Nail Polish Stress Test: Claire’s Color of the Year

Let me admit this up front: I’m not a trendy person. When I picked up Color of the Year from Claire’s, it was because it was on sale for $2 down from $5.50, and a color I didn’t already have, Marsala. I’d completely forgotten that it’s Pantone’s color of the year for 2015.

Pantone defines Marsala as “a naturally robust and earthy wine red”. Yep, that description works for me!  According to the cap, this polish is supposed to have a “gel effect”.  I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean, and neither did the store associates when I asked them. I noticed the formula is very similar to Revlon’s All In from their Gel Envy line. It’s thicker and seems to have a powdery texture to it that makes it easier to apply neatly. When it dried, it looked slightly glossier than their average polish, but in the absence of any other instructions, I applied one coat of Seche Vite on top of it anyway.

Color of the Year can potentially stamp, but you have to work really fast. The color....urgh..... Instead of a "naturally robust and earthy wine red", it came out as an ugly bright rust red that doesn't look pretty. Assuming you're happy with how your design came out, odds are good it'll get trashed when you try to put top coat on. This happened to me multiple times with different top coats. It's just not worth the hassle. 

Trying to water marble with this polish will break your heart. Initially I thought it was going to work great, but it shriveled afterwards. A lot. The first time I tried it, I thought I'd dinged it without noticing. Nope! I had the same results the second time. I don't know if it's because the formula was incompatible with the other polish I used, but it was bizarre. The pigment also bled like crazy. I shudder to think what would have happened if I'd used it with a contrasting color!

It held up about as well as the average wannabe gel polish, taking on major tip wear over the course of one day.

Verdict: Loser Polish

I’m inclined to be kinder to this polish because of the price. At $2, my expectations are far lower than they would be for $8 polish. Nobody said anything about this polish being longer wearing, which is a consideration. Still, this got beat up pretty quickly, and it's useless for nail art.  There are better quality polishes available in this color, so I’d pass on this one.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Cinapro Sweet Tooth

Here’s a polish I’ve had my eye on for a year; Sweet Tooth, from Cinapro’s Nail Sugar collection. The problem is, it rarely goes on sale, the store display is absurd (the bottles are displayed upside down), and the polishes were sometimes separated or gunky. Still, I really wanted this polish, so I waited for an opportunity. Finally, Sally’s Beauty Supply added them to a Buy Two Get One Free sale. It was time to strike!

Sweet Tooth has large and small blue glitters in a duochrome base that shifts mostly between blue and purple. The color shift is bright and vibrant. It’s really easy to get distracted by how beautiful this polish is!

It also has a light built into the cap for some weird reason. If I’m experiencing a power outage, I guess this is the polish they want me to reach for? Except I’d have to find it in the dark in the first place…..

Light or no light, application was easy, although I used four thin coats to get opacity. I used one coat of Seche Vite on top. I didn’t find it to be rough or bumpy afterwards, something I could see happening with a polish containing that much glitter.

As you might expect, this polish can’t be used for water marbling or stamping. If only!  I bet it would look amazing layered with other polishes though.

So, how did it hold up?

It did well. It made it two days before the damage showed.

Verdict: Good

I’m glad this lasted as long as it did. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go considering the problems I’ve seen with it. I strongly recommend that if you decide to buy this, be sure to check and be sure it’s not gloopy or separated first.

Nail Product Stress Test: Sassy + Chic Embossed Nail Stickers

Going to Dollar Tree is always fun. I never hesitate to pick up nail polish or in this case, nail wraps. I mean, if they suck, who cares? It was only a dollar. That leads me to today’s test subject, Sassy + Chic embossed nail stickers.

These looked like they could be of decent quality. Silver, pink, and blue dots are embossed on a translucent grey background. In the package, they definitely look embossed, but once they’re on, it looks like you sat there and stuck a ton of clear stones on your nails. They definitely looked nicer than I expected.

Application was pretty easy. The one problem I had is that the stickers tended to rip. Be sure you have the right size sticker before you put it on your nail, because you might ruin it before you can get it placed correctly. They have no stretch to them at all.  The edges were a bit ragged due to the embossing. I had to do a fair amount of filing afterwards.

I had no issues with wrinkles with these at all. That was a nice change.

Putting these wraps on was the last thing I did before I went to bed. I don’t usually do this, but I decided to take pics first. Good thing; when I woke up the next morning, there were...problems.

Somehow, I managed to chip these in my sleep, big time. I decided to remove them. In the process, I discovered that they’d become more brittle.

Even if that hadn’t happened, the adhesive was not up to the job. The decals would have been knocked off very easily at work. This is definitely a product fail. For bonus points, they left glue residue all over my nails. Yay.

Verdict: Loser polish

These didn’t even make it out the door. Granted, it’s only a dollar, but I recommend you put it towards a bottle of good polish instead.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Sally Hansen Silver Scallop

I try to buy nail polish on sale as much as I possibly can. However, every now and then I’ll come across something that catches my eye in the store. The thought of someone else buying my polish before I can get it on sale will bother me; at that point, I’ll just go for it. That’s the story behind my buying today’s subject: Silver Scallop.

Silver Scallop is from Sally Hansen’s Pearl Crush line. The collection as a whole is pretty, but this one really stands out on the display. It’s a gray tinted base with duochrome shimmer that changes from pink to green. It also has big iridescent hex glitter and glitter shards in it.

Application is…challenging. The instructions on the bottle say to dab on one coat, wait a minute, then dab on a second coat. That makes sense in that the big honking pieces of glitter clearly aren’t coming out of that bottle without a fight. However, when I followed the instructions, I ended up with a total of three pieces of glitter on my nails, and a mani full of air bubbles.

