Nail Polish Stress Test: Claire’s Frosted Metal Blue

Ever buy a bottle of nail polish you thought looked cool but wasn’t what you expected when you put it on? That’s the story behind today’s test subject, Claire’s Frosted Metal Blue.

In the bottle, it looks like what it says on the bottle; a frosted metallic light steel blue polish, albeit one that needs to be shaken up a little. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to have glitter inside! If you read my review of Sea Temptress a while back, you’ll know I am not a fan of this kind of thing, so I wasn’t very happy to discover this. You can see the glitter in my bottle shot below, but at normal not magnified viewing range, it’s not obvious there’s stuff in there.  

Nonetheless, I foraged on. I will say this polish was easy to apply. The formula was on the thicker side, which was more like paint than lacquer. There’s micro glitter and bar glitter inside that gives more of a lumpy effect rather than frosty.  I used two coats and no top coat. Drying time was very short. This would be a good polish to put on if you wanted to do your nails just before heading out.

With all that glitter, there was no way this was going to be any good for water marbling or stamping. That’s a real bummer because I really wanted to try doing some nail art with it. I doubt one could even stamp on it!

So, my complaining aside, how did it hold up?

Not well. One day did it in. However, it’d be easy enough to put another coat on top to extend its wear.

Verdict: Loser Polish

As long as I’m griping, I’m also going to note that Claire’s really, really needs to do a better job of labeling their polishes in general.  *cough*ombre top coat*cough* If I’d known what was in that bottle, I never would have purchased it. At least it’s not terribly expensive. It normally goes for $4.50, but they run sales often enough that there’s no reason to pay full price for this. And you shouldn’t.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Sinful Colors Sweeten The Teal

I’ve loved textured polishes from the day they first came out. However, I’ve been wanting a nice bright green one, and up to this point, I haven’t been able to find any. Then last weekend, I saw a new display of Sinful Colors polishes at Walgreens. I snagged a few new limited edition polishes, including today’s test subject: Sweeten The Teal.

Sweeten The Teal is from Sinful Colors’ limited edition Sugar Crushin’ collection. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a textured polish, but it was so pretty I didn’t care. I was thrilled when I discovered it was! This polish is a lovely teal green, with a duochrome shimmer that shifts between green and gold.  As I type this, it’s currently Green Nail Polish Season, so it definitely got noticed at work. It’s quite sparkly when it dries. Application was a bit messy as the formula was on the thin side, plus not realizing it was textured, I was too heavy handed at first. Light coats are the way to go here. It has a sandy finish but it isn’t overly abrasive. I used three coats, and no top coat.

As this is a textured polish I did not try to water marble with it, and it definitely can’t be used for stamping.

So, how did it hold up?

It was awesome! It made it four days before it started to look beat up. It wore down pretty evenly, and even though it lost sparkle, I was able to revive it with a fresh coat on top for the weekend.

Verdict: Outstanding

This is the green textured polish I’ve been dreaming of! I’m delighted it held up so well too! If you love textured polishes or green, you need this one! It’s a fantastic value for $1.99!

Nail Polish Stress Test: Revlon Artsy

Blue is my very favorite color, and it seems like it’s been ages since I reviewed anything in that shade. I’m going to take care of that today by reviewing Artsy by Revlon.

Y’know, it’d be funny if there was a companion shade named Craftsy.

Aaaaaaanyways, Artsy is a dark blue jelly base packed with large hex, small, bar, and micro royal blue glitter. So gorgeous!  It reminds me of Revlon’s Scandalous, except I think the glitter in Artsy shows more as the base and glitter match. It was easy to apply. The glitter distributed nicely, no need to patch up bald spots with this one.  I used three coats total. They dried to a somewhat rough finish. One coat of Seche Vite helped with that for the most part. A second coat might have been helpful, but I want to keep testing conditions consistent.

This one isn’t useful for stamping or water marbling because of all the glitter.

So, how did it hold up?

Not so great.  Unfortunately, this is the type of polish that’s on the brittle side, so it chipped big time on the first day.

Verdict: Party Polish

I was really hoping this one would do better. At least it’ll still be a good weekend polish.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Orly Color Blast Mistress Of All Evil

I have not had a lot of luck with Color Blast polishes so far. However, I find I can get the Disney polishes from Walgreen's for $1.59 pretty consistently if I’m patient. I don't mind buying potential loser polish at that price. This time my patience has been rewarded with today’s test subject: Mistress Of All Evil from the Disney Villains 2015 collection.

