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The Hit List: Worst Nail Polish Brand
What’s the Worst Nail Polish Brand…?
What brand/product wins this category? Any particular reason it wins?
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I don’t like Maybelline! It keeps chipping on me! Literally within 24 hours and one shower, it is already chipping, even with 2 color coats and a top coat! Grrrrr! So not worth the money!
Yeah, I agree. Maybelline is horrible. For me, it never goes on evenly and it got gloopy FAST.
For the money, I think Chanel is pretty lousy. The Chanel Jade polish chipped all over the place.
Essie colors are very beautiful but a total pain to apply. They’re not bad, per se, but really irritating.
I never thought I would agree with a comment like this about my beloved Chanel…but sadly I do 🙁 I was soooo excited when I bought the new and highly sought nailpolish, Particulare. The color is gorgeous and goes on smoothly. I got a manicure on Friday and by Sunday they were ALL chipped! This doesn’t happen to me with OPI. I still love Chanel and will always be a fan, but I was disappointed with their polish.
I was going to pick up Particulare; thanks for the insight. It’s just SO expensive and I don’t mind at all paying for quality, but it’s just kind of…not as fantastic as I wanted it to be.
I am, however, quite over the moon for Chanel lip products 🙂
I love my particuliere polish, have had it one for 4 days and no chipping. Polish wears differently on everyone. If you love the colour get it. Base and top coat play a huge factor too.
It is definitely a gorgeous color and can’t wait to wear it again. But I agree, base and top coat play a huge role in the life of a manicure.
I have jade from channel and it hasn’t chip after a week of wear. How fast it chips may depend of how dry are you nails and if you wear a base coat or not. I usually wear trekII base coat.
I agree with you. I tried applying the Particuliere both ways–with and without the base+top combination. When I did the full manicure, it lasted much longer. It only chips when I apply the polish by itself.
I definitely think Chanel’s nail polish is higher quality than OPI (OPI is too runny and actual color’s not as seen), but not enough to justify its price. It’s still my favorite, though.
I agree, I have Chanel Jade and Particuliere and neither have been chipping. Ofcourse if you do heavy housework cleaning and get your nails into hot water constantly any nail polish will chip. Top coat does help.
Completely agree about Essie!
I haven’t had that issue with Chanel Jade.
I am not having good luck with OPI for Sephora – strange but true!
me too…
Same here! Those are awful polishes. I have a few, and if they go on nicely, they chip later that day. I did my toes a few days ago & they already look like rubbish.
I actually love the Sephora by OPI polishes, much more than original OPIs.
Maybe it’s an issue with the base and top coats?
Oh really? I don’t have any problem with them. I got them as the 500 point gift and I love them. I don’t use a base or top coat and they don’t chip on me. I like it much better than the original OPIs too!
For me it depends on the colour. Metro Chic and High Maintenance seem to last pretty well. In The Shadows just chips like crazy!
I also got the 500-point freebie 🙂 I love I’m With Brad and Personal Shopper, but Dear Diary applies quite poorly. As for not using a base or top coat, does that ever lead to staining? When I used to wear polish on a regular basis, I never wore base/top coats (top coats always seem to just cause the colours to come off on the brush :/ ) and all of my polishes worked fine. Maybe I’ll try out one of my Sephora by OPI polishes sans base! I was using their hydrator polish as a base, and I have a feeling that because of how slick it is, it caused premature chipping.
And I agree Tessa. It isn’t the same polish to polish, much like some apply really beautifully (like Personal Shopper and Absinthe Makes The Heart) while some are plain irritating (like Dear Diary)
Barry M… awful gloopy never drying never hardening mess
Really? Aw, I love it! The cream finishes anyway. The mint green stayed on for a week with no chips.
i love the colour range, and i have mint green myself, but oh god how it stained my nails D: it looked like i had coloured them in with yellow highlighter 🙁
Oh my goodness Barry M is the absolute worst – well for Mint Green anyway, Racing Green is lovely but Mint Green left me with stained nails and I had to wear nail polish for over a month to disguise the staining, they looked terrible 🙁
Revlon, Wet & Wild, and Maybelline
Man, I love my Revlon nail polish! 🙁
Yea, I agree with you on Revlon and maybelline. They both take forever to dry and the maybelline chips easily
Oh wow, I love me some Wet n Wild. I think perhaps if you paired it with a quality base and top coat it’d preform much better for you, but I do agree that I have some days where I’ll put it on and then the very next day I see a chip. Then I’ll have moments where it behaves all week and I have to remove it myself.
