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| Left to Right: Fanatical Blossom, Gorgeous Gerbera |
What I look for: 1) opacity in two coats, 2) shiny finish, 3) good staying power.
Color Selection: I want more! There are 16 shades in the collection right now. There were several reds and lots of light colors, but only 2 dark colors. This collection right now screams trendy for spring but wearable for everyone. There were only a couple of colors that I thought would be inappropriate for a professional woman to wear to work (either because they were super bright or super dark). I was on the edge of grabbing one dark shade called April Showers which was a very dark blue, but I thought it would probably come across as black from far away because of how dark it was. I was also tempted to grab the mint green, but I already a mint green at home and couldn't justify it. I definitely want to pick up one of the reds but I couldn't decide on this first trip, plus I didn't know if I'd like them enough to buy more.
Price: These are a great deal at $4.98 a piece.
Formula: A quick note here for someone who took many hours of college chemistry. The company totes these nail polishes as having a "3 free" formula, and explains that this means that they are free of DBP, toluene, and camphor. I'm not looking to start a debate, but here are my thoughts on this. Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) has, according to Wikipedia, been phased out by all major U.S. nail polish producers since 2006. So that's not a very special claim, but I suppose it's a good thing. Toluene is sort of like the weak younger brother of benzene, a carcinogen. Toluene itself has very little carcinogen potential, and only causes significant effects when inhaled in large quantity. Most major nail polishes are also toluene free. Again, I suppose it's a good thing not to have it, but still not a unique thing. Finally, camphor. This claim confuses me. We use camphor as a flavoring in food! It's very aromatic. It's also soothing for inflammation and is in many anti-itch medicines. Camphor is only toxic in large doses. So again, I suppose good for them for not including it, but I wouldn't run away from the ingredient in everything.
Application: These applied pretty well. I found that I needed to put on a thicker first coat with Gorgeous Gerbera than what I would ordinarily use because of some streakiness. But what's weird is that Fanatical Botanical was not streaky at all and I was able to do thin coats! So maybe I got a bad bottle of Gorgeous Gerbera or maybe it just varies from color to color. The consistency is very smooth and the brush size is perfect in my opinion. The second coat went one much nicer than the first with Gorgeous Gerbera, and as you can see below, I was able to get a nice finish. In the future, I will likely use a base with Gorgeous Gerbera to see if that helps the first coat go on a bit more evenly. I don't think I would do that with Fanatical Botanical, as I was quite happy with that application.
The brush is shaped like a traditional nail polish brush as opposed to the wider brushes that some companies are doing now (like Sally Hansen Complete) The cap to the polish is quite large, which I don't mind but it could hinder application for some. The coats dry quickly and are touchable within about 3-5 minutes, even with the thicker coats I was using with Gorgeous Gerbera.
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| Gorgeous Gerbera: First Coat |
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| Gorgeous Gerbera: Second Coat |
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| Fanatical Botanical First Coat |
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| Fanatical Botanical Second Coat |
Final Results: I think that the colors on my nails, for once, looks better than in the bottle. The colors on the nails really pop! I can't stop looking at them, but in a good way. Very pretty shades. You may be able to see some brush strokes when it's all said and done though. Gorgeous Gerbera was truly opaque. Fanatical Botanical is a little bit more sheer (you can see if you have dirt under your nail). They dry very shiny on their own. I did not feel a need to use a top coat.
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| Gorgeous Gebera (Note to self..Clean up edges before pictures!) |
Staying Power:
A picture is worth 1000 words, so here's the time lapse! In the interests of getting this post published sooner rather than later, I am only showing the staying power pictures for Gorgeous Gerbera. I have thus far not had any early peeling or chipping with Fanatical Blossom.
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| At the end of Day 1 |
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| Late in Day 2 |
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| End of Day 3 |
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| End of Day 4. One little chip. I took the polish off after this photo to put on Fanatical Botanical |
I think these are good for the price. The application may vary by color, but the shades are gorgeous and very on trend yet wearable. I will purchase more of these. I'm anxious to try one of the red shades.
2 comments:
I love how you dont need to put a base or top coat , it's long wearing and I love how shiny it stays all the time, I took mine off almost 3 weeks after applying 2 coats and still had no chips so that says allot, it had no smell like some do that are long wearing and shiny so thats a plus.colors are pigmented.
I eenjoyed reading this
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