A Nail Polish with Special Effects

I love the look of freshly painted nails, they look so pretty, polished and lady-like, but I never exert the effort when it comes to prettifying my own nails. Part of the reason for this is that painting my nails requires me to sit still, not move, not doing anything for a few minutes after painting them. To me sitting still and waiting for my nails to dry is like torture. Even when I go to a salon to get a manicure (maybe once a year) the drying time is agonizingly slow. I always fidget or go to get something from my bag (phone, keys, etc...), to the dismay of my manicurist, who readily insists that she could get what I need rather than watch me heedlessly ruin her hard work. The other part is that eventually I have to remove it, which requires, nail polish remover, cotton balls and sigh...more effort (I know, it's pathetic).

So rather than paint my own nails, which I felt would not do justice to the Creative Nail Design polishes I am testing this month, I offered to paint someone else's. My partner in this month's review is my mom, the nail polish, CND's new Color and Effects Nail Polish touted as "A new range of professional quality nail polishes with endless possibilities". The line has 50 color crème shades ranging from opaque to semi sheer. The 15 sheer Effects can be worn alone, but are designed to be layered with the crème colors for a customized color, finish and texture. All the polishes in the Color and Effects line are 3-Free; containing no toluene, formaldehyde, or DBP (Dibutyl Phthalate)

The first thing I took note of was the rubbery handle, which made gripping and controlling the brush a smidge easier. The polish itself seemed to have a thinner consistency than my drugstore brand polish. The thin consistency combined with the clear pliable bristles on the brush allowed each coat to go on smoothly and evenly. In fact no matter how clumsy my application the polish seemed to self-level to the same smooth even finish. My mom compared the level coat of the polish to a gnache coating on an ice cream. I was even able to retouch an area that got smudged, again courtesy of my clumsiness, and voila! The smudge was barely detectable. I also learned that my mom suffers from the same inability to sit still when waiting for her nails to dry. Which fortunately for her took under two minutes per coat with CND's fast drying formula.

I tested out Desert Suede (Color) and Gold Shimmer (Effect). Desert Suede is a creamy light clay color and Gold Shimmer is a sheer iridescent gold. Essentially any of the colors in the line can be layered with any of the effects for a full range of nail looks. I applied two coats of Dessert Suede, a layer of Gold Shimmer and a clear topcoat to protect the look. Adding the effect on top of the color drastically changed the shade and look of the polish. It went from a lacquered earthy tone to a shimmery light bronze. I also tried layering the color, effect, and color to tone down the heavy metallic finish of the effect. This combination allowed the clay color to be the focus with just a hint of shimmer peeking through. In terms of wear time CND's polish was just average. After 3-4 days of wear there was some fairly noticeable chips in the color. This was a little disappointing for a polish that is touted as "professional quality".

I really liked the finish, color and the range of possibilities CND's Color and Effects offers. The bottom line though is the price tag $9, for the color, $11 for the effects, is just a little too steep for me. Especially since most of my bottles of polish will most likely thicken or dry up with the frequency at which I paint my nails. I would rather pop into the drugstore when I feel like painting my nails and buy whatever's on sale for under $5, less guilt and more in line with my budget.

For more information on Color and Effects visit:

http://www.cnd.com/Products/Color/Default.aspx

Picture Courtesy of Creative Nail Design.