Nail Polish Stress Test: L.A. Colors Ever After

I was cruising through Walmart the other day when I happened on a new L.A. Colors display. One of polishes stood out to me as being really pretty, so I thought I’d give it a try even though it’s a wannabe gel. That polish is today’s test subject, Ever After. Was this a good idea? Let’s find out!

Ever After is from L.A. Colors’ Color Last collection. In the bottle, it looks like a lavender polish with a really nice iridescent shimmer. Heck, the bottle design on this line has the cap matching the polish, so I was all set for a knockout mani. However, it turns out this polish is quite sheer. It still looks pretty, but not what I was hoping for. Application was easy. I used three coats hoping for opacity that never happened, and used one coat of their Crystal Top Coat as recommended.

This polish is too sheer to stamp. It can potentially water marble but it’s so sheer I don’t know that I’d bother with it.

According to the sticker on the cap, this polish is supposed to last ten days. Did it?

Of course not. This polish chipped big time on the first day. It’s easiest to see on my index finger where I have polish missing all around the edge of my nail down to the cuticle, plus big chips at tip. The same thing happened to my middle finger. I’d say this stuff is pretty brittle.

Verdict: Loser Polish

I was super disappointed this polish came out as sheer as it did. It’s shades of Hurt No Living Thing all over again, without the excellent wear time. With that said, I think this would look good layered over other polishes, and I’ll keep it around for that. Otherwise it’s another polish that makes promises of long wear that it can’t keep. You don’t need this one.  

Nail Polish Stress Test: A England Hurt No Living Thing

A England has been on my list of brands I want to try ever since I first saw one in action. A good friend of mine knows this, so when she bought one for herself, she asked me if I wanted to borrow it. I of course said yes! That polish is today’s test subject; Hurt No Living Thing.

Hurt No Living Thing is a sheer grey polish with pink shimmer that can look purplish depending on the light. My friend and I were actually surprised by how sheer this was. She ordered hers from Color4Nails, and on their site, the polish looks opaque. Heck, it looks opaque in the bottle! The formula was really nice. It went on smoothly, and was nice and glossy on its own. However, even after four coats it was clear (no pun intended) this was meant to be a top coat. I am not a fan of visible nail line, but I decided I was going to do the full test drive anyways, so I put a coat of Seche Vite on top and let it ride.

Hurt No Living Thing is far too sheer to stamp. Water marbling isn’t a good idea either. It technically did work but the other polish bled into it like crazy, so unless that’s the effect you’re going for, don’t bother. I didn’t think to try this at the time, but I bet this would be great to use in French manicures.

So, how did it hold up?

I was impressed. It lasted a full three days before I spotted any chips.

Verdict: Excellent

Being as this is the same friend who got me hooked on Sparitual polishes, I’d say she knows how to pick ‘em.  If you’re into sheer polishes or want something nice to layer with, definitely snag one.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Dance Legend Albatross

I love stars. Really love them. I may actually take my love of them a bit far. I say that, because when I found out Dance Legend was coming out with their Indistar collection, I got a little….excited. I ordered mine from Llarowe just before they cut back to only selling their own brand. A lot of new polishes tended to sell out on launch day there, so by excited I mean OMG DON’T LET THEM SELL OUT BEFORE I GET HOME FROM WORK!!!!! Thankfully, that didn’t happen.  I was able to snag the ones I really wanted, including today’s test subject, Albatross.

Albatross is a sheer light gray polish with lots of holographic goodies. It’s got holo stars, small glitters, microglitter, and sequins. There’s silver microglitter in there too. I felt like it looked more white than gray when I put it on. I used three easy coats, with one coat of Seche Vite on top. The stars and sequins you see here are what I got without deliberately fishing anything out of the bottle or moving stuff around. Overall, I’m pleased with how that worked out although the three sequins on my index finger look a bit odd.

Even though this is without a doubt a sheer polish, it did a good job of hiding visible nail lines. Normally I don’t like that, but it definitely worked for me in this case. This polish looks magical!

My nails have a good amount of curve to them, so this can lead to stars easily getting knocked off or being scratchy. My one layer of top coat largely took care of that. I’m sure an extra coat would address it for sure. The sequins are fairly thick, but they were pretty secure on my nails without me doing anything special to keep them there. I suspect the hole in the center may have something to do with it.

It should come as no surprise that this polish is not suitable for stamping or water marbling.

So, how did it hold up?

It made it a solid two days before it took noticeable damage. It's not easy to see, but I lost a couple sequins, and when they came off, they took a fair amount of polish with them. There was some lifting near my cuticles too. I have a feeling this may be the type of polish that might pop off too much is used at once.

Verdict: Good

I believe people who don’t work in warehouses will be able to get more wear out of this polish than I did. Good thing too, at $9 a bottle, I want it to stay on my nails! I’m glad it did so well considering how easily I can potentially catch the big stuff on things. Even if you’re not into sheer polishes, this would work well as a top coat. If you love starry things like I do, you should pick up a bottle of Albatross if you get the chance.

Top Coat Stress Test: Claire’s Ombre Top Coat

Claire’s is an interesting place to shop for nail polish. From what I can tell, they’re one of the few brick and mortar places I check that put out some fairly innovative polishes. They’re the first place I ever encountered thermal and solar polishes. The quality of their polishes can be hit or miss, but I’ve bought enough hits over the year to justify buying more for science. Good sales don’t hurt either. That’s how I ended up picking up their Ombre Top Coat.

It’s not completely clear (no pun intended) how this is supposed to work. I asked the associate on duty, who genuinely had no idea either. There are no instructions on the bottle to provide guidance. She thought it was supposed to change like a thermal polish once it was applied based on the sticker on the cap.

That's a reasonable guess. However, it turns out this is a sheer white polish that’s meant to be layered to create an ombre effect.

I got out my bottle of Ulta Blue Holiday, my go to polish for testing out top coats. I used two coats of Blue Holiday, and then applied three coats of Ombre Top Coat.

Here’s what it looked like after I tried making an ombre mani.

It took me three tries to get these mediocre results. I started out with two coats of Blue Holiday, then layered three coats of Ombre Top Coat over that. The polish really doesn't really start building up until at least the second coat, and the glossiness of the finish makes it ever harder to see. I had hoped the darker polish would make the effect more pronounced, but no such luck. 

This is not a fast dry top coat, so it took ages for it to dry. I’m so spoiled on using Seche Vite on everything that I forgot I actually had to wait with this one. Whoops! I also found I needed to let each coat dry before I applied the next one. This stuff definitely requires patience. It does look nice and shiny though.

So, how did it hold up?

It did pretty well; it made it two days before the chips started. When it did, it actually started happening near my cuticles instead of at the tips of my nails.  

Being as this is a top coat, and a sheer one at that, it's useless for stamping and water marbling. I tried using it with nail vinyls to see if I could get the ombre effect to be more pronounced. Nope! The only thing that was more distinct was how hard this polish fails. If I used more than one coat, it built up too much and pooled in the vinyl and by my cuticle. Air bubbles, yay! No nice clean lines either. 

 

Verdict: Loser Polish

If I were to rate this strictly on the basis of durability, this would be Good. However, I don’t recommend buying it, especially at its full price of $5.50. If you want to do an ombre effect mani, I would say either use a regular sheer polish that has a use on its own, or go with three shades of the same color. This top coat requires too many layers to do its one job, and by that point it’s just not practical. Pass on this one.