Trend Report: Navy blue nail polish
This season nails are either navy blue or white and we know which trend we'd rather play in to. Dark nails still feel more chic to us so we tried some of the latest navy blue nail products available...
1) Zoya 'Indigo': (third from left) The first thing that drew me to this particular shade was the slight glitter detail. I quickly applied it to my nails (albeit not as neatly as it could have been) and the colour looked as great on as it did in the bottle. It required several coats but it looked great. It looked so good, in fact, that a girl in the pub actually stopped me to ask what shade I was wearing!
2) OPI 'Russian Navy': 'Russian Navy' is a colour that has been much hyped in the past, but is worth every word of good press that has ever been written. A pièce-de-résistance in OPI's nail colour repertoire, it looks deceptively purple in the bottle; but once applied, dries to a glossy true navy, with red and blue micro-shimmer. The smooth texture glides on thanks to OPI's signature extra-wide brush. It's a truly must-sea colour! (sorry)
3) OPI 'Light My Sapphire': OPI's 'Light My Sapphire', however, couldn't be more different. An inky navy-black in the bottle, it goes on very sheer (and quite watery), with a slight purple tint. It takes about 3 coats to achieve a similar opacity to one coat of 'Russian Navy'! But once built up, the result is a dusky, bluey-purple toned darkness - shiny, but solidly opaque. It lacks the shimmery dimension of 'Russian Navy', but is probably a more versatile shade, and definitely a more intriguing alternative to now-tired black nails.
4) 17 Navy blue:(far right) I had the privilege of using the 17’s new dark blue Fresh Finish nail varnish. I had high hopes for this nail varnish, as the color was supposed to be oh so hot right now, and I thought it would make me look hip, maybe even fashionable. However, I was highly disappointed. Not only did it smell horrible when I was putting it on my nails, but my actual nails stunk like wet nail varnish long after they had dried. In the bottle, it looks like a lovely, deep blue color, but on your nails it looks black. Instead of rocking incredibly trendy, blue nails, I was left with chipped, black nails that made me feel like an 18-year-old , emo art student. However, if that look works for you, then I definitely recommend this varnish.
5) Barry M 'Navy': (not pictured) Normally I love Barry M products, they're cheap and cheerful and always come in the best fun shades. However, I found this nail polish to be quite disappointing. It was very thin requiring many coats and chipped extremely quickly. It was true to the colour though, you just need to be prepared to reapply often.
6) Zoya 'Tart': At first sight I was excited, as the bottled colour looked so vibrant and rich, but application proved another matter. It took a whole 3 coats to recreate the colour and then the coat dried rather tacky. It didn’t last long either, as one hot shower left it smudged. Overall thumbs down. For that amount of applications I’d want a long lasting polish not the smudge fest it became.
Reviews by Pui-Tien Man, Cate Sevilla, Laura Street, and Zara Rabinowitz
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