Nail Polish Stress Test: Julie G Tangerine Dream

I love textured polish so much. Yeah, I’ve said that before, I know. Bear with me. I haven’t accepted that they’re old hat. I’m hanging on until they finally go the way of magnetic and crackle polishes and become nigh impossible to find.

My nail polish BFF understands this, and sent me this gem; Tangerine Dream. This nice score was found at Rite Aid for the awesome clearance price of $1.99!

Tangerine Dream is an iridescent orange. The texture is more abrasive than average. I definitely wouldn’t wear this with pantyhose, I think they’d get shredded, reinforced toe or not. As is usually the case for textured polishes, you can’t stamp with this. I’m not into gritty water marbles, so I didn’t bother attempting that here.

I used three coats with no top coat.

So, how did it hold up?

It did very well. It went a solid three days before the tip wear was noticeable.

Verdict: Excellent

This polish is a great value and a solid performer.

I’m going to add even more incentive to look for this one; it’s a nearly exact dupe of Zoya Beatrix.

The only real difference is that Beatrix is a bit smoother. In these swatches, Beatrix is on the left, and Tangerine Dream is on the right. Can you tell them apart?

Considering Zoya’s textured polishes run $10 per bottle, and the performance of the two polishes is identical, I’d say definitely grab Tangerine Dream if you come across it! 

Nail Polish Stress Test: Nicole by OPI I’m Stucco On You

In my world, textured polishes have been one of the greatest things invented since sliced bread. They’re easy to apply, and are some of the longest lasting polishes I’ve used. I’m sad their moment is pretty much over. However, I’m going to enjoy them as much as I can before they vanish off the face of the Earth for good.

As the name implies, I’m Stucco On You is a textured polish from Nicole by OPI’s Roughles collection. It’s got a lavender crème base with red and blue specks.  

I like how they labelled the caps on this series in that they make it clear there’s something different in the bottle. For bonus points, they also put the instructions on the cap; no top coat needed here. I wish more companies did this. Mouseprint on the bottle can be difficult to read!

I’m Stucco On You gave me full coverage in three coats. I let each coat dry before I used the next one. The texture is noticeable but not distracting. As per the directions I did not use a top coat.

 

The red specks kind of threw me. At first I thought I’d missed spots, but on closer examination, I was relieved to see that wasn’t true

I’ve heard polishes like this can be used for water marble, but something about having gritty swirls on my nails doesn’t appeal to me, so I didn’t go there. This would definitely be a good canvas to stamp on. Stamping with? Definitely no.    

So how did it hold up? 

 I was a bit disappointed with the durability of this one. It only lasted two days. I’m used to getting three or more out of a textured polish. All things being equal, this was much easier to remove.

Verdict: Good

While this isn’t the best of its class, it’s still a decent polish. I got this from TJ Maxx as part of a set of two for $6.99.

  

Based on how long it didn’t last, I’d say grab it only if you can get it for $3 per bottle or less. It’s a decent polish but not a must have.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Orly Color Blast Frozen

A couple months ago, I reviewed Snow Queen, a polish from the Color Blast Frozen collection. I wasn’t really happy with it, although it is good for nail art. If you follow my Instagram feed, you may have seen pics I took of other Color Blast polishes that left me seriously not trusting the brand. However, on a recent trip to Walgreen’s, I saw the Frozen collection was on clearance for $3.59. Oh what the heck, one more bottle for science!

Frozen has a blue base with a duochrome shimmer. The shimmer is beautiful, shifting from green to aqua, to purple depending on the light. It reminds me quite a bit of mother of pearl. It practically looks luminous on!

As much as I like this, I do wonder about the name. This doesn't make me think of the movie, or anything icy at all. Oh well, if I ever start my own polish line, I'll make sure the names are relevant to the polish.

This polish is on the sheer side. It doesn't show in my pics, but I could see nail line even after using three coats. I added my usual coat of Seche Vite on top.

It’s worth noting that because of the sheer aspect of this polish, it’s not good for stamping or water marbling.

So, how did it hold up?

It went a good two days before the damage was noticeable.Something about the texture of it made me think it was going to be brittle. I wasn't too far off in that it chipped in odd places. With that said, it definitely surpassed my expectations.

Verdict: Good

This is more like it! I would have been sad if this had ended up as loser polish. It’s good to know this product line may have decent polishes in it, but I’m still wary. I still think the price is too high. However, if I can find more Color Blast bargains, I’ll try some more!

Nail Polish Stress Test: Revlon Scandalous

I love nail polish sales. I really do. I prefer sales where the price is straight up reduced as opposed to Buy One Get One 50% off. Then we get to the slightly more evil sales, where something is on sale for something like 3 for $5, but if you don’t buy 3 you have pay a slightly higher price. Tactics like that make me feel a bit jerked around. Paying less is paying less though!

That brings me to how I acquired today’s target; Revlon’s Scandalous. I picked it up the same time I purchased their Matte Pearl Glaze. It was part of a 2 for $4 sale, and no way in heck was I paying a noticeably higher price per bottle, even if it meant buying one more than I intended. Finding another bottle of polish I want to buy isn’t hard to do though.