I know I’ll be hated for this but…Essie! It takes forever to dry, is easy to smudge, hate the brush, the consistency makes it easy to get EVERYWHERE! Plus they have the most generic colors (starry starry night excepted).
I’m pretty much exclusively OPI (great formula and brush) and China Glaze (great formula and AMAZING colors)
I totally agree with you about Essie’s colors! I hate that they are so…..blah. I like shimmer, metallic, glitter, and shiny! Is that so hard to aaaaask??? *runs away crying*
Agree! I also love Zoya and Sally Hansen hard as nails
I vote for Maybelline and OPI
How daaare you? What is so wrong with OPI? 🙁
I agree, I don’t like OPI at all.
Gold metal: OPI for Sephora – thin, runny, awful to try to apply
Silver: Zoya – doesn’t play well with others (have to use Zoya base and top coat), takes HOURS to dry and drives me nuts
Bronze: Essie – chips within a day, every dang time!
china glaze
and mac!!! mac chips like hell and chg isn’t very durable for me too and there are so very few colors I like, same with Zoya… Essie got better in 2009! 🙂
MAC! I love everything MAC has to offer, but when it comes to their polish, I find it to be the worst! They always chip on me, even when I use a good top coat and base. It’s horrible.
I have to agree that MAC has the worst polish… especially considering the price!
MAC is brutal. Every time a new, awesome shade comes out I get excited but, like Aldo Shoes, resist based on historical quality.
I totally agree. I’ve gotten two shade from MAC and I’ve decided never again. They’re streaky and thin. I had to apply FOUR coats of one color to get it to go opaque and you could *still* see brush strokes :-/
I have “Light Affair” from the Love Lace collection and I’ve found it to be really easy to put on (2 coats and non-streaky) and it hasn’t chipped for a week so far! This is the only Mac nailpolish I have so maybe this one is a fluke? I’m scared to try other colors now!
I have to say that MAC nail lacquer is pretty horrible. By the time you do the zillion coats to get rid of the streaks, you wear it one day, and it chips. Not worth the money.. and they just increased the price. Ridiculous.
I agree with you on MAC!
I second the Chanel! I had the black, and for $25 it was a a total waste, Chipped right away!
Chanel – chips on me all the time
China Glaze – always soooo watery when I but it on making it awkward to apply
Wet ‘n’ Wild, no question… weirdest, streakiest application I’ve ever seen.
Revlon! pure yuckiness.
Same i got this white revlon nail polish thought it would be beautiful but it just doesnt dry it gets so annoying! I was really dissapointed about that brand
Zoya matte nail polish, Christian Dior, and OPI for Sephora! All chip within the first day!
The formula of matte polishes is very different than a regular glossy polish, which is why the mattes chip quickly. If you like the matte look, try a mattifying top coat on top of the polish. It’ll seal it in a bit better!
idk, but i urge everyone to NEVER try rimmel i love lasting finish in green grass. it stained my nails greenish for a month after removing…
Sephora brand. in those little bottles. Horrendous formula, itty bitty bottle and they want $5 for them! Ridiculous.
LOL yeah they are awful. I only add them on if I need to spend a few extra bucks to get free shipping.
Lol….it’s a good thing I never bought their crap…I would consider Sephora a generic brand, personally….cuz nobody ever raves about sephora stuff at the website…they rave about OTHER brands. lol
Ugh, absolutely. Sephora polish is awful. Streaky, runny, and totally spotty coverage. On one nail you can have goopy patches and sheer patches–and yes, I do know how to apply nail polish! That’s just the way it dries. Don’t waste your money.
Claire’s. I had one that didn’t just chip; almost the entire nail’s worth of color came off the second day I wore it.
I agree. Claire’s is the worst. I used to work there and when things were slow we would paint our nails and then pick off the polish in one big plastic sheet for fun. I would never pay money for that stuff.
That’s so weird! I have one polish from Claire’s, and I never had that happening to it.
OPI for Sephora. Horrible goopy mess.
CND, the old formula. Never dried with fast dry topcoat and chipped too fast!
Pure Ice….They should rename it to Sucks Booty, cuz thats what it does. But what else do you expect from a cheapie nail polish?
