I don’t spit but I definitely polish (Collection 2000 Nail Varnish)

Member Name: Shazzy

Product:	Collection 2000 Nail Varnish
Date:	11/06/02 (401 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and good value for money

Disadvantages: Are there any?

Once upon a time I had nice nails. But sometimes things happen and you start to neglect certain things and the old fingernails didn’t look so good anymore. But then one day, after a chat with one of Charlie’s dooyoo babes, I decided it was about time I sorted mine out. What was once nice could be nice again.

A file and buffer were bought and after a couple of weeks of tender loving care, my nails were once again starting to look good enough to take some varnish. Now I don’t know about you, but the way I see it, when nails are stubby and showing signs or being picked or bitten, they look worse with colour on. It just draws attention to them and when my nails were looking scrappy, the last thing I wanted was anybody noticing them.

Anyway, once they were in a reasonable condition, I went off to the shops in search of nail varnish. My daughter had offered to let me use hers but she’s a teenager and quite honestly, I didn’t fancy bright purple nails with bits of pink glitter in. I may not be a relic yet, but I’m sure as hell not 16 anymore either.

Wanting as much as possible for my money, I dodged the brands that I knew to be expensive and headed for the budget stands. I’d used Collection 2000 make-up before and been reasonably satisfied, so I decided I’d give the nail varnish a whirl. At £1.59, I wasn’t losing much if it proved to be load of rubbish.

Back home I gave my nails one final buff up before opening my bottle of pale lilac pearly varnish. The colour looked beautiful in the bottle, and keeping my fingers crossed, which, incidentally, makes painting the nails damned difficult, I hoped it would look just as good once applied. You just never know with nail varnish do you?

The brush was a nice length and had just the right spread to cover my nails in three strokes. So far so good.

The varnish itself went on oh-so-smoothly and the colour was nice
and even, without any of the blotching and patching that you get with a lot of cheap nail varnishes. After the first coat, the colour was close enough to the colour in the bottle for me to feel pleased with it. A second coat wasn’t really needed but I put one on anyway. This gave a lovely deep colour. When time permits I always use a second coat now, but one coat doesn’t leave me feeling “half done”. In fact, there are times when I prefer just one coat, but I’ll come back to that in a bit.

Once applied, this stuff dries quickly. Surprisingly quickly when compared to other cheap nail varnishes. Some never really dry at all, staying sort of soft and prone to pressure marks. Ever found a fingerprint on your nail varnish? Yes, that’s how little resistance to pressure some nail varnishes can have! Not so with this one though. This one dries; it dries quick and it dries properly.

But does it do what it says on the pack? Let’s see what it says. “A high gloss formulation with added acrylic and nylon to help strengthen and protect”. (It always amazes me how these PR people come up with ways of saying so much in so few words).

So is it high gloss?

Yes. I’d say it is. I’ve seen glossier nail varnishes, some so glossy it looks as if it’s about to drip off, but this has just the right kind of gloss for me. For the sake of this op I’ve just painted two nails. One with Collection 2000 nail polish (excuse me for having called it varnish until now – I’ve just noticed that the pack calls it polish), and one with a competing polish in the same price class. The Collection 2000 polish definitely feels smoother to the touch and has slightly more gloss. Both are light coloured polishes and the depth of colour appears to be equally as good on both.

What about the claim that it strengthens and protects though? Well, what can I say? I suppose any nail varnis
h (sorry, old habits die hard) protects your nails to a degree, but some definitely protect them more than others. With some cheap brands I’ve found that after having my hands in soapy water (yes, I do those things sometimes too) the outline of my nails have been exposed, as though the varnish has worn off at the very edges, sometimes more noticeably than others. Collection 2000 does seem to stand up to all that washing up lark reasonably well, although blitzing the house generally leaves it looking tatty. I suppose it’s about middle of the road as far at protection goes, but I have found that it has better staying power when applied with just one coat rather than two.

Strengthens? I’ve got a feeling we’re supposed to believe that using this will ultimately strengthen our nails, but I'm not so sure that’s the meaning behind their statement at all. I think it’s probably a matter of whether or not your nails will break as easily whilst wearing it. Do mine? No. They’re always more susceptible to splitting and breaking if your not wearing any varnish at all, so of course this is going to make them stronger, or rather, more resistant to wear and tear. Does it do the job better than other nail varnishes? No. I don’t think so. Sure, I’ve tried a couple that have been absolute rubbish, and this one’s better than those, but most in this sort of price class are just as good. Whether or not it actually gives nails more general strength I couldn’t say. I switch brands too often to say whether mine are stronger due to a particular nail varnish or not.

How long will it last? I’d say a day, two at the most. It does tend to lose its sheen after a day, and if you push it for two, you’ll more than likely get a bit of chipping.

So that’s it really. What more is there to say? Oh… I know. Does it stop your tights from running? Yep! I put a lilac blob of it on mine an
d the hole stayed put. It didn’t get bigger or creep around the top of my thigh the way some do (who? no… we’re not talking men and body parts here!), and there were nothing unsightly running down my leg. If there’s one thing that really riles me, it’s bloody ladders in my tights!

My conclusion? It’s good - for the money. Certainly good enough for general everyday use anyway. I’ve bought a further three bottles since and that says something. I’m a dreadful skinflint and wouldn’t have bought more if I hadn’t been completely satisfied that I was getting value for money. Sure, there are certainly better nail varnishes out there, but not at this price.

Now it’s just a matter of getting my nails into shape again. 7 look reasonable. The other 3? Err… let’s just say I was pretty stressed out last week – nibble, nibble, pick, pick.

(And Mr O – don’t you dare mention toe nails!)

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