Milani Nail Treatment Smoothé Base Coat REVIEW

Hi chickadees,

I actually completely forgot about reviewing this product for months. Oops. I think I first heard about this base coat on Nouveau Cheap. Then, later when I ran out of my regular base coat and I needed to add something to my drugstore.com order to qualify for free shipping, I added this to my cart on a whim. I think I've gone through maybe two or three bottles of this base coat. Ultimately I'm still not sure about whether I'd recommend it.

Color: The Milani Smoothé Base Coat starts as a milky, white liquid, applies as a translucent white, and dries to a clear matte finish. I personally like having a definitive sign of when the base coat has dried and I think I slightly prefer having a dry base to a slightly sticky base like Orly Bonder. I will note that when I used this base coat with OPI My Pointe Exactly which is a fairly sheer polish, the color of the base coat was noticeable enough that I had to use the polish to cover it up. I think this base coat is fine with cremes and shimmer polishes but you might want to keep the color in mind if you're using a sheer polish. It also seemed to make the polish appear a bit matte.
Formula: I think the consistency of this base coat is more like polish. Orly Bonder is much thinner and more fluid. This base coat goes on smoothly, but it is a little thicker. Also, either as the base coat ages or as you continue to use it, it begins to thicken up until it's impossible to use. Of course, the same can be said for Seche Vite and Orly Bonder but I found that the last bottle of this base coat thickened up much more quickly than I would have liked. I would say I got through about a third or a half of the bottle before it became unusable. It was so thick that it even if I had been able to apply it, it wouldn't have created a smooth base on the nail.

Protection: I don't really have deep ridges in my nails and I don't have much of an issue with polish chipping. During the time I used this base coat with my regular manicures I still didn't have a problem with my polish chipping so it certainly doesn't make things worse and I thought it provided a nice, smooth base for my polish. I don't know if it really prevents staining. I do switch up my polish a lot and my nails did yellow while I was using this base coat. I also don't think this base coat made dark polishes any easier to remove as I had to do quite a lot of clean up when I took of Sally Hansen Red Zin. I guess I would say that this base coat doesn't demonstrably do anything to protect your nails and if that's something that's important to you, I'd look for a different formula from another brand.

CONCLUSION: If you're looking for the minimum required of a base coat (that it provide a smooth barrier between your natural nails and your polish) at a relatively low cost, you could probably do worse than Milani Smoothe Base Coat. I personally didn't find that it did anything special to protect my nails from staining or create an especially smooth base.

REVIEW and Comparison OPI Black Cherry Chutney and Milani Black Cherry with SWATCHES

Hi darlings!

I have another comparison review for you today. This time I'm putting two "black cherry" colors from different brands head to head. On my index finger and ring finger (1 and 3 from the left) I'm wearing Milani's Black Cherry. On my middle finger and pinky finger (2 and 4 from the left) I'm wearing O.P.I.'s Black Cherry Chutney. To make things easier, I'm going to first do mini-reviews of each and then do a comparison. Swatches will be at the end, as always.

O.P.I Black Cherry Chutney

Black Cherry Chutney is a very dark purple polish with subtle red shimmer. In some lighting, it can look almost black or brown (because of the red-tone). This is one of those great smooth O.P.I. formulas. The bottle I purchased, had a really big brush. I don't remember if this is how O.P.I. polishes used to be or if this was just something particular to this bottle but I found it annoying. The polish applied evenly in 2 coats but I did 3 for the sake of comparison because the Milani wasn't as opaque in 2 coats.

  Milani Black Cherry

Milani's Black Cherry is a dark red polish with subtle red shimmer. It can also look very dark in certain lighting but it's always lighter than Black Cherry Chutney. Application was reasonably even though I did have trouble with getting the brush into corners without making a mess. I had to do 3 coats. It was noticably red in the first and second coats but darkened quite a bit in the third coat.

 
COMPARISON

• O.P.I. is a purple polish, Milani is a red polish
• Both have red shimmer
• Both are red-based
• Both are very dark in 3 coats
• The Milani is lighter than the O.P.I. is all lighting
• O.P.I. more opaque
• O.P.I. applies slightly better

Conclusion: These polishes are NOT dupes for each other but unless you just have to have a really complete collection, I'd choose one or the other. You won't be missing anything. The O.P.I. has a slightly nicer formula once you get used to the brush but the Milani is almost half the price. It comes down to a slight color difference and which aspects of the product are more important to you.

