November 2013

A month or so ago Sephora came out with a new line of polishes called Formula X. So when I had 20% my entire purchase a couple weekends back, I picked up quite a few of the Formula X polishes to try out (mostly the New Classics, since I tend to like cream colors more). I also got their prep, base, and top coats in order to give the whole system a try.

At the time of this post, I’ve tried three different colors, and here are my thoughts:

• Including prep, base, top coat, and the three polish colors, I’ve used six different brushes. Four out of the six had wonky brushes with little bristles hanging lower than the others. After struggling through the first couple complete manicures, I finally just nipped off the offending bristles with some tiny scissors. Not a good sign for four of them to have issues. I’ve read online that some other bloggers also had that problem.
• The polishes were thicker than I thought they would be. While it was great to get complete opacity with just one coat, I did have to do two coats to even things out since it was hard to make it look nice with only one coat. I think they just have a bit of a learning curve to them. I was more comfortable with the consistency of the polish and also the brush by the time I painted the third color.
• The bottles were extremely difficult to open. Four out of the six initial bottles that I opened were extremely hard to open. You remove the square-ish cap first and then used the rounded and ribbed cap to screw off the brush. However, I resorted to running the bottles under hot water for about 15 seconds and then wearing rubber gloves to get a strong enough grip to open them. Inconvenient, but at least the polishes weren’t dried up.
• The Formula X Top Coat is very comparable to Seche Vite in fast drying time and shine. I used the Formula X Top Coat on the first two colors, and then tried Seche Vite on the third.
• I got some small bubbles on the first two manicures that developed a few hours after I painted my nails. I’m not sure why. On the first two manicures I used the entire Formula X system, including prep, base, and top coats. So, the problem could be any of those three. On the third manicure, I switched it up and used my usual Orly Bonder base coat and Seche Vite top coat and there were no bubbles. There was also no shrinkage of the Formula X polishes when I used Seche Vite.
• The shape of the bottles is nice. They feel substantial and expensive, while not being the most expensive polishes, either. They’re more than drug store polishes at $10.50 each, but definitely less that higher end polishes that Sephora sells.

In conclusion I think I like the Formula X polishes, but I need more time to test out the prep, base, and top coat to see which is causing the bubbling problem. That’s my only really big complaint. Frankly, I was VERY surprised at how shiny the top coat was. It truly did compare closely to Seche Vite.

Over the next few days, I’ll be showing some of the colors I bought. First up is Curiosity. The perfectionist in me can tell by just looking at the pictures that I struggled painting this one because of the wonky brush and thickness of the polish. However, this is using the Formula X top coat. Super shiny! That part is good. :)