Now if you've been reading for a while you'll already be privy to my love for nail polish, and also the fact that I rarely get 24 hours wear due to my hands on day job (I'm a silversmith). After hearing a bit of buzz about Sephora's latest revamp of their nail care line, I knew I had to give it a go!
I caved an purchased the Formula X for Sephora "The System", which comes with a nail cleanser to prep your nails, a sticky base coat, a varnish of your choice and finally a top coat. Up until recently I always thought those nail prep/cleansers were a bit of a faff not worth doing, but I can honestly say I feel like this one really does do its job and I'm pleased to see it included in the set. 
The colour range is phenomenal, with pretty much ever hue under the rainbow, and a wide range of formula choices in creams, metallics, frosts, translucents, glitters and the list goes on. The kit I picked up lets you pick your choice of colour which I think is great value; I chose the coral red hued Solar Power which I thought would give me a great starting platform to try out.
After the cleansing step, you layer on some of the base coat, which does have a slight tackiness to it, which I have always found helps polish adhere to better. So far each shade I have tried (yes, I have already collected a few!) has been completely opaque in two coats, even the pale pinked-grey Thrilling shown above. I always think a sign of a great polish is when the pale/nude colours go on in two coats, rather than 3-4 to get full opacity. Finally, a swipe of the top coat, which feels quite gel-like, similar to my old favourite Seche Vite especially in rapid drying time, but not as thick in texture both when applying and once dried.
So lets talk the nitty gritty - how long did it last? I was very pleasantly surprised by this system! I got several days of wear before any minor chipping, which is UNHEARD of for me (heck I only got some chipping after a particularly work heavy day that involved lots filing, hammering and buffing jewellery) The finish of the top coat is gorgeous - it really does give the shine that my UV gel polishes give, but stays light and thin on the nails. I really feel that the prep+base coat gives a great foundation to the colour, because when it does finally chip, it chips in small little flakes, rather than large pieces or peeling off in strips like most polish does on me. This even made it though a vigorous body scrub session in the shower that left my fingers pruny, but my polish survived!
These new Fomula X polishes are a massive hit in my books, I can already tell these will be overgrowing my Essie collection purely because of the insane colour range and finish options!
Have you tried out this new range of nail varnish from Sephora? Thoughts? What is your favourite shade to wear on your nails right now?
