Saturday, August 18, 2012

Review: Revlon Colorstay Vintage Rose

Hey Everyone!

I recently bought another Revlon Colorstay nail polish called "Vintage Rose". This is my second Colorstay nail polish and fourth Revlon polish (that isn't a top coat or base coat). My experience with Revlon polishes before the Colorstay line was "okay". Usually the application of the polish depended on the color I used (light colors being the hardest to apply as usual). The other Colorstay polish I have is "Bare Bones". I won't go too into detail about Bare Bones since I will do a post on it eventually. For now I'll just say that Bare Bones was the polish that convinced me to keep buying from the Colorstay line.

The Revlon Colorstay nail polish line has over 20 colors. Definitely a variety of colors to choose from. The majority of the polishes are creme finishes and a couple contain micro glitter. There was also two foils (a copper and a silver) and one jelly glitter polish (a dark green with green glitter). I bought my first Colorstay polish back in June... and between June to present I have visited the that section of polish  at least 50 times... Yes, I have been obsessed with these polishes. Theres only 2 problems that I have...
1. Although theres over 20 colors... I already have polishes that are similar shades. Most of the shades that Revlon came out with are definitely not what I would consider as "unique". However, I do have high hopes that more "unique" looking shades will be appear over time.

Other than Bare Bones, the only other shade that seemed interesting to me and I didn't have anything else like it in my collection was Vintage Rose. Vintage Rose is such a complicated color to describe. The words that come to mind are: reddish brown, deep rosy, berry-ish/mauve-ish.

Seche Vite Crystal Base Coat
2 Coats of Vintage Rose
Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
(indoors, no flash) 
(indoors, flash)

The application was so smooth and easy to work with. I made very little mistakes. Each coat applied very evenly - no streaks or patches.

This polish as one of the best formulas - not too thin, not too thick. Opaque with a slight visible nail line in 1 coat, completely opaque in two coats. 

Two things that I just love about this polish are: the long brush handle and the brush.

The long brush handle made applying the nail polish very comfortable. I dislike short handle brushes because its a lot harder to hold and if you are like me and you apply nail polish to both hands (one after the other) then its easy to smudge the polish on the hand that is applying the polish to the second hand...  did that make sense? Basically, I've had problems with smudging the polish that is drying on my right hand while I'm trying to paint the nails on my left hand. 

The brush is VERY different from usual nail polishes. It has a "double brush" meaning the brush is composed of 2 brushes side by side. If you don't really understand what I'm talking about then google the Revlon Colorstay Top Coat and you'll see. The bristles is a good balance of being flexible and stiff - flexible enough to fan out evenly over the nail, but not so flexible as to be flimsy.

The nail polish dried within a reasonable time; it was super glossy, and very smooth. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture to show the polish without a top coat since I forgot to charge my battery and I already applied a top coat last night but took the pictures this morning... So, take my word for it... it was glossy! I actually don't think the top coat made the polish any shinier than it already was!

As for the wear... This is only my second day wearing the polish (and I do have a top coat protecting it) there are no chips... but I can't say that it was due to the awesomeness of the Colorstay formula. I honestly have no intentions (as of right now) to do a test to see how long this polish will wear since I like changing my polishes pretty frequently. 

Overall, I love this polish and I don't have any major gripes about it other than it's price. The price of the Colorstay polish line ranges from $7-8 which is around the same price as Essie, Zoya, OPI, and China Glaze polishes. The Colorstay polish is only 0.4 fl oz, making it 0.1 fl oz smaller than most polishes. Both times that I purchased Colorstay polishes, the polishes were on sale. I bought Vintage Rose when all Revlon polishes were being sold for $4.99 at Walgreens... I also had a $2 off coupon for any Colorstay product and got back $3 in Register Rewards! Although I love the formula and the brush of these polishes, I would not purchase them at regular price since I could buy other brands for the same amount of money. Well, I'd make an exception if theres a polish "special" enough.


Sunday, August 12, 2012

Sinful Colors Cinderella

For the past two months, I've been looking for Sinful Colors - Cinderella. Last Monday, I was walking around my local Walgreens waiting for my boyfriend to show up when something caught my eye. A baby blue Sinful Colors nail polish sitting at a display. I quickly picked up the bottle and saw the tiny flecks of pink disbursed in a sea of baby blue. Excitedly I flipped the bottle over and read, "Cinderella" on the bottom label. YES! It was the polish I had been looking for.

Seche Vite Crystal Clear Base Coat
2 coats of Sinful Colors - Cinderella
Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat


I layered 3 coats of Sinful Colors - Cinderella over my base coat. The application was tricky... and messier than usual. I consider myself to me adequate to above average when it comes to applying nail polish neatly... But this was seriously my messiest application to date. Nail polish filled my cuticles and flooded the sides of my nails. The brush was pretty stiff so it picked up and applied a lot of polish onto my nails when I wasn't careful. The formula of the polish was a little on the thick side as well. 

This is definitely a gorgeous and unique colors... and for $1.99 its a great price... However, was a little more difficult to apply. 

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster

Hey Everyone!

Sorry this nail polish is another "reddish" color. I've been applying for part-time jobs lately and didn't want to switch up my nail polish right before an interview... so I figure "reddish" colors will have to do for now.

I've been wearing this manicure for the past 5 days without getting any chips in the polish. However, it does have the inevitable wear on the tips :/. Please try to ignore that in the photos, haha!

base coat: Seche Vite Crystal Clear Base Coat
base color: OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster
top coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
picture taken outdoors
OPI's I Eat Mainely Lobster came out as part of OPI's 2011 Fall Touring America Collection. One of the things that I have always enjoyed about OPI polishes are the names. I have a deep appreciation for whoever comes up with the names because they are quite witty with the puns. And I Eat Mainely Lobster definitely reminds me of lobsters when I see it. 

This polish has subtle pink and golden shimmers in it, which lobster shells tend to have. Depending on if you are indoors or outdoors the color slightly changes. Overall, it is a coral color, but indoors it seems to lean towards red while outdoors it seems more orange. Unfortunately, I could not capture the true color of the polish when I was standing outside; my pictures depict the polish as a reddish coral outdoors... it really does look slightly orange-r... kind of a coral - cantaloupe color. Also, without a top coat this polish does dry somewhat "dusty" and doesn't have much shine to it.

This was one of those polishes where I had to look at numerous swatch pictures on google before deciding if I wanted to purchase it or not. And seriously... in just about every website/blog that I visited the nail polish looked different. Yes, it is one of those tricky colors. But I am definitely glad I bought it. I've had this polish for about 9 months now and I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite nail polishes. I love wearing this color on my nails and especially on my toenails! 

This polish made me a fan of OPI nail polishes. It has the OPI Pro Wide brush which I found easy to use. The consistency of the polish was just right, not too thick and not too thin. Overall, it is always a dream to work with. Plus, OPI polishes have great staying power with or without a base coat/top coat... I mean seriously that picture is 5 days of wearing the same nail polish with no touch ups... pretty amazing. And it still has no signs of chipping just minor wear at the tips.

More swatches:


You can see the shimmer in the bottle