Manic.Monday: Candied Bourjois

I've had a real love affair with the latest Bourjois products as you can see in my Fave 5 - Bourjois products and on one of my many visits to Superdrug they had a 3 for 2 offer that I couldn't refuse, and in the end I turned to nail polish to make up the magic 3. They have a lovely range of colors available and I decided on Bourjois So Laque Ultra Shine Nail Polish in Fuchsia Hype which is a lovely warm shade, with faint violet undertones.  

I am speculating now, but I get the feeling that So Laque Ultra Shine is supposed to be a rival of Barry M's Gelly Paints. Apparently the formula contains an extra dose of vinyl and reflecting resins to give that extra high shine finish and it also claims to be highly resistant and long lasting, with wear up to 7 days.

Fuchsia Hype

The brush is of a fairly standard width and should be easy to work with, however the formula of this polish is VERY thin and watery which means that it's tricky to get just the right amount on the brush for an even coat. I have a steady hand, but because it's so fluid I found it difficult to apply without getting it on my cuticles. It also means that since it's so thin, you need several coats to get an opaque look and to achieve the ultra shine finish. In the pics I have 3 coats on, and to be honest I probably could have done with another one. Because I had to use several coats to build up the colour this also means that it's even easier to chip or damage the finish, and I noticed after only a few hrs that it had started to go in some places - not exactly what I call long lasting.

So that I wouldn't let a freshly applied polish go to complete waste, I decided that I would finish with my newly purchased Avon Nailwear Opal Top Coat. It's a clear top coat with lustrous speckles that gives a prism like finish similar to a fragment of an opal, exactly like what we've seen on Revlon's Moon Candy - so with this you can "candy" any nail polish you want.

I really like the fact that it's a clear top coat so I don't have to consider colour matching or clashing, and can easily combine it with anything. It was easy to apply evenly and dried quickly, so overall I'm impressed by this product and am looking forward to experimenting some more with it. 

After one coat of Opal I had a pretty good but sparse shimmer on my nails, but since I was going for a heavier iridescent look, I applied one more coat and got the finish you can see in the photo below. I think the combination works and having applied the topcoat, I actually got another 2 days wear out of it, without significant "chippage". 

Overall I think that the Opal top coat is a great value for money product that I highly recommend and it definitely exceeded my expectations. However, considering the quality and performance of other Bourjois products I really expected much more from the So Laque nail polish. The shade was lovely but for me it didn't do any of the things it promised - I can't get any more candid than that!