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Polished Possibilities
Polished possibilities
What constitutes a “quality” Nail Polish is not known.
Consumer VOICE did a user test of 12 leading nail polish brands to find out which brands of nail paints got the highest scores from users for their long-lasting effect, fragrance, and ease of application
Nail Polishes, also called nail varnishes, nail paints and nail enamels, have been one of the oldest cosmetics items in the twentieth century, much like lipsticks. Colouring nails is very common among women, and as more and more women go out to work and have little time to paint their nails frequently, the nail paints market has come out with paints that last for upto two weeks, just the way there are day-long lipsticks now available for consumer use. With time, nail paints have progressed to being a somewhat complicated product for users. It is no more fashionable to have just one bottle of Nail Paint, to apply a few coats of it on the fingernail and be done with it. Now brands offer upto four bottles of nail paints, foundation or Base Coat, main colour, Top Coat and so on, all in one pack—all of these have to be applied to get “full satisfaction” from a nail painting job.
Consumer VOICE checked out 12 popular brands of nail paints—from the mid-priced to the most expensive, and tested them for user satisfaction. The touchstone criteria for user satisfaction were that the nail varnish should last for at least a couple of weeks and that it should not discolour the nail after application. It should also have a pleasant feel and fragrance.
Cheaper nail paints make users unhappy
Nail paints can be expensive. One small 13 ml bottle can cost upto 325 rupees, as the Consumer VOICE team found out when they set out to collect the most used brands of nail paints (and this means that nail paints can cost upto 25,000 rupees a litre!). Some nail paints cost just about 70 rupees a bottle, but our user test findings do show that the cheaper brands leave users dissatisfied with the quality and experience. The affordable nail polishes give a heavy coating on application, the paint does not smell good and they also wear off within a week. Altogether, they do not serve the purpose for which a user buys them.
The costliest nail paint: The internationally renowned cosmetics brand, L’oreal, has its “L’oreal Paris Jet Set Shine” priced at Rs 325 for one bottle of 13 ml. That means one litre of the L’oreal nail polish would cost around 25,000 rupees!
Nail paints: stingy with label information
Nail varnishes, like other cosmetics, have had their share of controversies regarding the safety of their ingredients. In any case, we did not find the nail paint brands to be very forthcoming with disclosure of information. Five out of the twelve brands we tested did not disclose their ingredients on the label. This included Lakme, the popular Hindustan Unilever cosmetics brand. We also found that the international brands were more responsible with disclosure of information. Revlon and Diana of London had declared they were “DBP and Toulene-free”. L’oreal also gave a detailed list of ingredients. In fact they were printed so fine that we had to use a magnifying glass to read them.
The average nail polish retailer in India may never have heard of DBP which stands for the chemical dibutyl phthalate. DBP acts as a binder to improve the lasting power of Nail Lacquer but it has also been linked to cancer in lab animals, and underdeveloped genitals and other long-term fertility problems in newborn boys.
The Delhi-made brand “Nail Juice” however did mention DBP as one of its ingredients on the label.
What all brands, except for ‘Bonjour’ did mention was that the product should be kept away from heat or flame as it was inflammable.
The four-bottle pack gimmick
Gone are the days when applying nail polish was the simple affair of just opening the bottle and applying the varnish onto one’s nails. Now there are four bottles in one nail polish pack and one has to remember which has to be applied first, and which last. Each bottle has around 8 ml of liquid in it.
Consumer VOICE asked the users to apply the nail polishes both ways: once with the procedure and once without it. The feedback we got was that using the nail paint straight away was Not Really a good way of using a nail polish as then, the colour fades away in just 4-5 days, leaves stains on nails and sometimes the coating is too heavy.
However, those nail polishes, like L’oreal which did not come with a foundation, also did very well by lasting for more than two weeks. Therefore, wherever the foundation is available, it should be applied, and where not, it is best to go along with the instructions of use on the brand.
