The first ELF product I didn't like (E.L.F Nail Varnish)

Member Name: Tracy_1127

Product:	E.L.F Nail Varnish
Date:	10/04/09 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see review

Disadvantages: see review

Carrying on with my E.L.F product reviews I thought I would review the nail varnish next. I never buy expensive nail varnish because I just don't have the kind of lifestyle that means I don't have to do much. With cleaning out litter trays, growing my own herbs, housework, plenty of typing and having a habit of chewing and picking at my fingernails nail varnish never lasts beyond a day on my nails before it's chipped and needs removing. It seems a waste of money to me to buy expensive nail varnish when I know this is going to happen regardless of the product, and believe me I have tried some very expensive brands in the past and they don't last any longer. So when I noticed E.L.F had some nail varnishes for the usual £1.50 I bought a couple of bottles.

Another issue I have with my nails is ridges, most of my nails have lots of deep ridges on them and I can't be doing with using ridge products so I just make sure I apply two coats so the varnish doesn't sit in the ridges and highlight them.

So my two bottles of nail varnish arrived and I'd chosen one from each end of the colour spectrum. A nude one for daily use and a plum one for a more dramatic look. I tried the nude one first. The bottle is flat and rectangular as is the lid. There are 24 different colours available starting with a clear one, right the way through to blues and purples so there would be a colour that appealed to pretty much everyone in amongst those.

Upon opening the bottle I found the smell was quite strong, no surprise there really I find most nail varnishes smell awful and always wash my hands really well after it has dried to get rid of this. The rectangular lid in my opinion makes it a bit difficult to apply the varnish, it's not really very ergonomical as we seem to fair better holding round objects. The brush was very slim and I found this meant I needed several strokes per nail, I prefer a wider brush that only needs the 3 strokes per nail. The nude colour however wasn't really a problem as it isn't dark enough to show any mistakes or ridges. I was fine with the end result and wore it for a few days, it was chipped after one but again not dark enough to rush to the nail varnish remover so I didn't!

A few days later I decided to try the plum version. The colour of this is gorgeous, a really dark, rich plum and I was really looking forwards to the result. I immediately found the flat lid made it hard to be accurate with this, the slim brush either had nowhere near enough liquid on it or if you tried to get more it had way too much and ended up as a pool of varnish around the cuticle. One coat later and all my ridges were well displayed!

The second coat removed the ridge effect but it took ages to apply with the skinny brush and each coat takes several minutes to dry so I was thoroughly bored of nails and nail varnish by the time I'd finished. The colour was excellent though. I washed my hands twice to get rid of the smell but it took a few hours to go anyway. The nail varnish lasted the usual day before it had plenty of chips so I removed it at the end of the day.

Apparently this nail varnish has a "colour lock formula and a chip resistant shield" but it faired no better than other brands for me. It also contains vitamin E for healthy nails.

This is the first product from E.L.F I've had any complaints about and I doubt I'll buy more nail varnish from them. The brush just makes life difficult and needs to be wider and the bottle and lid would be better off round. I'm not going to mark them down on the smell as most varnishes smell this strong to me anyway but I like nail varnishes to be quick to apply or I get utterly bored with them and this wasn't. The drying time was about normal, a few minutes per coat and the longevity of the varnish normal for me and my life so that was no surprise. I've actually got some varnishes that are even cheaper than this that apply much easier and last as well.

This product gets 3 stars from me and isn't really recommended but if you have never visited www.eyeslipsface.co.uk don't let this put you off all the other brilliant products they sell.

Summary: Not recommended because of the brush