nubar Nail Lacquer

The colour in the bottle's actually brighter than
what's on my nails but you get the idea.

I received my bottle of nubar nail lacquer in Passionate Whispers in my March bonus Luxe Box. While I was thrilled to receive a nail polish, I wasn’t sure about the colour, it’s a bit pinker than I would normally choose.
Thankfully, this polish is the kind where the full colour requires at least three coats. While this might annoy some, it was perfect for me. One coat gave me a glossy, slightly pink hue while two gave me a darker but not-too-loud shade that I quite like.

I'm really impressed with how easy this polish goes on. The texture of the actual polish is very smooth and it’s neither too thin nor too thick, resulting in a product that’s a breeze to apply and looks great once it’s dried.


The nubar bottle I have boasts that this product is “Formaldehyde, Phthalate & Toluene Free” as well as cruelty free. In fact, according to its website, “All of nubar's products have met the standards of PETA to be certified vegan and cruelty free.” Great!

The website also highlights how nubar products are fast drying, long wearing and provides maximum coverage. I complete agree with the first and the last qualities. This polish does provide excellent coverage and dries surprisingly fast. But sadly, it is not long wearing. The first couple of chips appeared in under 24 hours and since then, even more have appeared.

To be fair, the instructions on my bottle do say to apply a top coat over the dried polish, something I didn’t do. But in my opinion, any decent nail polish should be able to remain chip-free for at least 24 hours, even if it doesn’t have a top coat.

Would I buy this product? This might be a mute question because I’ve never seen nubar in stores. But if I did, I would likely pass on it unless I saw an absolutely amazing colour. Then I would pick up another bottle, alongside an amazing top coat.

Should you buy it? Again, this product’s really only worth buying if you spot a specific colour that you love (or if PETA’s blessing is really important to you). At $8, it’s certainly not expensive but you can get longer lasting Revlon products for cheaper so keep that in mind.