Test #13 Result – Orly Bonder and Nubar Diamont

I’ve had so much fun sporting a bright summer colour in the middle of winter this week.  I’ve had heaps of comments and its brightened up plenty of more subdued winter outfits.  I still haven’t worked out what to call this colour though – at home it looks like a really hot toned orange yet at work it looks like a coral based red.  All I know is that I like it and would probably love it if the formula wasn’t so stubborn.

The Wear and Tear Test

• Day 1 – No damage

• Day 2 – No damage

• Day 3 – No damage, its still looks bright, glossy and flawless!

• Day 4 – Some minimal tip wear

• Day 5 – The polish appears to be starting to crack in places, I hate it when this happens – is it possible for polish to overdry?  I had this issue last time I wore a Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polish too.

• Day 6 – The cracks have resulted in chips, boo.  This polish is too bright to carry off any type of damage, it shows a mile off.  You can see in the second picture the extent of the cracking, so ugly 😦

Observations

What a bummer that this manicure deteriorated so quickly once damage started to appear.  I think I will reserve this polish for summer weekends in future – it makes me think of all things summer related – trips to the beach, spending time by the harbour, long summer evenings with friends.  Can you tell that I’m craving winter to be over?  We’re having a spring premonition here right now with a week of days between 20C-24C, I wish it would stay.  Anyway Im getting off point

So overall, Orly Bonder and Nubar Diamont rated as a:

6 day manicure

Test #13 Preview – Orly Bonder and Nubar Diamont

Today I have something a little outside of my normal comfort zone – an orange polish.  I will be honest, I’ve never worn an orange polish before and I’m loving it!  It’s so bright and cheerful and reminds me that summer will come back in the not too distant future.  This is Sally Hansen Kook-A-Mango which I’m sure is part of the permanent line of the Complete Salon Manicure range as I’ve been seeing it around forever but never bought it because it’s $17 a bottle here (I only pay $12 for OPI for goodness sake!)  A 2 for $20 special came up so I figured I would grab this and I also got Right Said Red just because I liked the name!  The polish looks like it has a slightly coral tone to it in the bottle (which completely doesn’t show through here), but I hardly see this on the nail, it’s mainly a straight up bright orange creme.  Unfortunately the formula on this was awful – very thick but streaky too.  This was my second attempt and it took three coats to get it even.  I didn’t dare thin it as it was already horrendously streaky and I was worried that I would be there all night if I tried to thin it too.  This will definitely be a special occasion only polish in the future.  A nice bonus is that this colour makes my fingers look slightly tan (yes they look lobsterish above but I think it was that I couldn’t find a comfortable way to hold the bottle).

As this is test 13, I felt I needed some extra luck on the top coat side so rather than going in order, I picked out Nubar Diamont for my top coat.  I’m up to day 3 now and the manicure is still looking flawless (which is a slight problem as it doesn’t really coordinate with any of my work clothes, but they can get over it).  I’m looking forward to see how long this one will last.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

**Disclosure – any photo on The Nail Polish Project may have had the white balance, exposure, brightness and/or contrast adjusted to ensure colour accuracy of the swatches only.  In no way have these photos been altered to remove/add imperfections.**

Test #12 Result – Orly Bonder and CND Super Shiney

Its been a refreshing change to start testing a different product, maybe I’m a little sad but I really enjoy the watery-ness (if that’s even a word?) of a new base coat!  I have used Orly Bonder once before a few months ago when I did all my paired tests, so it was very satisfying to find that it was still thin and watery when I pulled it out the other day.  Bonder dries to a matt finish and feels sticky to touch long after it has dried which can be attributed to its “rubberized” properties.  Despite being an icky yellow colour (it reminds me of iodine), it dries clear on the nail with a nice even finish.

So for my first test I pulled out OPI Ski Teal We Drop.  I’ve been wanting to rewear it for a while but something else always caught my eye before I got to the back of the drawer.  I stamped a few nails with a leaf design from a Bundle Monster plate in China Glaze Devotion (which is now my go to silver stamping polish, I give up on ever finding China Glaze Millenium).  My photos seem to be working out much better now I’ve moved to taking them in my bathroom, I’m having far better success with capturing colours accurately…maybe its time to try another pink polish.

The Wear and Tear Test

• Day 1 – No damage

• Day 2 – Some minimal tip wear

• Day 3 – Devastated, chips already.  And not just one chip, a series of chips that are just getting bigger and bigger.  It only seems to be two or three nails but where small chips have appeared, they have quickly grown

• Day 4 – The wear on the corners has spread to all nails and it’s getting quite severe on some nails, you can see it best here on my ring finger.  Once the chipping starts it seems to spread very quickly.  Time to go.

Observations

I was really surprised at how quickly this manicure deteriorated and honestly quite disappointed.  I also came out of it all (maybe unsurprisingly) with some really zombie like nails.  They were all blue and grey and generally nasty looking.  Thankfully I find a generous coat of Orly Cutique left on for about 5 minutes can always cure said zombie nails.  When I get a super stained result I will have to do a review of Cutique, I love the stuff.  It’s so satisfying to see how much more colour comes off after using it.  It doesn’t shift the deep-set yellowing every nail polish fan is afflicted with but it sure does tackle the surface stains.  It’s just occurred to me I haven’t said a word about CND Super Shiney, which was gorgeous and shiny and living up to its name the whole way through – do you see how glossy my nails are still at day 4?  Gorgeous!

So overall, Orly Bonder and CND Super Stickey rated as a:

4 day manicure