Aloha and good morning! It’s 7.54 AM here today in cloudy Singapore. I’m back with a review, for a certain nail polish brand!
More than a week back, i had the worst manicure i’ve been to. Service was fine but the end results were too disappointing and it surely didn’t last long. I had my nails done at a nail parlour “Nail Buffet” and the newly re-opened Jem shopping mall. I paid SGD12 for the express manicure service, which was the average price of most nail parlours here. The store uses Zoya nail polishes and from what i gather online, it is a brand loved by many. The manicurist did 3 coats on my nails and ended off with a regular top coat and set me up with a very cooling dryer for 15-20 minutes. Honestly, a regular un-branded nail polish would have dried sufficiently after being given extra drying services. Hell no. Mine didn’t.
I mean, do you expect me to whip out my wallet and fish out dollar bills to pay for my manicure with half-dried nails?! After paying, my nail polish had prints from my wallet. Fantastic! I’ve gone for $12 express manicure with much better service and manicure quality. I’m not sure who or what is to be blamed, either Zoya or my manicurist.
Enraged, I decided to start doing my own nails again. As a student i used to collect nail polishes from The Face Shop, since it was really cheap SGD2.90 per bottle and SGD3.90 for a bottle of nail polish that has glitter and effects. Well, i’m still a student but with a greater purchasing power now haha.
Around a week back after a few days living with the horrible manicure, I decided to visit Guardian (a local drugstore) and was pleasantly surprised by the range of nail polish brands they catered to. Brands like Model’s Own, China Glaze, Sally Hansen, Catrice etc. China Glaze to me, is a great nail polish brand with an easy to work with consistency. They were pretty cheap ranging from SGD12.00 – SGD 20.00. I love nude nails so i am pretty anal when it boils down to picking the correct shade or hue of nude nail polish. China Glaze had none of what i was hunting for and that’s a big disappointment for me. I was looking for a quick dry top coat too and after reading about Seche Vite (which cost between SGD12-16 if i remember correctly), i was even more disappointed to realize that Guardian ran out of stock for it. Sigh pie.
Model’s Own had bright coloured nail polishes. Sally Hansen was a little boring for me since i used to use it a lot too. I just wanted to give another brand a try. So i was glad to stumble upon this recent brand Catrice in Singapore. They had at least 5 different shades of nude nail polish and that was good enough for me because they had like really pretty and versatile shades! Each bottle cost SGD5.90 and that’s really cheap! I grabbed the lightest pink nude shade to suit my skin colour! Seeing as Catrice also carried a quick dry top coat i got it too for SGD5.90. Happy with my purchases, i rushed home to give them a try!
Here’s my end results!
With Flash:
With Natural Lighting:
With Flash, again:
My findings:
- The nude nail polish in shade 02 had a very workable consistency, not too thick and not too runny either.
- High coverage; 2 coats would actually suffice but i used 3 coats for complete opacity and colour saturation. 4-5 minutes are enough to start on the next coat.
- Very shiny, an extra shiny top coat wouldn’t be necessary.
- Lasted me 4-5 days without chipping but only started to peel off a little at the rounded edges nearest my cuticles on a few fingers.
- For the quick dry top coat, it needs a maximum of 5 minutes to completely dry. That is fast enough for me.
- Just take extra care not to hit anything with your nails for the next 10 minutes at max just to be safe.
- You can safely wash your hands after 10 -15 minutes of applying the top coat and drying it out.
Verdict: It’s a very affordable nail polish brand with a pretty good quality and consistency to it. I love the high gloss and shine it has even without the top coat. With the top coat, my nails glistened like water surface! I love it!
Rating: 8.5/10
PRODUCT DETAILS!
- Catrice Cosmetics Ultimate Nudes 02 Don’t Tell Mademoiselle!–> http://www.catrice.eu/products/nails/nail-polish/detail/product/ultimate-nudes-02.html
- Catrice Cosmetics Quick Dry & High Shine Top Coat–> http://www.catrice.eu/products/nails/top-coats/detail/product/quick-dry-high-shine-top-coat.html
Blunt for Hunt 