Nail Polish Stress Test: Bonita Leaf Me Alone!

Bonita Colors is my favorite budget priced nail polish. The only store in my area that sells it is Rite Aid, and they’ve been known to miss entire collections. Grrrr! Imagine my delight when my friend surprised me with a full set of their new Candy Fix collection which she found by going to a different Rite Aid. Today’s subject is from that collection, Leaf Me Alone!

Embarrassing story; the first time I ever heard of Bonita, I was experimenting with making my own color changing polish by adding thermochromic pigment to existing nail polish. I bought some Bonitas to sacrifice. I figured they were cheap enough it wouldn’t matter if I ruined them, which I did. Had I known what I was destroying I wouldn’t have done that! The extra pigment eventually turned into goop at the bottom of the bottle, and I ended up tossing them. I’ve learned some things since then. I’ll be writing a post about that before too long.

Leaf Me Alone! Is a Granny Smith apple green with a pearly shimmer to it. At first I thought it looked a lot like Bonita’s Honey Dew Your Thing from last year’s Turq It! Collection, but next to each other I’d say the difference is strong enough to merit owning them both. In this picture Honey Do Your Thing is on the left, and Leaf Me Alone! on the right.

I like how Leaf Me Alone! is right between being a bright color and being a pastel. This went on easily and was opaque in three coats. I put my usual coat of Seche Vite on top.

I found when I tried to stamp with this one that technically it works, but it’s really sheer. I wouldn’t bother using it for that purpose. Water marbling is a different story. I’ve found Bonita polishes are generally very cooperative, and Leaf Me Alone! is no exception. It worked beautifully!

So, how did it hold up?

It did quite well. It went three days before I felt it was time to take it off. I was happy to see this one didn’t stain my nails.

Verdict: Excellent

This is another worthy polish, and at $1.49 a bottle, there’s no reason to let it get away. If you live near one of the Rite Aids that has this collection, buy it! Grab the rest of the collection too!

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: Milani Sardina

Every time I stop in a drug store, I have to check the nail polish displays to see if there’s anything new and interesting I’d like to try. In this case, it was Sardina, part of Milani’s Fierce Foil collection.

Sardina is most definitely pretty – like I’m going to spend my hard earned cash on an ugly polish! (Oh wait...I did. Oops!)  I wouldn’t call this fierce or a foil for that matter. It’s pearly white flecks in a sheer shimmery base. I needed three coats to get full coverage.

I couldn’t resist doing a little nail art with this one. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to stamp or water marble with it.

So, how did it hold up?

It did well. I got a solid two days out of it before I felt the need to take it off. I probably could have pushed it to three since this kind of polish hides damage. Once I know it’s there, it bugs me though.

Verdict: Good

This is a good polish to have if you’re into more conservative colors or French Manicures.

Nail Polish Stress Test: OPI Orange You Going to the Game?

Ocean State Job Lot is one of my absolute favorite places to buy nail polish. For those of you that don’t live in the Northeast, think of it as a regional Big Lots. They get a lot of drugstore polishes like Sally Hansen, Wet n Wild, Revlon and Milani. Occasionally, they’ll get in some China Glaze. Sometimes, they’ll completely surprise me with something I wasn’t expecting, and in this case it was OPI’s Are You Going to the Game? Turns out Ocean State got in a bunch of OPI’s Major League Baseball collection, and this particular color caught my eye – enough to make me buy two; one for me, and one for my friend. The fact that it was on sale 3 for $10 sealed the deal.

Orange You Going to the Game?  is a beautiful orange (duh) pearl color. I don’t recall ever seeing anything quite like it. It went on nice and smooth, taking only two coats. I’ve used quite a bit of OPI in the past, but this one was especially nice to work with. I applied my usual coat of Seche Vite on top and waited to see how it would hold up.

As it happens, it held up really well. It went a full three days before I felt the need to take it off. I try not to have preconceived notions about how well a polish will do, but this really impressed me.

But wait, there’s more!

It turns out this polish will also stamp and water marble! 

Verdict: Excellent

This one does it all. It holds up well, it stamps, it water marbles, and it’s not like all the other oranges out there. The only thing I can possibly complain about is that question mark in its name makes Word think I’m making a grammatical error.

 Grab this one if you come across it!

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.