My Little Bottle of Sunshine (Collection 2000 Nail Varnish)

Name: dharma-queen

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Product:	Collection 2000 Nail Varnish
Date:	15/01/08 (593 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, fast drying, lasts well, funky colours

Disadvantages: None !

One of the nurses at work decided for their last shift to have a sunshine day, which meant everyone had to wear yellow or orange. I don't own any clothes in these colours so I was a bit stuck until the day before when I had the idea that I could just paint my nails yellow. I do have rather a lot of nail polishes in pretty much every colour you could imagine, but I was a bit worried that my yellow and orange ones would be so old that they would have gone a bit funny. I had popped into Tesco on my way home from work and decided to take a look at their cosmetic section to see what I could find just in case mine were unusable. I wasn't really expecting to find anything but Collection 2000 had a nail polish in a very striking shade of yellow, and for £1.49 it wasn't going to break the bank if I only wore it the once, so I picked up a bottle.

When I got home I took a look at what shades I already had and found 3 bottles of yellow nail polish (as you do), one of which went straight in the bin as it has congealed (not very surprising as most of them are well over 5 years old). I discovered (sods law) that one of the remaining two bottles was a Collection 2000 one in pretty much the same shade (albeit a different bottle shape and colour name), but it contained 12ml whereas my new bottle only held 8ml. I decided that as I had bought this new one I might as well use it.

The Product

The nail polish I had bought was a Collection 2000 Hot Looks, on the bottle it says it is fast drying with a high gloss finish. Each bottle is rather dinky and cute and contains only 8 ml of nail polish. It has a silver lid that is shaped so that it is easier to hold and apply the nail polish. Hot Looks is available is a variety of funky bright colours, I counted at least 20, and can be purchased from the likes of Boots,Tesco and Superdrug for £1.49. I purchased No 22 called Oh La La, a canary yellow colour.

Application

I decide that the best plan of action would be to first paint a coat of clear nail polish onto which the vivid yellow would sit (I lack a bottle of proper base coat). I have learnt from experience that strong colours can stain you nails, and I had no desire for my nails to look like I had a 40 a day habit. Once the clear coat had dried (it had half an hour) I proceeded with the yellow. I hadn't noticed when I purchased the bottle but the lid is shaped to make it easier to hold, this makes application easier. The bottle recommends that you apply two coats for maximum colour intensity, and one would definitely not be enough. The polish is quite thin and can look a bit streaky after only one coat. I found that it was best to have a little too much on the brush than not enough to avoid it looking streaky or starting to set before you had finished applying it. If I didn't have enough on the brush and had to go back into the bottle to get more, the polish already on the nail would have started to go tacky and it would look a bit of a mess. Luckily the second coat covered all of this and it looked fine. The polish dried quickly and was certainly touch proof within five minutes. I applied a coat of top coat over the two coats of yellow.

The Result - Day 1

I applied the nail polish Monday evening before I went to bed so I couldn't get a proper look at it. I half expect to wake up and find tram lines all over my nails as normal, but there was not a mark in sight. Normally I find that when I apply nail polish, that no matter how long I wait before doing anything the polish is never completely set, and I end up with fingerprints or lines on my nails, or worse the pattern of the fabric from my duvet covet. This nail polish really must dry quickly.

The two coats of yellow have given a solid, glossy colour. The colour is certainly not wishy-washy (it is canary yellow after all), you would not need to apply a third coat. The colour is not flat or dull (ignoring the yellowness), it is sort of shimmery without being glittery, and does look glossy and shiny. Because the nail polish liquid was quite thin the result does not feel like my nails are covered in a thick goo, and so doesn't feel like it is going to peel off easily. The only issue I have with the nail polish is the number of bobble where there must have been air bubbles. I am not sure where exactly they have come from, whether it was the base coat, top coat or the nail polish itself, but it does not look very attractive.

In case you were wondering, the sunshine day went well, and everyone seemed to be impressed with my yellow nails, they certainly attracted a lot of attention. By the end of the day none of the day none of the polish had chipped or pealed or cracked. I couldn't be bothered to remove it so decided to leave it on until the weekend or until it became peelable when I would swap it for a more normal colour.

Day 2

It's now Wednesday and it still hasn't chipped. I must say I am now rather impressed with it, more so as it was only £1.49 and I wasn't expecting much from it. I have even gotten to rather like the yellow colour. I work in an office and spend all day in front of a computer using a keyboard, so I find that the polish on the tips of my nails tends to wear off (it sort of recedes), but that has not happened with this yet.

Day 3

It has chipped on two nails now and is very slightly starting to wear off from the tips of the nails on my thumb and finger, but I am still impressed with its durability. It is not peeling off yet, and hasn't cracked.

Day 4

It is now Friday and it has proved to be very hard wearing. It hasn't developed any more chips, and although it is wearing thin on a few of the nail tips this is only noticeable if you examine them closely. A good test after it has been on this long is to bend some of my longer nails and see if it cracks, and it doesn't. I have also not found it to soften in water. Sometimes after I've had a shower I find my nail polish becomes more peelable, but this one doesn't. I rather like peeling my nail polish off, but I don't think I could with this even if I wanted to; it's definitely there to stay. I found it was easily removed with nail polish remover.

I swapped the yellow for a different colour in the range, a bright pink. This time I had no bobbles and the result was perfectly smooth. It didn't chip until the 4th day, but that was easily fixed by touching up my nails with more nail polish.

Summary

Overall I am impressed with this nail polish, and for £1.49 it is superb. It has fared much better than my normal Rimmel and No7 nail polishes, and it is a lot cheaper too. It easily lasts a few days without being noticeable chipped. I would definitely recommend this nail polish, so much so that I have gone out and bought a few more bottle of it, albeit in less striking colours. I think applying the top coat has probably helped a lot, but I haven't noticed any scratches in it.

I remember that when I was at school (10 years ago) that we were not allowed to wear nail polish, so I would apply it after school on the Friday then have to remove it Sunday night (if it was still on). This nail polish would have been perfect for that, it is cheap, fast drying, hard wearing and would last the weekend easily. Because it is so cheap and has lots of fashionable colours I have always thought of Collection 2000 as being aimed at teenagers. I have always been slightly put of Collection 2000 by the price, thinking that as it is so cheap it must be low quality, but when I have purchased items from them in the past I have not been disappointed. It is a good brand to buy items from to experiment with before buying a more expensive version, or to buy makeup in the latest seasons colours, which aren't going to last long before going out of fashion (I'm sure I've heard yellow was in this year!)

I like the fact that it comes in some interesting colours alongside your standard pinks, purples, reds and browns. I have now got a light and a bright pink, a redish orange, a red, two shades of blue, a brown and a greeny colour alongside my original yellow bottle. At the moment it is on 3 for 2 in Boots, although my Boots was not advertising this fact and I only found out when I looked at my till receipt.

I would recommend this product, especially to those of you who like their nail polish in funky colours. If bright pinks, yellows, blues and greens aren't your thing then I did notice a few more traditional colours in the range. Quite frankly if you do buy it and don't like it you've only lost £1.49 so it's not the end of the world.


Thank you for reading. Also on ciao as rd52169.

Summary: Cheap & funky