Nail Product Stress Test: Kiss Nail Dress

It really sucks when I get sick. I’m never ever seen with naked nails. When I can’t stop sneezing and blowing my nose, it is really hard to work with nail polish, never mind doing any nail art. Lucky for me, I had a set of Kiss Nail Dress nail wraps handy!

My last attempt to wear nail wraps didn’t end well at all, so I was worried this was going to be another epic fail. However, it was either this or naked nails, so I went for it! 

One thing I liked from the get go is they give you two full sets of wraps to work with, one for French manicures, and one for full nails. They also provided a nice range of sizes, so these should pretty much fit anyone. I think they might even work for pedicures, but I’ll leave that for someone else to try. 

I absolutely love the design. I am a sucker for anything with suns, moons, and/or stars on them. These could not be more “me”!

I had a tough time applying these wraps. Since we're talking decals as opposed to pre cured nail polish, they don’t stretch nor can they be easily repositioned. I was able to do a passable job, but I had a bunch of wrinkles I couldn’t get out. Lucky for me, the design hid a lot of that. Well, in IRL at least. The camera never lies, and in this case, I wish it did!

 According to the package, the wraps are supposed to last up to a week. Did they?

No, but in this case, operator error is a factor. The nails where I got the wraps on properly held up well, while the ones with wrinkles took more damage. I believe if I’d done a better job applying them it would have lasted longer. This went three days before I needed to take them off. 

Removal was surprisingly easy. I was able to peel them off with no problem, no residue, no nothing left over.

Verdict: Good

Of everything I’ve tried that’s promised to last a week so far, this one has done the best. These were a gift from my friend, so while I don’t know what the cost was, I’d say they were definitely worth it. If I come across this brand in my travels, I’m definitely buying more. I’m hoping my results with improve with more practice.

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: Candie’s My Kinda Teal

Ever have a store you visit on a regular basis, never buy anything there ever, and then wonder why you bother going? For this lacquerista, that store is Kohl’s. I stroll through their nail polish section every time I’m in there, but they never seem to put any on sale. I’m not familiar with most of the brands they sell either. Imagine my surprise on my last pass through when I saw actual genuine for reals clearance! I’m wary of trying $8 polish for science. $2.40 clearance polish? Sure!

My Kinda Teal is…well… my kinda teal! It’s pretty close to the bottle of Head Over Teals I picked up recently, My Kinda Teal is more green. The cap makes me think of Ring Pops.  

Application was easy enough, although this polish appeared to be on the crelly side. I went with three coats plus my usual layer of Seche Vite on top. I kicked in some glitter on my ring finger just for fun.

As for wear, it didn’t do well at all. I lost a good amount of polish over the course of my shift. By the end of day one it was definitely game over for this mani! I found it stained my nails somewhat when I took it off.

I had no luck stamping or water marbling with this polish. 

Verdict: Loser Polish

Had I paid full price, I would have been super pissed instead of merely disappointed. I expect more from $8 polish. I'm sorry to say this one’s another bottle of fail.

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!

Nail Polish Stress Test: Finger Paints Endless Wear I Louvre You

Any time I hear about a polish that is allegedly long wearing, I find myself both curious and suspicious. The last one I tried didn’t fare well at all. Even so, when I learned Finger Paints had come out with their own line of long wearing polish I figured I’d give it a shot. Was that a mistake? Let’s find out!

I picked up I Louvre You, a bubblegum pink polish with a very pretty shimmer and microflakies. I’d say this is a jelly, but it can be opaque in three coats, which is what I went with. I used the matching Endless Wear top coat to finish it off. 

   This polish dries very quickly, which is great in the sense that you can move on to doing other things in the meantime, but also renders this polish useless for stamping or water marbling.

On to the critical part; how well did it hold up?

It didn’t. At the end of the first day I had noticeable tip wear, but I decided to push it to a second day. That was a mistake as I had catastrophic polish failure.

Verdict: Loser Polish

I’m being a bit harsh here as I’ve rated other polishes that have lasted one day higher than this, but they didn’t promise to last up to ten days either. Save your money and buy something else instead.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Orly Color Blast Snow Queen

I like Orly polishes a lot. It seems like I’m buying something from most of the collections they’ve come out with, so when I saw the Color Blast line at my local Walgreen’s, I thought I’d pick one up. Was this a good idea, or was my brain frozen from the eternal winter we’ve been enduring here? Let’s find out!

Right off the bat, this polish had something to prove. It’s $6.99 a bottle, yet it’s half the size of a bottle of standard Orly polish. I couldn’t help looking at the two together and thinking “O RLY?”.

 Snow Queen is from the Frozen collection. It’s a white crème with a blue flash that only seems to exist in the bottle. I found that to be quite frustrating because that’s what attracted me to this one in the first place. It definitely didn’t show up on my nail, and I couldn’t get it on camera either. The formula wasn’t the easiest to work with either. It was patchy as heck even though I let each coat completely dry before I added the next one. In the end I used three coats, and tried to patch up the bare spots as best I could before I finished it off with my usual coat of Seche Vite. 

 

I had pretty low expectations considering my application issues, but it turns out Snow Queen will stamp and water marble! I did not see that coming!

 As for wear, this looked pretty bad after one day. The tip wear was super obvious because of the bright white, so off it came. Bummer.

 Verdict: Party Polish

This would be loser polish if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s good for nail art. Even so, I wouldn’t buy this again unless it was on sale. A good one.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Ulta Blue Holiday

If you happen to meet a courier out of New Vegas offering polish, say yes, because they find awesome things! Case in point, Ulta Blue Holiday, a creme polish she scavenged for the ridiculous price of $.47!

Blue Holiday is more blurple or indigo than straight up blue in my book. Whatever color you want to call it, it’s one of my favorites, and I was overjoyed to receive it! It went on in two easy coats. It looks a bit darker on than it does in the bottle to me, but nothing major. I put my usual coat of Seche Vite on top.

 

Did it last? Yes it did. It went a solid two days before I felt the need to take it off. I could have pushed it to three if I'd touched it up. I'm definitely pleased with how this did.

A color this dark should stamp, right? Right! I was able to successfully water marble with it as well. 

Verdict: Excellent

It did well considering its color. It stamps. It water marbles. This is definitely going to be a go-to polish in my collection!