As those of you who have read my reviews before, I am a big fan of nail polish and have a huge collection. My favourite brand is Nails Inc. but I recently acquired one of these Collection 2000 Hot Looks nail polishes.

I was buying Collection 2000's shine-away compact powder in Superdrug when there was an offer... spend £4 and receive a free Hot Looks nail polish. I would not have picked up this nail polish if it was not in an offer.

Collection 2000 is notoriously one of the cheaper ranges of make up. They offer great value for money in my opinion... but it depends on what product you buy... as I found out here:

== Packaging ==

The nail polishes come in a standard bottle... clear glass showing the colour of the polish with a long black lid. The Collection 2000 logo is printed in black, along with the 'Hot Looks' brand name and the colour of the nail polish. The bottle also advises how best to apply the nail varnish, emphasises that they are fast drying and the ingredients are also present.

The lid/handle for the brush is long and curved at the top, which allows for easy application of the nail polish. It sits really comfortably in your hand and prevents it slipping through your fingers. Really simple, but good design!

== The Nail Polish ==

The Hot Looks range comes in a range of colours... I was really drawn to the bright neon colours, particularly Sherbet Lemons (bright yellow) and siren (hot pink).

I bought number 31, Spangles which is a neon green colour. I am usually a pink/red type of girl but seeing as it was free I decided to go for a change! The colour comes out exactly how it appears in the bottle and dries a little lighter. I would describe the colour as the colour of Shrek, haha! Overall, I was pleased with the vibrant shade of Spangles but it would not be suitable if you are wearing certain colours (maybe that's just me!) but it would seriously clash if you were wearing a little red dress for instance! It might not be suitable in a professional workplace either... a little too OTT!

The nail polish says to get optimum results you should apply two coats for maximum colour intensity and use with a base coat to prevent staining on nails. I did not use a base coat... never have done really... but I'm not too worried about staining after seeing the consistency of this nail polish! When you apply the first coat, you have to get so much on the brush for the colour to reach one end of the nail to the other. Obviously, this makes it really difficult to apply and it still does not prevent seeing the brush streaks. I apply another coat on the top, which makes it ridiculously gloopy and takes forever to dry. You would honestly have to apply 4 to 5 coats of this nail polish should you do it the traditional way!!

The next day I woke up to find bubbles in the polish, where it hadn't dried smoothly, and marks where it had smudged over night. I wasn't happy at all to be honest, and it looked pretty awful, so much so I would have been embarrassed should anyone have noticed!

However, it took longer to chip than other cheaper nail polishes (perhaps because I had applied so many coats!) which was good... but when it eventually started to chip it peeled off in large pieces! You would notice cracks in the colour before this happened, which also looked appauling.

The colour lacked shine and felt bubbly to touch. These nail polishes may be ok for young girls to experiment with... I know I would have been quite happy in my younger years... but for now, I guess you get what you pay for!

Overall, I was not happy at all with the application or quality of this nail polish. The colour was the only good thing about this nail polish!

== Price ==

As I have said, this nail polish came free as part of an offer with other Collection 2000 products, but normally they are £1.79 each. Yes, it is very cheap, but I would not call this value for money. The nail polish just simply isn't good enough.

They are available from Collection 2000 retailers, such as Boots, Superdrug and large supermarkets. Alternatively, Collection 2000 have a website featuring all their products!

== Conclusion ==

I have definitely learnt a lesson from using these nail polishes... you pay for the quality, so spending that extra bit on nail polish makes a huge difference.

I give this nail polish 2 stars, based purely on the beautiful colour collection and the lid, haha! In future, I will stick to Nails Inc. and Rimmel. Sorry Collection 2000!

[Review may also appear on Ciao under the username Strawberry_123]