Nailing Hollywood’s bottles are square, similar to Illamasqua’s nail polish line, but the cap for these are completely mirrored. The brushes are on the skinny side, but their bristles are dense enough that being skinny doesn’t have too much of an effect. The bristles are more like plastic and not so much like hair which does tend to make application a little streakier – especially in the first coat. By the second coat the streaks get covered and you can’t even tell.
Hazard was the first polish I tried because I love orange polishes, they are rare compared to most colors so I’m always more drawn to oranges. The formula for this polish is a little thin. I used three thin coats to get full coverage. Since the brushes cause the streaks for the first coat and this polish is on the thinner side, it made it hard to paint even coats. But once the third coat was on the polish was completely opaque and really quite vibrant. The polish itself dries pretty fast – it was probably only six-eight minutes before it was dry.
I applied the Nailing Hollywood Vinyl Gel Top Coat over Hazard and that took the longest to dry. Around 20 minutes to dry completely, but I worked a full eight hour day with this color on and did a load of dishes without any chipping to the polish so it is worth the wait. I like that the bottle warns you that it will take longer to dry and to only use one thin coat.
Valley Girl is a pale pink color and that reminds me of Double Bubble Bubble Gum. The formula for this one is just as thin as the formula of Hazard, so I used three thin coats for this one also. Even after the third coat it dries just as fast as the first coat does. I used my favorite top coat on this one and it didn’t even last through my shower so if you get one of these colors I strongly suggest that you also buy the Vinyl Gel Top Coat as it seems to hold the polish better and longer. I tried using the Vinyl Gel Top Coat on other brands of polish and it changes the color. One of the colors I tried it on was a melon green and it changed the polish to bright green. My nails didn’t look like the same color that was in the bottle anymore so I would only use this brand of top coat with Nailing Hollywood polishes because it seems like they were made just for each other.
Tidepool is a dark teal color. Its the perfect transitional color from Winter to Spring. The formula for this one is really thick compared to the other two. I think its harder to make formulas that are thinner for really opaque/dark polishes because more pigment is needed. This polish is really opaque in just one coat and more self -leveling than the other two colors. I only used two coats but I really only needed to use one. I didn’t use a base coat for this one and it didn’t stain which surprised me since the color is so dark.