I decided to try applying it using the traditional method. I got maybe six pieces of glitter, and the polish looked good, so I rolled with it. I used three coats, plus my usual layer of Seche Vite.

The glitter itself is fascinating. It doesn’t look like it should, but it does lay flat on the nail. Depending on how the light hits, it can either look awesome like water droplets, or super trashy.

Silver Scallop definitely won’t stamp or water marble. It’d be easy to blame it on the glitter, but the reality is it’s just too sheer.

So, how did it hold up?

It did great! Totally didn’t expect that. It lasted three days, and even then, I had to look for the damage. The color made chips hard to spot, which is always a good thing! I lost most of the glitter while I was at work, which didn’t particularly bother me.

Just for fun, I tried sponging it on to see if I could get more glitter that way. My conclusion? Don’t bother. This also makes the finish look awful, and in my opinion, more glitter doesn’t help here.

Verdict: Excellent

I didn’t expect this polish to last as long as it did! The problem here is with the glitter. Maybe if they’d used the same type but smaller, it would have worked out better. Maybe they’re going with the idea that you don’t get a fistful of pearls out of an oyster, so you get the proportionate amount of glitter here? I couldn’t tell you. I kinda wish they had the glitter in its own clear base.

With that said, even if the concept has flaws, the polish is sound.

App Stress Test: Snupps (iOS/Android)

One of the challenges of having a big polish collection is trying to not buy the same thing twice. My memory is quite good, but on occasion, I’ve accidentally bought a dupe or two. I’ve also held off on buying something because I was pretty sure I had something similar. I’m at the point where I need to catalog what I have in some way.

Recently, I heard about the Snupps app, and it sounded like it’d be just what I needed, so I thought I’d give it a try. This review is based on my using the app over the course of a few weeks, to be sure updates and such didn’t change my opinions.

With Snupps, you can take a picture (or use one you already have) of whatever it is you collect, label it, and sort it into different folders the app calls Shelves. You can have an item on more than one Shelf, and there’s plenty of opportunity to get as detailed as you want.

What I Liked:

•  Creating new entries is easy. You can either do this in batches, or one at a time.

•  You can sort entries in batches as well.

• Your entries are not stored on your device, so this won’t eat up big blocks of memory.

•  Snupps has a sharing function, which can be useful. For instance, if you know someone who wants to shop for you, but doesn’t want to buy something you already have, they can double check your collection first.

•  This is a free app that doesn’t have annoying ads all over it.

•  Your collection can be synched across devices.

What I Didn’t Like:

• You need to keep those batches small. I found if I tried to do more than seven at a time, the app would crash and I had to do it over.

• The way you select which Shelf an item is going to can be problematic. You have to tap on the list to access it, then tap the Shelves you want. I found that on occasion, it’d register a double tap, leading to something being shelved where I didn’t want it. I’d like to see an “are you sure?” function added so I don’t have to go and double check what I just did. 

• As your entries are stored in the cloud, you can’t access it if you have no signal or Wi-Fi. I’d like the option to either store everything on my device or store it in the cloud.

•  Autocorrect can be annoying. I would have to reenter names more than once because it doesn’t understand I really meant to type what I did. 

• The app will sign you out when it updates.

Verdict: Good

In spite of its annoyances, Snupps is a useful app. Once I got the bulk of my stash Shelved, I found adding more polishes as I bought them to be pretty easy. I think this is useful for someone who is starting to accumulate, but could be frustrating for someone starting off with a big collection. 

https://www.snupps.com/

Nail Polish Stress Test: Forever 21 Blue Jewel

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I love textured polishes. I love their ease of use and generally superior durability, so when my nail polish BFF sent me Blue Jewel, I was excited to try it out. Textured and my favorite color? Yessss! *fist pump*

Blue Jewel is one of those polishes that begs to be worn in the sun. Even though I hate that round shiny thing in the sky (it BURNS!), I had to get a shot of it in daylight so you can see how gorgeous it really is. It’s got an iridescent quality to it that just isn’t done justice otherwise. 

It went on in three coats, no problem. I just made sure to let it dry in between coats. It’s not coarse like some textured polishes at all. If you really wanted to make it shiny, you could probably do it without much trouble. I did not use any top coat with this.

Obviously you can’t stamp with this, and I don’t bother with water marbling this kind of polish.

So, how did it hold up?

This didn’t last as long as I expected. It was pretty banged up after one day, but not dramatically so.  It wouldn’t be a big deal to touch up the damage. 

 Verdict: Good

Compared to others of its kind this isn’t the best in class. However, if you like textured polishes but hate the removal this is still a good choice. I’m looking forward to getting plenty of use out of this one.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Cover Girl #LaserLight

I was cruising the polish section of my local Rite Aid looking for polish bargains when I came across some Cover Girl polishes on clearance. I’ve never tried this line, so I picked up a couple to test drive. One of them is #LaserLight from their Glowing Nights series. It was only $.94, how could I resist?

#LaserLight is an inky black jelly. I’m not sure how this polish got its name. Glowing? This color? Nuh-uh!

It went on easily, taking three coats for full coverage. I used three coats with the usual layer of Seche Vite on top to make everything nice and glossy.

I didn’t have any luck water marbling with this, but it does stamp. Its inky quality gives the stamped design a nice effect. If I’d been thinking, I would have used this for a text design. Next time!

So how did it hold up?

I was impressed with how it did, especially since it’s a dark color. It went a solid three days before it was done in.

Verdict: Excellent

Ignoring the silly name, (seriously, who names a black polish #LaserLight?), this is a good find, especially for the price!