A recurring series on this blog will be to showcase items in my stash that I have yet to try (spoiler alert: a lot of nail polishes).  The first in this series will be The Body Shop Colour Crush Nail Polish in #730 Almond Kiss.  I’ve been eyeing this ever since the Body Shop nail polish line launched in October, so I included in my Christmas wishlist and received it in my Christmas stocking.

It comes in a 6.8ml and retails for $6.  It’s been a long time coming for The Body Shop to introduce nail polishes to their makeup line.  They offer everything from BB creams to highlighters to lip stains – there was definitely a gap in their cosmetics line, especially with the popularity of nail polish in the past few years (nail polish became the recession-proof item, replacing lipstick as the cheap pick-me-up).  This formula claims to be “nail loving” with the inclusion of marula oil.  It is 100% vegan and made in France.  I don’t ever recall noticing another nail polish made in France, I’ll have to check my stash.

Shown here with 2 coats of nail polish, no top coat (I will try to showcase all nail polish swatches on this blog without a top coat so that you can see the nail polish in its natural state).  It has decent shine on its own, and is the kind of formula that self-levels.  The formula applies smoothly and evenly – I could easily get away with 1 coat.  The brush is fairly standard – not too wide or narrow.  I experienced no tip shrinkage once I applied my usual topcoat (a note here about dry time – The Body Shop nail polish claims to be quick-drying but since I always use my Poshe Super-Fast Drying topcoat, I can’t really speak to this claim).  The shade is a soft beige, with a slight pink undertone that I think would work on both warm and cool skin tones.  It’s a perfectly work appropriate shade that is chic if not somewhat boring.

I wore this nail polish for 7 days (my typical nail polish wear cycle) and experienced some tip wear and tiny chip on my right thumb, but no major chipping or peeling.  One of the negatives with this nail polish for me is the “fat cap” issue: the cap is the same diameter as the bottle of the polish.  I know it looks sleek on the shelf but the fat cap is annoying to hold when applying polish.  Most brands with fat caps now have a hidden thinner cap underneath (see Illamasqua, Marc Jacobs, Sephora Formula X) to compensate for this.  The other negative about this nail polish is the price – at $6 for 6.8ml, it’s more expensive per ml than the average salon polishes like Essie and OPI, which are both 15ml and retails for around $10.  This means The Body Shop nail polish costs $0.88 per ml, compared to $0.67 for Essie or OPI.  But if having a vegan beauty product is important to you, it’s not a steep premium to pay.  I’m not bothered by the small sized bottle at 6.8ml, it just means that I can try more shades.  The Body Shop often has sales both in store and online, so it’s worth waiting for a sale.

Pros:
·  shiny on its own
·  self leveling formula
·  opaque in 1 coat
·  long wearing, chip resistent

Cons:
·  fat cap
·  higher price per ml

Stash worthiness: 7/10

Apologies for less than ideal photos, I’m working on my lighting and background for product pictures. There should be an improvement in the coming weeks.