Nail Polish Stress Test: Bonita Green Crush

I really like Bonita brand nail polishes. The only store near me that sells any is the Rite Aid next door, but they don’t have a dedicated store display for them. I have to wait for a new collection to be released and hope Rite Aid gets it in. My friend and I checked there nearly every single day for months to see if anything new came in. Our vigilance was finally rewarded when we found Bonita’s latest Gel On collection display. We nearly bought all of it, including today’s test subject: Green Crush.

I was particularly interested in Green Crush because my polish collection doesn’t have many neons in it. Even though the color suggests this is green, I see it more as a highlighter yellow neon creme. As you can tell from my tag cloud, I don’t do much with yellows in general, so I’m happy to be able to give the warm side of the color wheel some love.

The Gel-On! label suggests this is a wannabe gel polish. Wannabe gel is my term for polishes that claim to last as long as actual gel polishes, and frequently need a specific top coat to go with them. More often than not, they also suck. However, since this display didn’t contain any top coats at all, I’m treating this like it’s traditional nail polish.

Application was a bit tricky. The formula is on the thick side. I found it was hard to apply evenly and neatly near my cuticles without flooding them.  Still, I was happy I was able to build it up to full opacity in four coats. I am not a fan of neons that require me to use a base coat or white polish underneath, so this was fantastic! I used my usual coat of Seche Vite on top.

Green Crush doesn’t really stamp well. It’s too sheer and dries too quickly, so I’d say don’t bother trying to use it for that purpose. Water marbling is another story. I used it with the other cremes from the collection and found it worked beautifully!

So, how did it hold up?

It did great! It made it a solid three days before I felt it had to come off.

Verdict: Excellent

All those days of stalking the polish displays for this Bonita was totally worth it, even if the cashiers at Rite Aid think I’m a weirdo. I think this is one of the best neon polishes I’ve ever used, in spite of the tricky application. If you see this polish, grab it! For $2.99, you really can’t go wrong.

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 Colors V.I.Peach

One of the major gaps in my polish collection is yellow. More specifically, I need a good pastel yellow. There aren’t many of those out there, so when I saw V.I.Peach, I snapped it up right away.

V.I.Peach is a pastel yellow “demi-matte” polish from Sinful Colors’ Class Act collection. The first thing I thought when I looked at the name is that they might have mixed up the labels during production. I don’t associate peach with pastel yellow. Checking the Sinful Colors website, it turns out they really meant to do that. This is supposed to be a “Spanish Peach” color. Googling “Spanish Peach” did not convince me, but hey, when I start my own polish company, I can use whatever color names I want. The color makes me think of the yellow chalk my teachers used to hate using in school.

This polish went on in three coats. The demi-matte finish winds up being what I would call an eggshell finish. It’s not glossy, but it’s not fully matte either. I did not use any top coat with this one.

It will water marble okay. Stamping…..I tried using a bunch of different plates with it, hoping I’d get a decent amount of opacity, and with it, a chalkboard look. Didn’t happen. It does work, and depending on what you’re trying to do, it might work for you. However, in my opinion,  this polish really isn’t ideal for stamping. I used a matte top coat on two of my nails, and a glossy one on the others to try and get different looks

So, how did it hold up? It did well considering I didn’t use a top coat, and the finish. It went two days before it was done in. It chipped strangely; I got more damage closer to my cuticles than the tips of my nails.

Verdict: Good

This did better than I expected given the circumstances. I like the fact that you can make it go all the way glossy or matte with the right top coat. For $2, this is an easy purchase to make, although ideally, you should wait for Walgreen’s to put it on sale for $.99.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Wet n Wild Wildshine: D’oh!

So I just had to move my polish collection from storage bins to a storage cabinet. In the process, I discovered that yellow polishes comprise a mere 1% of my collection. I have nothing against yellow.  It’s just that I’ve found yellow polishes seem to be problematic for me. That brings me to today’s polish: Wet n Wild D’oh!

D’oh! is one of the recently released Wildshine polishes that are supposed to be new, improved and even come in a redesigned bottle, yet I found this one for $.49 in the clearance bin at Walgreen’s. It’s a Simpsons yellow crème. I definitely like this shade. It’s not too bright, dull, or obnoxious.

I’m not a fan of the bottle redesign. I don’t like tall skinny bottles; they’re just too easy to knock over. Furthermore, the brush seems flimsy. It kind of reminds me of the e.l.f. polishes I reviewed a while back.

Application was a problem. Even though I let each coat dry before I applied the next one, my nails were patchy and streaky after three coats. I thought it might have been operator error, so I took it off and tried again. Nope, same results. I decided to leave things as they were, put a coat of Seche Vite on top, and called it done. 

So, how did it do? There was some pretty noticeable tip wear by the end of the first day, so I decided to take it off. No major destruction, but it didn't look presentable in this condition.

One thing that surprised me big time is that it stamps! It actually does better than the yellow stamping polishes I own, so I’d say that justifies my $.49 purchase right there. No luck watermarbling.

Verdict: Good

I wasn’t terribly impressed with the application and wear of this polish. My hunt for a good yellow creme continues. This is definitely worth tracking down if you need a yellow stamping polish though!