Meet Heaven Nail Lacquer in Island Color. I found this brand while *gasp!* Grocery shopping at Albertsons about a year ago. They recently released new colors and re-designed their bottles (another CG look alike) and since I'm a sucker for neons, I grabbed a few. Island Color was the first to jump out at me, and I couldn't wait to try her out. She's actually one of my fave colors, a gorgeous deep Indigo leaning Violet neon with an almost rubbery satin finish. Unfortunately, she has some serious attitude and does not like to play nice! I guess this is why most people don't haul at the grocery store, right? ;)
When I sat down to use this baby, I wasn't prepared for what she dished out. She certainly wasn't this badly behaved when I swatched her on a nail wheel! On the very first nail, she came out fairly runny, but she also had a surprise in store! The polish, although thoroughly shaken and rolled, separated and left a watery streak of Violet mixed with chunks of heavy pigment on the nail! No amount of mixing, thinning, shaking, taking a blowtorch to this baby helped. It happened on every single nail! Of course this led to serious flooding and streaks as well as some bubbles and obviously uneven surfaces. Yikes! You would think I would've just given up on her, but I love this color enough that I grit my teeth and pushed on. Although not perfect, this was my result (please forgive the staining and cuticles. I did this on Tuesday and was doing a nebulizer treatment while polishing and just didn't have the energy to mess with cuticle remover just yet):
I love this color, and I love this finish. I really wish she wasn't such a delinquent polish!
I also took the opportunity to try out my Orly Flash Dry Quick Dry Drops since I wasn't going to be using top coat for this mani. They did speed the drying process, but only slightly, and I noticed that it seemed to significantly decrease wear time. Usually with this brand I get at least 2-3 days without any major wear, but this time my mani lasted less than 24 hours before I had huge chunks missing. It literally popped off like dried wall paint! I'm not certain, but I may think the Flash Dry Drops made this polish brittle. I'll have to try the drops with a better brand to see what happens, it may be a case of incompatible chemistry.
Hope you all are having a fabulous day! Thanks for dropping by!
Next up: Zoya Surf, Maybelline Color Show, some top coat reviews, X Out Nail Art, and a teeny bit of Spiderman.
Happy Polishing!
-Kimber