I discovered is that this polish appears to be a relabeled Rainbow Color Flip from their core collection. Another Color Blast I reviewed a while back, Frozen, is a relabeled Sky Blue Color Flip.

Here’s my Disney Polishes.

Here’s the Core Polishes.

If I were a completist, this would aggravate me, but since the only place near me that sells the core Color Blasts is Kohl’s, and they never do polish sales, I’m more than happy with my Walgreen’s clearance finds.

Mistress Of All Evil is a dark gray jelly base with duochrome shimmer. Indoors I mostly saw pink, but outside the color shift really shows, with shifts to orange, yellow, pink and green. I really love polishes like this! I used three coats with one coat of Seche Vite on top.

Sadly I couldn’t get this one to stamp or water marble. It’s just too sheer.

So, how did it hold up?

This one actually made it two whole days! That’s darn good for this brand!

Verdict: Good

Hooray! Another decent Color Blast polish! I haven’t tried enough of them to make a solid judgement, but I’m starting to think that the non crème polishes are the way to go.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Color Club Sorry, Not Sorry

I’ve been having a lot of fun reviewing Color Club’s Oil Slick collection. I’ve been gradually working on completing the set every time Color Club has a sale. So far I've reviewed Burnt Out, Cash Only, It's Raining Men, and We'll Never Be Royals. Next up is Sorry, Not Sorry.

Sorry, Not Sorry is a duochrome that shifts between pastel pink, peach and gold. I actually managed to get a good shot of the color shift on my nails without a fuss this time!  I’d say this is the most conservative polish of the collection, yet it’s still fun to look at. It looked mostly peach to me indoors. Outdoors the color shift was more pronounced. I think this would look great with a tan. The formula was nice and smooth. Only two coats were needed to get full coverage. I used my usual coat of Seche Vite on top.

This polish stamped and water marbled beautifully. I mattified it so it’d be easier to see here.

So, how did it hold up?

Fantastic! It made it a solid three days before I needed to take it off.

Verdict: Excellent

I think everyone needs a bottle of this polish. This is good for any occasion, and I love the fact that it’s nail art friendly. I’m totally not sorry I bought this, and you won’t be either! It's available from Color Club's website.

Nail Polish Stress Test: L.A. Colors Dare Devil

It seems like everyone’s getting into the wannabe gel scene these days. Today’s subject is a from  L.A. Colors new Color Craze Gel line, Dare Devil.

Dare Devil looks like a blue toned purple crème in the bottle that’s supposed to have a high shine. The reality is it’s more of a red toned purple jelly on the nails. I used two coats as per the directions. I thought it looked a bit streaky. It also wasn’t particularly shiny. I used one coat of their top coat, which did help somewhat.

This polish will stamp, but not easily. It didn’t do great with finer lines and details. Larger designs came out much better. It water marbles pretty nicely. The color did bleed somewhat, so I don’t recommend using this with contrasting colors.

So, how did it hold up?

 This only lasted one day, which seems to be par for the course when I test wannabe gels.

Verdict: Party Polish

This might be worth picking up if you’re into water marbling, or if you’re on Team Office Job. It actually performed the same as other wannabe gels I’ve tried, and this is one of the least expensive ones out there. This line of polish can be found at Family Dollar and is $2.49 a bottle.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Deborah Lippmann Don’t Worry Be Happy

I’ve always wanted to try Deborah Lippmann polishes, but I’ve always been scared off by the high price tag. $15 is more than I want to spend on nail polish science. Then the other day I happened to find a few at TJ Maxx for $3.99, so I grabbed a color I knew I didn’t have in my stash; Don’t Worry Be Happy.

Don’t Worry Be Happy is an orange creamsicle color polish. The formula on this one was kinda sheer. Not unusual for an orange polish, but I was hoping this one would be more opaque. I used three coats with a little extra to touch up some streakiness. I put my usual coat of Seche Vite on top.

I’m not in love with the bottle design. The square shape is a bit uncomfortable to hold while doing my nails, and there’s a bit of an edge on that ridge at the top of the cap.

This polish is too sheer to stamp with. It wasn’t interested in water marbling either.

So, how did it hold up?

It did okay. It went two days before it was time to take it off.

Verdict: Good

I feel like I paid a fair price for what I got. However, there is no way on Earth I would pay $15 for it. If you’re interested in, definitely check out TJ Maxx or Marshall’s. Otherwise, I’d let this one go.