Comparison- Sheer opalescents

This is one of my favorite type of polishes. Shiny, shimmery, duochromatic, opalescent sheers. Above, from left to right, we have: Nina Ultra Pro "Molten Copper," Borghese "Patina Pearl," Pure Ice "Sea Shell," which is discontinued, and Sally Hansen "White Diamond," also discontinued.

The Pure Ice polish is my oldest actual bottle of polish. It was the originator of my "lazy mani" attitude of swiping on one coat of a sheer, opalescent polish and going on about my day. "Molten Copper" I bought back when I first got back into nails, this fall. Sally was having a buy 2 get 1 free for that brand I believe. The Borghese polish I found on sale recently at Walgreens, for $2.19 down from $8.17. I knew I already owned the similar Sally Hansen one, but I haven't been impressed with its quality, so I picked up the Borghese one to put them both through the gauntlet. I found the Sally Hansen one at my local Dollar Tree, along with other Sally Hansen polishes.

Now, when I swatched these, it was obvious that "Sea Shell" and "Molten Copper" looked nothing like the other too, so since my camera was getting full, I decided to just take pics of the Borghese and Sally Hansen polishes.




They were both pearly in general, with green on one side and pink on the other. They looked so similar, although the Borghese has a slightly stronger pink flash than the other. Ultimately, I liked the Borghese finish, and application, best. Poor Sally Hansen "White Diamond" now sits in my to-franken bag. It just takes way too long to dry and smudges like crazy. It is slightly more sheer and better for layering though, I'll give it that.

Nina Ultra- Never Glum Plum

“What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?”
-Logan Pearsall Smith

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These pics aren't quite true-to-color for me. Well, I guess when I took them, it was. But I swear this polish "aged" into a darker color within a few hours of my pics. It got very dark and when I asked my husband what color he thought this was, he said "black?" That's how dark it was, seriously. It's certainly much darker than it looks in the bottle, which is annoying, because I wanted a color that is basically the same as the bottle. Oh well, just an excuse to buy another bottle sometime!

The formula is good, maybe a bit globby, but it dries quickly and is slightly self-correcting. It isn't too expensive, and the brush was average, as far as ease of application goes. In my world, it is matte* (remember, I know nothing of jellies and cremes and whatnot).

The negatives, other than it's apparent color-changing issues, are that I found it to not look good on short nails at all. It made my fingers and nails look so stubby. So, I'm relegating it to longer-nails only. Also, and it might have just been the frantic car-cleaning I had to do while I searched for a school textbook, but it chipped before it had even been a day. So, that was annoying too.

So, the report card is as follows:

Color= C* (it's a nice color, but it's ambiguity is annoying to me)
Formula=B+ (slightly above average, but lost points due to globbiness)
Brush= B (average, nothing special)
Price= C+ (I think it's 3.99 at Sally Beauty, not too bad, but for me, it's slightly above what I prefer)

Overall= B-