Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel

I was sent a free bottle of this product by Revlon as part of a Revlon Selects package. That same package included a bottle of Chroma Chameleon Nail Enamel, a product that I absolutely love. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about Revlon’s Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel. It’s actually hard to believe that the same company released both this line and the Chrome Chameleon line because the former is such a dud. I've tried a lot of nail polishes in my life and this one is easily one of the worst I've ever encountered.

The problem is the texture; it’s just too thin and watery. Attractive, consistent colour is only possible if you layer this polish on, which leads to half-a-centimetre of enamel on your nails that never completely hardens. And of course, every layer you apply is another chance to screw up that nail’s polish job.

If you do carefully and meticulously apply this product, you will indeed end up with a “gel-like shine” that does look quite pretty. Unfortunately, to keep things looking great, you have to basically not use your hands in order to avoid disturbing this “mushy” product. These means that anything, from drying your hands on a towel to doing something crazy like pulling your keys out of your pocket can smudge, dent or otherwise damage the enamel.    

Revlon’s big claim for this line is that it delivers “Up to 11 days of lasting colour.” I have no idea if this is true or not because I ended up removing this polish within a few hours of applying it because it smudged so badly.

I did try fixing the first two damaged nails but that quickly turned into a frustrating situation because there was just so much product on my nails that it was quite the messy battle to remove it. And no, you can’t just touch up smudge or dent with this polish; its liquid-y texture means that if you need to fix a nail’s polish job, you need to strip all of the enamel off and start over.

While trying to fix the first two damaged polish jobs, I damaged another nail and then another and then, sensing a trend, I decided to just remove all of the polish.

This enamel is offered in over two dozen colours, including a new one called Natural Pink, which is the shade I tried out. It’s actually not a bad colour however it's hardly worth the effort of fighting with this product to get it.

Will I buy this product: No way.

Should you buy this product: No way.