If you’re looking to buy this polish for the color changing aspect, don’t do it. 

The formula was on the streaky side, not to mention sheer. It took three coats to get everything looking even, which dried to a matte finish. There was still visible nail line afterwards. I used one coat of Seche Vite over it to make everything nice and shiny.  I used a different color changing polish on my ring finger because I wanted to see some color changing action darnit!

Stamping is possible with this polish, but I found it to be very frustrating to work with. I had a lot of trouble getting images to fully pick up to the point where I eventually threw in the towel. Water marbling was a complete fail as the polish wouldn’t spread.

So, how did it hold up?

It did pretty well. It made it two days before I had to take it off.

Verdict: Loser Polish

I can’t recommend buying this. If it was ordinary polish I’d rate it Good. However, it fails at its job of being a color changing thermal polish. There are better options out there. If you must try it, at least do what I did and wait for a sale as it usually sells for $10 on Color Club’s website.                     

Nail Polish Stress Test: Azature Coral Diamond

Azature is one of those brands that is hard NOT to be curious about. Curious as in at $25 a bottle, how good is it? Since I managed to score a couple bottles during their $6 sale, we’re gonna check out one today; Coral Diamond.

Coral Diamond is a really nice coral creme. It’s not too orange, not too pink, nice and bright without being neon. The formula was nice and smooth. I used three coats with my usual coat of Seche Vite on top. I gotta say, I really liked how this one looked on me.

As you can see, it stamped no problem. It also water marbled well too. This was one of the more cooperative polishes I’ve tried to use for that purpose. My brain was screaming “DON”T WASTE IT! THIS STUFF IS EXPENSIVE!” while I was testing it. I need to cover all the bases though, right?

So, how did it hold up?

I was impressed. It lasted a solid three days before the damage was noticeable.

Verdict: Excellent

At $25 a whack, it better be excellent, right? I’m definitely happy with this one. This may be my go to coral polish. Would I spend $25 on it? Nope. At that price I expect it to last at least two weeks and give me super powers!

IMPORTANT!  I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating; whatever you do, be careful about interacting with this company from work. Azature puts out some sexy pics to advertise their polishes. I’ve seen the same racy images on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even in emails. One of them was flat out NSFW. Here’s a link to Coral Diamond that’s safe. 

Nail Polish Stress Test: Republic Nail Gel Effect Coral

My 50^th review! Whoohoo!

The most popular review I’ve written since I started blogging here is the one I did for Republic Nail Gel Effect Monaco. It was loser polish. Polishes from this brand have been showing up off and on at TJ Maxx since then. This made me start to wonder. Did I get a dud bottle? Maybe I should have done a better job applying it? I can’t believe a company could continue to make a polish that bad and stay in business! I was curious enough to go into the breach one more time, so I bought another set.

My initial impression is still the same; I just don’t trust a product when the manufacturer can’t put an actual product photo on the packaging. It’s also worth noting the pic on the box wasn’t exactly color accurate either. This coral is definitely more pink looking in reality than it looks on the box.

You’re supposed to use one coat of the colored part, wait six minutes, apply the top coat, wait six minutes, done. Guess what? I ran into the same application problems. This stuff looks streaky as all get out. It seems like that’s just how this product rolls. I stuck to one coat. As badly as I wanted to add a second one, I decided to adhere to the directions. Things started going uphill when I tried to apply the topcoat. It was really stringy and goopy. 

 I had to redo a couple nails, but I managed to get a somewhat decent job done. Well, make that barely passable.

I didn’t even try to stamp or water marble with this. I mean, if I can barely get it on my nails, there’s no way it’s going to be good for anything fancy!

So, how did it hold up?

The damage wasn’t quite as severe as before, but it still only lasted a day. I even got big ol’ chips on my right thumb in places it shouldn’t even chip just like last time.

Verdict: Loser Polish

I think it’s safe to say this brand is to be avoided. Did I mention this stuff actually went up in price? It’s now $4.99. There is absolutely no reason to buy this polish whatsovever.