Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails Natural

This is a nail strengthener designed to treat flaky and pealing nails. It can be used on its own, but applying 2-3 coats on your nails, which is what the brand recommends. However, I mostly use it base coat for my manicures and on its own on my toe nails. It has a beautiful shine to it, with a slight tint, if that can be said. When I applied on its own it my nails are harder to touch than when I use a normal base. Not sure if this will result on my nails being actually stronger, but they are better covered and protected and they don't flake as much.  

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Mavala Switzerland Mini Nail Polish Baghdad, 5 ml

I've bought Mavala mini nail polishes before and I love the travel size and the quality of the product. However, this item has been a great disappointment. To start with, the photo is misleading as the colour is not orange but an orange-ish pink (see my photo); most importantly, the colour is quite translucent and, even if I use two coats, the results are quite neutral. If I had been looking for a neutral pink I might have been happy with this colour and texture, but I was looking for an opaque orange as per the colour in the photo and I got neither.

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Mavala Switzerland Mini Color Nail Polish - Pink Cosmic, 5 ml

Let me tell you, the Cosmic Pink colour you see in the pictures and the colour you get on the nails is quite different. The bottle looks a bit purpleish or cherry-ish, but it is not. This is a very girly, festive and Cinderella-ish pink. I guess the glitter bits distort the colour in the photos because even in the photos of my hands, the colour doesn't look as prettier as in real life .

The polish spreads easily and evenly. One coat is nice enough and has decent coverage, but two coats make perfection. Despite the glitter, one coat dries off quickly

This polish has a rugged textured finish not a smooth one, which can be expected from any glittery polish. It smooths out a bit with a clear top coat, but the textured finish won't disappear despite this. Beware, as with any glittery polish, it takes a bit of more effort to remove it. The polish chips off but not overly so, so a new spot application is enough as the polish is thick enough to cover the spot without needed of a full coat.

This is a travel-size tiny size (see my photo beside an average polish bottle), and, this being the case, it's a bit pricey for what it is. This explains the four stars not the five. On the other hand, as I have small hands, I find this sizing perfect for my DIY manicure and the brush is perfect for my nails size.

The brand is vegan and cruelty free, something that's really important to me. This is my first Mavala polish, and I will repeat.

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O.P.I. Nail Lacquer An Affair In Red Square

I've been using OPI An Affair in Red Square for several years now and it's my fav red shade on the nail polish stratosphere. OPI is also one of my fav nail polish brands. Yet, there are some issues with this specific shade that I want to mention:
> This shade is one of the thickest OPI polishes I own, and I own many. One coat over a base coat and under a top coat suffices to have full coverage and to look spectacular.
> Two coats of the polish look great, but, when I apply two coats, the polish takes a lot of time to dry off (more than other OPI shades) and it tends to smudge easily even when it's almost dry.
> This shade polish starts to thicken when the bottle it's mid way, in a way that makes it difficult to apply without resorting to adding acetone to clarify it.
> This being the case, and despite this being of one those polishes that I always have in my beauty case, it is pricey, because I usually bin the bottle midway.
> This red, as most red shades, chips easily, that's why I reserve the second coat for when my nails are totally dry but I need to cover the chipping.

Beyond that, this is just a classy wonderful red that never goes out of fashion and I never get tired of.

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