Forever 21 Love & Beauty Nail Polish
I've started painting my nails more and more. I always wear nail polish, but I usually get a professional manicure, then leave my nails alone till most of the polish is chipped and I can treat myself to a new manicure. I'm becoming more of a grown up, I guess, because now I like to have well-groomed nails all the time. Once that polish is chipped I take it off and give myself a new polish job right away. I can't afford to get manicures every time I want a new nail color, so lately I've been really into at-home manicures. While I still get professional pedicures (because they're awesome and worth it), I've kind of gotten over pro manis, since I can do a pretty good job myself. I try to use higher end nail polish. You may have noticed from the products reviewed on this blog, but I like to save up and splurge for the nicer things, rather than buy a bunch of cheap things. Better to treat yourself to the real deal than buy four different knock offs and be let down by all of them, right? Because of this mantra, I typically only used OPI and Essie polishes. I've had my eye on some NARS polish in Galion, and I was about to buy some at Sephora, only to find they weren't carrying it anymore. There was nowhere else in the mall that sold NARS, so I looked for a substitute. I found a few colors that were kind of ok, but none lived up to the beauty of Galion. For some reason I found myself looking through a bucket of nail polish at Forever 21, and I found a pretty great knockoff. Actually, for the price, it's kind of perfect.
The Forever 21 polish was just under $3, so it wasn't really a big risk. If it didn't work, no big deal. I bought two colors: Gold Grey, AKA the Galion knockoff, and True Blue, a bright royal blue. I used the Gold Grey first, and it went on so well, I only needed one coat to fully cover my nails and be true to the color in the bottle. But the real kicker: I didn't get a chip for OVER A WEEK. I've gotten manicures from nice salons, using high end polish, and had my nails chip after three days. I was amazed that some nail polish from Forever 21, purveyor of all things cheap, could last that long.
After about two weeks, when I had maybe two tiny chips, I took off the Gold Grey and tried out the True Blue, which I'm wearing now. I still have ZERO chips, although it's only been about four days. I'm still very impressed. Plus, the bright blue is fun, but not too juvenile or weird. Bright blue nails are surprisingly versatile. Overall, I'm pleased, and, frankly, amazed at how great these polishes have been. I'm not going to overlook Forever 21 nail polish anymore. In fact, I may try to color match every high end polish color I like with a Forever 21 version.
Forever 21 Love & Beauty Nail Polish: $3