Scandalous is a black jelly with large and micro purple glitter. It went on nicely with three coats, plus my usual coat of Seche Vite on top. I was expecting it to be on the rough side considering all the glitter, but it came out nice and smooth.

As you might expect, this polish is not good for water marbling or stamping.

So how did it do? 

This one did well. I’ve had problems with this kind of polish shattering or popping off the nail, but that wasn’t an issue here. It went a solid two days before there was any noticeable chipping.

Verdict: Good

This is a nice addition to anyone’s collection, especially if you’re in the market for something vampy.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Revlon 1000 Volts

Back in 2012, I remember abandoning Revlon nail polishes. I don’t recall there being anything wrong with them, but I’d also just been introduced to other brands I found I liked more. I figured I’d grab a couple and see how I felt about the brand now. 1000 Volts was the first one I bought. It was $1.49 at Ocean State Job Lot, and it just so happened all their cosmetics were 30% off at the time besides. That was too good a deal to pass up for science!

1000 Volts is from the Electric Chrome collection which ties into The Amazing Spider Man 2. It’s not every day you see nail polish/superhero move tie ins! This polish is a gold glass fleck with some subtle duochrome properties. It can look more greenish or coppery depending on the light. The name certainly fits! It went on in three easy coats, with the usual layer of Seche Vite on top.

It didn’t water marble, but it can be stamped with, as you can see on my accent nail. I think this would be best used with bolder designs as opposed to ones with fine lines and details.

So, how did it hold up?

It did okay. It went a good two days before the damage was noticeable. This is the third Revlon polish I’ve reviewed recently, and they’re nothing if not consistent in that way.

Verdict: Good

This was definitely a good find, especially for the price. Worth picking up if you come across it.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Profusion Sugar Lacquer Set

Profusion is an interesting company. Their shtick is making really cheap cosmetics, usually eye shadow or lip gloss. A lot of their packaging mimics other companies’ products.

When I came across this set at TJ Maxx, I was quite curious as the packaging and product design was very similar to the Physicians Formula set I reviewed not too long ago. They even used the same interlocking bottle concept. I figured, what the heck, give it a try!

I decided to go for a set with a metallic dark blue, silver, and a purple jelly with purple glitter.

First and foremost, I need to address the biggest problem I had with this set: The bottles themselves. Simply put, they suck. The brushes will not stay in the cap. I had this problem with all three polishes. Even worse, one of the brushes actually fell out while I was using it.

Normally I would do a shot with nail art, and then stress test the polishes on their own. I’m not going to do that this time as there’s too high a risk of this polish making a mess I don’t want to clean up.

The formula was pretty good on these, I could have gotten the job done at two coats, but I went with three for all the colors. I was a little disappointed that the glitter in the purple polish was hard to see. The jelly base is pretty dark.

It water marbles well too, even the purple glittery one. I usually don’t have good luck getting glitter to play nice in the water, so that was a nice surprise.

 

Does it stamp? Yes. The silver did the best by a long shot. The purple and blue didn’t stamp as well as I had expected. Oddly enough the color from the purple and blue bled into the silver after the fact.

 

The polish held up pretty well. It lasted a full day of work with some tip wear, but nothing major.

Verdict: Unacceptable

The polish itself is good. Having the caps come off the bottles without the brush is not. Brushes falling out while in use is a whole other thing. I’m giving them the lowest rating to date because no one should have to protect their work area and wear a smock just to do their nails. Do not buy this!

It’s a crying shame really. The best polish in the world is useless if the bottles they’re in self destruct. They could have been a contender!

Nail Polish Stress Test: Physicians Formula California Goddess Set

Physicians Formula is one of my favorite brands of makeup. I use their products on my face on a daily basis. I've never seen them do much with nail polish…that is except for this one line called Endless Color.

The idea is to mix and match the three colors in the set in different ways. The packaging suggests layering the polishes to make custom colors, or doing nail art like French manicures. The set I chose was California Goddess, which came with a pink, light orange and dark orange polish. I actually bought it last year from TJ Maxx for around $5. I found I didn’t like them and consigned them to my bag of loser polish until recently when I saw them at Ocean State Job Lot for $3. I figured I'd give them one more try.

 The other gimmick with this set is that the three bottles can be connected to each other. I suppose if you bought enough sets you could make a giant totem pole of polishes if you wanted.

I wasn’t overly happy with the formula. It’s seriously streaky, yo. I used three coats of the pink and dark orange. The light orange needed four. I used a combination of the pink and light orange on my thumb. They never really blended.

They will stamp okay, which was a nice surprise. You can see that on my ring finger here. While it’s possible to water marble with them, the color is so weak I’d say it’s not worth it.

As for durability? Yeahno. I had a huge chip on my middle finger by the end of the first day, and noticeable tip wear on all my other nails.

Verdict: Party polish

This is another case where if it didn’t have a use in nail stamping, I’d say it was loser polish. With that said, I don’t plan to use these ever again. I have polish in similar colors that will do a better job overall.