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.

My Favorite Momicures

My mother is an awesome person. She’s always my biggest supporter and always encouraged me to be the best I can at whatever I take on. She’s also the one that got me into nail art, especially nail stamping.

Over the last few years, she’s had health problems that have led to her having to stay in a nursing home. Shortly after she started to get well enough to handle longer visits, we started the tradition of my doing her nails while I was there. I like to call these momicures. 

In honor of Mother's Day, I'd like to share some of my favorites.  

As a rule, she chooses the polishes and designs, and I execute them. At first, she was very conservative about what colors of polish she wanted to use. I still call those kinds of shades "mom polish". She hates that!  

However, she got bolder over time, and started making more forays into the realm of color. Plus that "mom polish" label was really starting to annoy her! (I love you Mom!) 

One of the things I love most about Mom is that she thinks outside the box. She'll ask me to try stamping with something that I suspect won't work, I try it anyway, and discover that it does! Not only is this fun for both of us, but I find I learn more as I go along too. 

More recently she's gotten into holographic and glittery polishes

Textured polishes too! 

Thanks for everything Mom. I love you.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Milani Sardina

Every time I stop in a drug store, I have to check the nail polish displays to see if there’s anything new and interesting I’d like to try. In this case, it was Sardina, part of Milani’s Fierce Foil collection.

Sardina is most definitely pretty – like I’m going to spend my hard earned cash on an ugly polish! (Oh wait...I did. Oops!)  I wouldn’t call this fierce or a foil for that matter. It’s pearly white flecks in a sheer shimmery base. I needed three coats to get full coverage.

I couldn’t resist doing a little nail art with this one. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to stamp or water marble with it.

So, how did it hold up?

It did well. I got a solid two days out of it before I felt the need to take it off. I probably could have pushed it to three since this kind of polish hides damage. Once I know it’s there, it bugs me though.

Verdict: Good

This is a good polish to have if you’re into more conservative colors or French Manicures.

Nail Polish Stress Test: Ulta XOXO

Ulta recently had a $2 sale on their nail polishes. Being as they’re normally $6 I had to jump on that. One of the polishes I got was XOXO.

XOXO is an interesting polish in that you really can’t tell what it’s like until you actually wear it.

When I saw it on the website, I thought it was pink and red glitter in a clear base. 

 When I got the bottle, it looked like a red jelly with pink microglitter. 

When I applied it, it turned out to be a red jelly with scattered holographic microglitter!

This polish is really really pretty. Every so often I had to stop and admire it. I was able to get full coverage with three coats. I added my usual coat of Seche Vite on top.

So how did it hold up?

Eh. It was pretty banged up after one day.

I didn’t have any luck watermarbling or stamping with it.

Verdict: Party Polish

I really wanted this to do better, but it is what it is. I still love it and will keep it, but as a weekend polish. I still want to try it in a French Manicure or layered over something else.