Formula X Polish First Impression

Sorry for the delay in today’s content – I didn’t have my photos uploaded (I thought I did), so it had to wait until I could access that SD card.

Last week I shared that I received a Formula X Polish System due to winning a giveaway. I broke it out on Saturday before our Christmas party to get festive.

After shaping and gently etching the surface of your nails with a fine-grit buffer, reach for you break out the left-most bottle in the Formula X Polish System kit. This bottle contains a thin, light blue liquid – this is the Cleanse step. It is basically just a nail dehydrator similar to those used on you at the nail salon before enhancements or with in-home DIY gel nails. I twisted the cap open and heard/felt a, “snap!” only to find the squared off caps on the Formula X Polish bottles are vanity caps. You have to pull it off before you can unscrew the simpler, cylindrical cap beneath. The snap was a piece of the interior to the vanity cap snapping off. Boo.

After that, continue to the clear pink – this is your base coat; the, “Prime,” step. The Formula X Polish Prime is pretty normal base-coat as thickness goes. Here, though, the brush started to annoy me. I expected cheap bristles in the brush-on cleanser, but these bristles remind me of the thick-stranded, cheap ones that resided in Wet n Wild nailpolishes of the early-to-mid 90’s. With a base coat, it wasn’t too much of a deal, but getting my nails fully covered wasn’t as easy (and as you can see, I don’t have large nails).

Formula X Polish - CleanseFormula X Polish System

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Not a Fan: OPI Sheer Tints

I’ve said before that nails are my thing (though my nails have been bare for the longest time in recent memory because I haven’t had time to redo them, ahem). Even though I do not jump to buy every newly-released nail line, I do like to stay abreast of what is coming out.

The makers of my second-favorite polish to-date (I’m Not Really a Waitress, if you’re wondering) have released a new product that is all over blog-land and twitter: OPI Sheer Tints polish. The OPI Sheer Tints line consists of four glossy top coats that just so happen to have a touch of color. The shades, in classic OPI-wordplay-style, are:

  • I’m Never Amberrassed – sheer, warm yellow.
  • Be Magentale With Me – sheer magenta (pink)
  • Don’t Violet Me Down – sheer, mid-tone purple.
  • I Can’t Teal You Like Me – sheer, mid-tone blue.

I’ve checked them out on several blogs and OPI’s own promotional material, including their tutorials. I just cannot get excited or interested in these things. The yellow (I’m Never Amberrassed) makes nails look discolored and, frankly, kind of gross. Perilously Pale shared some swatches of the polish (please go check out her blog!) and although her assessment is positive, I just don’t care for it. Here’s her photo of I’m Never Amberrassed.

again, this is not my photo – photo is courtesy of Perilously Pale.
credit where credit is due, everyone! don’t be shady.

I am not a fan of seeing the smile line of a nail through polish unless it is a neutral sheer meant for a relatively natural, subdued look. These just remind me of poorly-formulated, cheap polishes in the past (like the kids sets?). OPI themselves tweeted this photo on an, “ombre,” manicure done with the product, and I’m just not impressed, and would definitely not purchase these for $10 each.

I don’t really care for ending things on a negative note – I have seen some pretty cool things done with them by other bloggers, like this rainbow manicure from Lacquered Lover, or this dotted yellow mani layered over white (for opacity) and this gold-striped ombre pink set both from Nail that Accent. While I’m happy these bloggers made these OPI Sheer Tints work for them, I just think if I HAVE to conjure up that much creativity to get a product to, “work,” for me, then it isn’t a very wise purchase.