In this day of advanced science…
I have been avoiding this post for as long as possible, but today pushed me to the edge. I had an interview today. Tell me why my nail polish started coming off in big chunks as soon as I got into the car! I was not going to take the bottle of polish with me, but I am so glad that I did. I had to touch up the polish in the bathroom before my interview. I forgot to bring a polish remover pad, and I would not have had time to take all of it off in time anyway.
When it comes to my nails, I am a girlie girl. I do not like to go out without both fingernails and toenails polished, even if no one sees my feet. I am a classy babe, too, so both sets have to be the same color. I give myself a manicure and a pedicure every week. I have been giving myself manicures for years, and I was trained by a licensed cosmetologist, who specialized in nails, from the beginning. I know what I am doing. Normally, I actually have a nice set of nails, even when I do manual labor or typing! Below are some past examples. I do not wear fake nails, so these are my natural nails.
However, this has not been the case in the past year and a half or so. That was when it became increasingly difficult to find my fail-safe Revlon ColorStay Nail Enamel. My nails are dryer from the extra polish and more frequent remover that I use in a week once the polish job becomes irreparable from the unreliable nail enamel products that I have had to use lately.
My interview experience happened while using Orly‘s bonder, which gets such good reviews and is supposed to give the polish something to cling to, some Orly color, and Sec N Dry. I have tried this and many other polishes, including Sally Hansen No Chip 10-day Nail Color, and I have tried different approaches with any polish that I try. With topcoat and base coat, with topcoat only, with base coat only, without top coat and base coat, etc. Each brand and color gets a thorough test, but none of these polishes last as long as the Revlon ColorStay Nail Enamel, which actually lasted the entire week with minimal touch ups. The best results that I have had thus far have been to use Orly‘s bonder with Sally Hansen No Chip 10-day Nail Color and no top coat. Even this combination only stays on a few days, but that is good compared to having polish chipping when I wake up in the morning after manicuring them!
While there is still a page for this Revlon ColorStay Nail Enamel, it is an old page. If you navigate to nail color through the Revlon main site, the Revlon ColorStay Nail Enamel is nonexistent. I can only assume that Revlon no longer makes the polish. I can only find the polish on third-party websites for twice the price, which was already almost five dollars. It seems like a lot, but each color came with two bottles of polish, the color and the sealant/topcoat.
I used my last bottle of Revlon ColorStay Nail Enamel last year, and even that bottle was different than the original. At some point, there was a change in the formula, and the polish stopped lasting as long as it used to last. Still, the new formula gave me better results than any of the nail polishes that I have tried recently. The only remnant of Revlon ColorStay Nail Enamel in my collection is a bottle of the sealant, which does not seem to work with any other brand or type of polish. That includes Revlon‘s regular nail enamel.
I am hitting a wall at this point. I try to stay away from Opi because it is said to be one of the most unhealthy polish brands. Even so, reviews that I have read commonly say that Opi results are comparable with Orly results. After my Orly experience, I really do not want to waste the money trying. These polish brands are not cheap! I have had Opi applied to my nails during manicures at nails salons before, and it did not seem to last any longer than the cheap store polish anyway.
I fail to understand how in this day and time of advanced science, we cannot have a healthy, scent free, long lasting, chip free, glossy without topcoat, and fast drying nail polish. I just hope that it is because scientists are busier with more important things than my nails, like curing cancer. In the meantime, I guess it is time to find something else to try. Suggestions greatly appreciated.
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