Imagination In Colour UK Nail Polish Blog
Day 6 of the 30 Days of Untrieds Challenge! Day 6 is violet. For my birthday last month my Andy kindly took me shopping in Reading. Of course nail polish was at the top of my list. We went into Boots (which was pretty huge and amazing!) and I found an entire counter dedicated to Revlon nail polish – heaven! I saw the Revlon French Mix polishes and just had to buy one… I chose All The Rage, a green and a purple polish. I’ve always loved how bright green and purple look together so this one was perfect.
The basic idea of the French Mix polishes is that there are two polishes (each contained in a small bottle at either end of the stick) which can be used together to create an accent nail, and more importantly, an ‘alternative French Manicure’. This pushed all the right buttons for me and despite the rather hefty price tag (£7.99) and the rather small bottles I had to buy it, if only to see whether the idea was effective.
All The Rage is a duo consisting of a bright purple creme with subtle pink shimmer, and a bright green shimmer with gold veins. I really love the two together. The polishes both have a medium-width brush, presumably to give ease of use when creating the tips, but I did find that the brush loaded up too much polish which made the polish hard to control. I found whilst swatching that a green tip on a purple base doesn’t look as nice as the purple tip on green base… So didn’t include it in my photos but I can take some snaps of it if you’d like! Please ignore any bubbles on the green polish you may see – I used a Color Club topcoat which wasn’t happy with the green polish!
Purple Polish Application:
I found that the polish was very thick and dried very quickly, enough that it started to drag as I was painting each coat. It was opaque in 2 coats, but due to its thickness you will need to wrap your tips to prevent it from shrinking away from the edge of the nail. The pink shimmer is barely visible in normal light but is more visible with topcoat or in direct light.
Green Polish Application:
This polish was the total opposite of the purple: it was fairly thin and opaque at 3 coats, and took an average amount of time to dry. It dried slightly dull in finish, which is remedied with the use of a shiny topcoat.
For the French Tip I used the Nailene tip guides again… But the bubble caused by the topcoat broke up the neat line unfortunately! Do be careful not to paint too thick a coat with the purple polish on the tip as it will take a long time to dry and will increase the chance of the polish bleeding over your nice neat line! A good topcoat helps to smooth over the finished manicure.
I’m not totally convinced by this product. I’ve read several reviews of other colour combinations in the French Mix range which have been less than favourable, and I’m finding it hard to be positive about this one. One thing I do absolutely love is the colour combination – for that reason alone I would consider buying the product again, if only to remind me that the two colours look amazing together. However there are many more reasons why I wouldn’t buy this product – price (£7.99 is a lot for a not-so-great product), quality, quantity and (rather pathetically) the fact that I can’t find an easy way of fitting this into my stash! Oh and that fact that by standing the product on one end, the other end of the bottle is being held upside down which causes the brush to be flooded with polish when you open it, making control of application even more tricky. Overall I’m not particularly impressed.
What do you think? Have you purchased a French Mix duo and been pleasantly surprised? In case you’re interested in the other shades, you can buy Revlon French Mix from most larger Boots stores at £7.99.
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Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.
