Wednesday, May 23, 2012

REVIEW of Prevail Nail Lacquer in Gramercy Park with SWATCHES

Hi chickadees!

So I finally got around to testing out one of my Prevail nail polishes and...I have mixed feelings about it. First of all here's a link to my post about the sale on Prevail polishes at Duane Reade from now until June 2nd. http://smartandsarcasticwithdashesofinsanity.blogspot.com/2012/05/prevail-polishes-25-off-at-duane-reade.html Now, for $4.50, I'm pretty happy with this polish. I knew what I was getting into when I chose Gramercy Park. I specifically went for a shade that looked like it would apply a little bit sheer because I wanted to try and dupe the O.P.I. 2012 Ballet Collection that came out recently. Gramercy Park is a sheer light pink polish so it's closest match from that collection should be O.P.I.'s You Callin' Me a Lyre?. Unfortunately, Gramercy Park is nowhere near a dupe. Fortunately, that means it'll appeal to an entirely different crowd.

Color: Sheer, cool-toned light pink
If you have pretty bare nails (not stained yellow from polish testing like mine) I would definitely suggest wearing this super sheer with just one coat for a more natural look. I have a swatch below to show what that would look like. I did 3 coats to try and alleviate that patchiness (more on that later) and achieve opacity. In 3 coats, this polish is still pretty sheer but you can definitely tell what the color is. Gramercy Park is a sheer, very light, cool-toned light pink. It's almost more of a white base with pink instead of a pink lightened with white if that makes any sense.

Application: Smooth, patchy
This is going to sound like a contradiction but I thought the polish applied smoothly but it was also patchy. That is, the formula wasn't too thick or watery and the polish glided over the nail really nicely without any drag. However, because it was so sheer, I had a problem with patchiness. I usually hate large brushes, but I think a large brush to cover the whole nail at once, might have helped here. The paint job on my pinky and ring finger nails look fine but you can see some uneven patches on the other two nails in the swatches below. 3 coats to medium opacity.

Conclusion: Because it applied patchy I can't recommend this polish but I will say that it probably performs as well as most sheer, light-colored polishes so you might as well spend a few dollars less buying it this month for $4.50. I do like the color and I will probably wear this on days when I want a natural nail and I'm not obsessed with how perfect the paint job is.
SWATCHES (continue reading for swatches)


One coat only... (no top coat)



3 coats... (with top coat)







 

No comments:

Post a Comment