I thought I was the only person to ever try those! They were an impulse buy at Wal-Mart. It took 6, YES SIX, coats to get full coverage. The sad part is that I bought 4 of them. Good thing they’re cheapies.
lol yeah pure ice is crap which really sucks bc they have really pretty unique colors but they chip 2 bad.. avon nail polish is the shit it last mad long !!!
Some colors of Sinful NP. I have faded jewel and that lasted a couple of days which is average. But I had a deep red color that literally chipped within 2 hours… such a shame cause sinful has such beautiful colors
I tried sinful colors also. My problem was that I couldn’t get it dry. Waited for like 2 hours for it to and ended up taking it off
Definitely the Sally Hansen (i think) HD nail polish. I bought this nail polish after watching a review by tiffanyd on youtube and she said she loved it so I went to go pick it up. I put my first layer on and the color would clump in little places all over my nail. I let it dry and did 2 more coats. Once that dried it looked pretty good and the color was very hd. AFter I applied my top coast i applied my drip dry drops and waited. About 10 minutes after I noticed that my nails were completely smudged and I gently pressed my finger nail to the top of the polished and it easily made a smudge mark
opi suede finishes are terrible.
regular sephora brand sucks. it totally stains your skin and nails.
i would have to say essie. although they have a beautiful colour range, their polishes are very sheer and streaky.
I’d say #3 Chanel – I can’t justify the price.
#2 – Revlon/Maybelline/Sinful – takes ages to dry, and sinful excepted, have really meh colors
#1 – Sephora brand – Really the worst stuff – EVER – terrible application, gloopy as hell, tiny brush – overall the WORST.
Wet n’ Wild (especially as it ages) and Jordana (chips as soon as it dries). I guess that’s what you get for pocket change nail polish.
Chanel. One would think with the heavy price tag the product would be superb but it chips within 3 days for me, even with a base and top coat. Also it bubbles so easily!!! I prefer brands like Essie and Revlon. Easy application and a life span of 7 days. =) I just wish I could find a color like Jade among these brands.
Essie polishes drive me nuts. They are so pretty, well-priced, and well-packaged that I always end up falling buying another one, and it’s always the same streaky mess.
2true from superdrug
NO pigmentation and even with thick gloopy nails its still sheer as anything and i have a PURPLE one, not a ‘supposed to be sheer’ french manicure pink :S
I don’t like Nicole by O.P.I, which is strange cause I LOVE O.P.I! I find with Nicole, the 1st time you apply it’s okay, but I’ve found that with subsequent uses, the formula thickens quickly, and the application is no where near as easy as the 1st time.
Totally agree!! I was so pumped to try these because OPI is my absolute favorite polish…. but the Nicole and Sephora OPI’s are junk! Not as bad at the MAC polishes though – great colors but go on horrible and chip within hours!!
Basically any drugstore brand. I have gotten into the habit of buying OPI and Essie (which I love!) so nothing really can compare. Pure Ice, Wet N Wild, New York Color, etc all are horrible in my opinion. I would rather buy good quality polish and spend a little more than buy a ton of cheap ones that I never use cause they suck!
New York Color sucks! The colors are pretty, but they chip like crazy and the application is imposible. Totally streaky. I only use OPI now.
I think NYX nail polishes are the WORST! Streaky mess!
Revlon! it chips a mile a minute on me
Of the few brands I’ve tried, the only one I disliked was NYC.
I find that most polishes regardless of price work about the same though.
I don’t really like OPI that much anymore though. Annoying brush that is too wide for my nails, streaky application…
I hate Chanel as it chips so badly, and when I go to open my car door I find all these streaks of nail varnish like I’ve been scratching it…only happens with Chanel! I also hate the smell and shimmer of Chinaglaze
Claire’s nail polish! The formula is so runny and watery. It takes for ever to dry and you have to apply a bunch of coats to get the color of the bottle.
Revlon!!!! It bubbles EVERY time I use it, no matter what!
essie!.. I love their bold colors, but they chip within hours for me!!
for me it is inglot matte formula allot i saw some people on you tube rave about them but the brush is small and hard to get am even coat
#1 is Essie. iffy formula, chip city.
#2 is China Glaze. Not that great for all the love for it. The colors/formulas are ok.
#3 Revlon.
