I didn't bring any nail polish with me to France this semester because I thought it would be too much of a hassle to take all of the polishes I wanted to take with me over seas. I thought I could handle another five months without nail polish, but I was so so wrong. When I saw the cute little Mavala Switzerland nail polishes in the pharmacy, I couldn't help but pick some up. By the way, all nail polishes should be this size! (And cheaper). Who actually finishes a whole USA-sized bottle of nail polish before it goes gloopy and gross?
I picked up three colors: 69 (hee hee) Bordeaux, 163 Black Oyster, 269 Deep Blue. Since I didn't bring base or top coat with me, I picked up Mavala's offering, including the beloved Mavadry.
I have actually never worn a red nail polish before for more than three seconds. I usually paint it on because I'm all like "Yay let's look all vintage-y and cool with red nails!" Then I look at my hands, realize that nope, I'm just not a red nails person, and then I take it off and repaint. However, I really liked the color 69 Bordeaux. It's a pinky yet still warm red, and when you first put it on it has some shimmer in it. The shimmer is not visible upon drying though. It has kind of a thin gel/enamel-like consistency, so even with two coats (what I have above under the Mavadry top coat) you can still see the white tips of your nails showing through. This color applies better than the other two colors that you'll see later in the post, however, it chips like a beyotch. I haven't had a polish chip so badly since I was using Essie. (If you're new here you should know that I hate the Essie formula *gasp* because it chips on me in two seconds.) I put this on, and within four hours I had wearing at the tips of the nail. With my Deborah Lippmann, Butter London, OPI, and Revlon polishes, I can have polishes on for 9+ days without any chips and minimal wearing. If you don't want to repaint your nails every two days, steer clear.
Black Oyster was a really disappointing color. In the bottle (in person, not this photo), the polish looks like it should have a lot more shimmer in it. On the nails it just barely looks more than a regular black polish. It applies gloopily and streakily. I have two coats on under Mavadry. Yep, still chips within a day. When I want a color similar to Essie Wicked (my one exception to my hate for Essie), I layer a couple coats of this under one coat of Bordeaux).
This is my favorite color I picked up from Mavala. Deep Blue is that gorgeous mermaid under the sea color. It has blue shimmer, but if you look closely, you can see some green shimmer in it. However, all the same problems from the two above colors still apply. It applies and lasts horribly.
As for the treatments, I was incredibly disappointed. The Mavala Base Coat is the weirdest thing I have ever put on my nails. First of all it smells like Elmer's glue, but it's so tricky to apply because even when you wipe off the brush a few times on the neck of the bottle, you'll apply it to the nail and it floods the nail with product. This could be fine with any other base coat, but this takes a while to dry, and then the product starts to droop from the center of the nail outwards, creating these weird "hills" of polish on the sides of your nail that look horrible when you've applied your polish (if you didn't see they were there when you go to apply the color) and make the application of the polish difficult because the excess base coat mixes with the polish. However, even when you try to apply as little of the base coat as possible to the nail, there will be these little holes where the base coat didn't touch the nail. Weird, weird, weird.
Mavadry isn't as horrible. It dries wicked fast and is super shiny. However, it really does nothing for the lasting power of the polish. If you want longevity and super shine, go for any of the Deborah Lippmann top coats. The Revlon Colorstay top coat is also really good (although less shiny than the DL).
For those of you thinking about getting Mavala products, just pass. There are cheaper and better polishes out there. I'll finish what I bought (probably before I leave Europe because the bottles are so tiny) but I won't be picking up anything else from Mavala.
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