SWATCHES
I went a little crazy with the swatches and camera settings this time so you could see all the differences between these polishes.

REVIEW of Milani Nail Polish in 303 Paradise Pink with SWATCHES

Note: On the second nail, I'm wearing Mimosas for Mr. and Mrs. NOT Milani Paradise Pink.

I'm going to keep this review short. This was another polish that I didn't hate, but which had an annoying formula and was the wrong color for me. I absolutely don't regret getting this polish. Milani polishes run about $4.99 here and I got it BOGO 1/2 off with another nail polish. This light pink color is going to be really useful for nail art so it won't go to waste. However, it just clashes terribly with my skintone and the formula was so annoying that after the fourth time trying to paint the nail on my middle finger I just gave up and used Mimosas for Mr. and Mrs. (which is what I currently have on all my nails).

Old Review Here: http://smartandsarcasticwithdashesofinsanity.blogspot.com/2011/08/opi-mimosas-for-mr-and-mrs-review-and.html

Milani Jewel FX in 531 Gold Layered over L'Oreal's 580 Because You're Worth It

I was getting a little tired of this look so I thought I'd try layering something over it to spruce it up for New Year's. I rather like the pairing of the classic, bright gold of the Milani Jewel FX with the more toned down, sophiscated almost taupe gold of the L'Oreal polish. The Milani polish was pretty easy to work with. I didn't have to obsess about the placement of the glitter but I don't think the base polish to glitter ratio of the polish is very homogenous which might be a problem in the future. Right now, there's a little too much base polish to glitter. I suspect as I work my way through the bottle, the opposite will be the case. Also, I find glitter polishes a pain to remove. The whole tin foil thing doesn't work for me.

Anyway, swatches galore! Happy Holidays! :)

Milani Silver Metallic Nail Polish in 105 Ms. Milani with Swatches

I guess this week you can call me Ms. Milani. That's the name of the new polish I picked up from CVS and I think it's the first Milani product I've used since my black nail polish days in middle school and high school. I would describe the color in the bottle as a sophisticated, metallic, smoky, silver/gray. Like a dove gray with shimmer. On the nails, it is almost white it picks up so much light! But no, it's still a metallic silver. I just love this color. It's casual yet glamorous. I can wear it to work and school because it has the subtlety of a nice, delicate piece of silver jewelry. However, you could also wear it to a holiday party because this polish attracts the eye from across a room. It's that bright and gorgeous when the light hits it. Anyway, on to the review...

Color: The polish appears very shimmery in the bottle but creates an interesting effect on the nails. From a distance, it looks perfectly smooth and sleek, like a shiny new car or a polished piece of metal. Up close, as in 5 inches from your face close, those little shimmer particles make the polish look even more like metal. There's a bit of a grainy, edgy quality to it that I just adore. Warning though, you really need to apply this polish smoothly. I rushed to do my nails the other day and I had to fix them when I got home because the little imperfections were making me crazy. The shimmer makes them very noticeable.

Luckily...
Fomula: The formula is pretty great. It's very pigmented. One coat is almost opaque depending on how you apply it, though I would recommend 2 thin coats. Two coats are perfectly opaque and this is from a committed 3 coater. My one complaint is that the formula is not exactly watery if you take that to mean a lack of color payoff but you do pick up a lot of polish regardless of how you wipe off the brush so I would pause in between brushstrokes to check that all the polish at the top hasn't migrated down the brush before you paint the next brushstroke.This happened to me a few times.

Conclusion: I would definitely repurchase Milani's Ms. Milani polish. It's a great color. The formula is decent. It's appropriate for many situations and especially great for winter (I feel like The Snow Queen). Also, the price is definitely right on this one after shelling out almost twice as much for OPI and Essie. I would recommend this polish if you can do smooth, thin coats, but if you can't you might have to take it to the nail salon and have your nails done which kind of counterbalances the benefit of the low price.

SWATCHES

Clothing Matching Tip: Because it is a metallic silver, it's going to work with any color and liven it up. However, my favorite ideas are pairing it with...

• black, especially an interesting texture like silk (sensual) or leather (edgy)
• a bright jewel tone, especially rich sea-colored blues
• white, for a real frosty, ice queen look