Oh, I forgot about NYC! They are even worse than Wet n’ Wild IMO. They have the texture and finish of white out.
for some odd reason, opi chips alot for me. i had a manicure done just before Christmas and less than a week later, it was almost all gone
China Glaze actually annoys me… the colors I’ve gotten from them were very streaky, sheer, and the brush is really thin. Maybe I just picked bad colors…
I hate to say it but Chanel always chips, I was so excited to buy Vendetta, looks AHHHmazing in the bottle, not the same color on the nail and chipped first day boooo!
MAC nail polishes are not as good as they should be considering the cost.
OPI is king!
BARRY M.
Saly Hansen Insta-Dri with the super-wide brush. Should be named Insta-Chip. Even with a great topcoat like Seche-Vite, this stuff is worthless. On the flip side, Orly does a great job!
Really? I’ve put one coat of them on and they stayed great for about a week or more.
The yellow one on me bubble sup like crazy and has weird application. I also feel like the brush is too big since I have small finger nails.
Wet ‘n Wild. I like the brand, but the nail polishes are awful.
How has nobody mentioned Zoya yet? LOVE the colour selection and names. They are beautiful in the bottles. But I find they chip very very easily – they just don’t last!
Essie is another brand with a similar problem to the above.
I did mention Zoya. Christian Dior is way worse than Chanel polishes. As for Mac, I have abour 30ish and counting of their nail polishes and never have had a problem with the streaking and/or chipping too fast. On me, they are fine and I love them! 🙂
Depend and the H&M nailpolishes! NO DOUBT!
China Glaze!!!
I actually cannot STAND OPI. Their cremes are so, so gloppy and I can’t get it totally opaque unless I put like, five coats on. This results in the polish being incredibly thick and taking forever to dry.
It also tends to come off in one big chip, no matter what base coat I use. :\ So yeah. Boo, OPI!
MAC and Chanel are pretty bad, too. Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics wear really well but the texture of the polish is like nails on a chalkboard to me. Really weird.
But as for favorites! Sephora by OPI, Essie and, surprisingly, Sally Hansen. Love the color range and they wear like iron for me.
omigosh the first person who agrees with me about OPI! i cant STAND the bottle, brush or formula, i dont get how everyone raves about it!
It just sounds like a lot of people haven’t mastered applying nailpolish.
I know I haven’t myself, that’s why I rarely ever bother with them.
Wet’n’Wild and Sinful. Sinful is okay but the formula gets thick soooo fast. Their glitter top coats are fun, though.
I haven’t had great luck with Mac polish. Chips easily and maybe it was just the formula of this particular polish, but it was super clumpy and difficult to apply.
I LOVE Sally Hansen complete salon manicure polishes. Flawless formula and any color that i’ve wanted so badly and couldn’t find, this line had. And considering that rarity it is for me to actually do my nails, I consider this my new ‘one and only’ brand.
I think Essie is bye far the worst it only last about 5 to 10 mins an it chips and pales.. love the colors but will not waste my money
I am an abolute MAC junkie but I bought a beautiful colour Seanonal Peach, and it was horrible. Application and staying power was rubbish even with a good base and top coat. 🙁
HAHA So, basically….. every single nail polish out there is crap! Somebody needs to invent something new! 🙂
Hmmmm I would say Chanel. I bought Vendetta and, even with a base, 2 layers of enamel and 2 of topcoat, it just lasts 2 hours before chipping! While other brands enamel, last abuot a week with the same method. And I’ve spent 18€ for that enamel! I’m sooooooooooo angry!!!
V
vendetta is such a beautiful colour in the bottle! i got it for my mom for christmas last year and it just comes out black 🙁 i was so disappointed.
I have used several different brands of polish and I can honestly say I have yet to find an actual BRAND that failed, just certain colors. Some of the brands I think last forever (ie. OPI and MAC) were listed as highly in the “shit” direction lol. Maybe I just have good luck, thankfully
Well after reading everybody’s comments I’m guessing it’s not necessarily the polish but maybe ‘who’ and ‘how’ the polish is worn. I know I’m constantly trying diff combos of base and top coats. I never finish a bottle of either. The only manis that have never chipped is of course fake nails but I just can’t afford that anymore:(
Also for some reason I never have chipping probs on my toes and I never use a base coat on my toes. Weird.
Well chipping on your toes does happen, it just takes a LOT longer. I’ve had polish on my toe nails for one month or longer before getting any chipping. I’m guessing it’s because you aren’t using your toe nails to do things that we do on a daily basis with finger nails; typing, opening things, peeling things off, etc.
But I agree with what you are saying. I’ve tried many base coats that did absolutely nothing, and I don’t think I’ve used a top coat in 5+ years. Oh well, I rarely wear polishes for more than a few days before getting bored with it haha.
aw…. everyones bashing chanel, my favourite! The Face Shop, a korean makeup brand, has some cool colours but sadly they are gloopy.
OPI for SEPHORA is a great deception…so runny, a mess!!!!
NYC! omg i remember when i got a black of this i was like..11? haha and it was just like tinted water, i had to return it but they ran out of black(:S!!) and i got a deep burgundy instead, slightly thicker consistency but chips like cra-hazy. i shoulda just asked for a refund, baring in mind this was 5 years ago.
I hate Essie. Too streaky and the color selection is so boring. I don’t like Sephora by OPI that much either.
I do love Zoya and China Glaze. I find that Zoya lasts a full week with its own base coat and with Seche Vite as a topcoat. OPI chips faster than Zoya and ChG. I only have about a handful because I like color, lots and lots of color!
MAC. cCn’t believe I said it and I hate to say it. But MAC’s polishes look too sheer and thin even though they come out with nice colors.
Yeah, unfortunately I agree with you.
Nicole by OPI. Even with a base coat, and a top coat of Seche Vite, it always peels and chips on me within days. I haven’t used anything that stands up to challenges the way that Essie does.
So all nail polish brands have their issues. Essie always chips, Maybelline is a streaky hot mess, and OPI goes thick almost immediately.
The brand I have the least issues with is Revlon, so I’ll be wearing Valentine until the day I die.
Nars, specifically purple rain, it didnt just chip, the entire nail came off, 6 six hours after I applied it.
OK EVERYONE:: NEWS FLASH!!! THERE ARE NOT MORE THEN TWO (2) THATS RIGHT TWO MANUFACTURES OF NAIL POLISH IN THE UNITED STATES!! NEWS FLASH!! EVERYONE BUYS FROM THEM AND FILLS THEMSELVES OR HAS A BOTTLING COMPANY FILL FOR THEM, NO ONE LIKES MAKING NAIL POLISH, THERE ARE A HANDFUL IF NOT LESS THAT MAKE THERE OWN THATS WHY THERE ALL REALLY THE SAME ONLY DIFFRENCE IS THE COLOR WHICH EITHER LASTS OR DOES NOT, SO BUY ONE FOR $1.00 OR $30.00 CHANCES ARE THERE ALL MADE BY A COMPANY CALLED , WELL LETS SEE THERE WAS GLOSS TEX INDUSTRIES, TEVO, KIKER CHEMICAL NOW ALL ONE COMPANY AFTER THE MERGER A FRENCH COMPANY STEPPED IN CAUSE THE COST OF NAIL POLISH SKYROCKETED SO THE FRENCH SAW A GAP AND BOUGHT GLOSS TEX INDUSTRIES OLD BUILDING IN SLOTSBURG N.Y.SO YOUR WASTING MONEY BUYING EXPENSIVE POLISH, I DO HEAR THOUGH THAT OPI MAKES THERE OWN BUT DONT QUOTE ME ON THAT
I think Revlon’s colors are really ugly. I love OPI’s colors, but they take FOREVER to dry! I like China Glaze and Claires because they dry fast and look great.
My friend had some blue Claire’s nail polish on her thumbs and a few hours after they were done, the whole thing peeled off in a piece. YUCK!
For good nail polish, I really like OPI (I only have one color) but if you want to get good nail polish, try DelSol. It changes color in the sun, so it’s like buying 2 in 1! It’s expensive on their site, but you can buy a stores like Walgreens for a better price!
OPI is hands down the best polish BUT has to be combined correctly. This includes proper filing of nail, base coat, two coats of color and the top coat. I’ve done years of research to find the PERFET combo and it is Seche base &top coat with any color OPI. I dry my nails with hair dryer so the color sets well. There’s always a hit and miss. The darker colors thicken quicker than most, but can be fixed if you give them a shake once a week and keep from heat. Small FYI for Seche brand: top coat thickens very fast. Its pricey but for the quality it’s worth it. My manicures last about two weeks. Zoya is also a great brand as well as China Glaze. I have all sorts of tips. I’m a nail polish freak and always look for new stuff to try. Tips are free 🙂
revlon
doing something on nailpolish have any advise
okay help me out