Brand: Lakme True Wear Nail Colour
Type: Frosted
Per bottle price: Rs 90
Quantity in ml: 9 ml in each bottle
Rating: Very good ****
What’s special: Stays on nail till after a week of application; no effect of water on paint; nails don’t get pale after application; list of ingredients not mentioned.
Brand: Maybelline Colorma
Type: Matt
Per bottle price: Rs 90
Quantity in ml: 8 ml
Rating: Excellent *****
What’s special: Stays on nails even after ten days of application; no perceptible effect of water on paint coating.
Brand: L’oreal Paris Jet Set Shine Speed Dry Nail Enamel
Type: Frosted
Per bottle price: Rs 325
Quantity in ml: 13 ml
Rating: Very good ****
What’s special: Looks good on nails but the fragrance of the nail polish was not very appealing; does not mention list of ingredients
Brand: Colorlife
Type: Frosted
Per bottle price: Rs 99
Quantity in ml: 8 ml in each bottle
Rating: Very good ****
What’s special: Smooth texture; declares list of ingredients: DBP and Toulene-free
Brand: Lotus Herbals Color Marbel Nail Enamel
Type: Frosted
Per bottle price: Rs 90
Quantity in ml: 8 ml in each bottle
Rating: Very good ****
What’s special: Feels good on application, does not affect nails adversely
Brand: Revlon Nail Enamel
Type: Matt
Per bottle price: Rs 130
Quantity in ml: 8 ml
Rating: Very good ****
What’s special: Stays on for two weeks; does not stain nails and makes nails look shinier; declares list of ingredients on label; one of the most expensive nail enamels surveyed.
Brand: Colorbar Nail Lacquer Vernisa Ongles
Type: Frosted
Per bottle price: Rs 250 (kit) + Rs 65 (main colour)
Quantity in ml: 9 ml in each bottle
Rating: Excellent *****
What’s special: Lasts for more than a week
Brand: Diana of London City Glamour Triple ‘S’ Formula Nail Varnish with Vitamin E
Type: Frosted
Per bottle price: Rs 265
Quantity in ml: 12 ml in each bottle
Rating: Very good ****
What’s special: Lasts for more than a week; no negative effects seen
Brand: Street Wear
Type: Frosted
Per bottle price: Rs 99
Quantity in ml: 8 ml in each bottle
Rating: Good ***
What’s special: Stays on nails for two weeks but has a rather unpleasant smell
Brand: Nail Juice
Type: Matt
Per bottle price: Rs 75
Quantity in ml: 9.6 ml in each bottle
Rating: Very good ****
What’s special: Lasts for more than a week, not a problem when working with water, but contains DBP.
Brand: Nail Lusture
Type: Frosted
Per bottle price: Rs 35
Quantity in ml: not mentioned
Rating: Average **
What’s special: Poor quality product; Nail paint starts to fade after 2-3 days, does not smell or feel good either.
Brand: Bonjour Power Lasting Nail Enamel
Type: Matt
Per bottle price: Rs 75
Quantity in ml: 8 ml in each bottle
Rating: Poor *
What’s special: Does not feel good on application; gives a very heavy coating of paint and the applicator quality is also poor
About the Author
Consumer VOICE was founded by teachers and students at the University of Delhi in the beginning of the academic year 1983-84. Till mid 1986, Consumer VOICE functioned as an unregistered voluntary consumer association.
On 28 June 1986, it was registered as a Public Charitable Trust with noted jurist, Justice (retd.) V.M. Tarkunde and Prof. P.K. Ghosh of the Delhi School of Economics as founder donors and Dr. Sri Ram Khanna and Mr Rajan Karanjawala as Trustees.
In 1988 the Dept of Company Affairs Govt. of India accorded recognition to Consumer VOICE under the MRTP Act. The trust has since been granted exemption under section 80-G of the Income Tax Act and, donations made to the Trust are exempt from Tax. However the organization does not accept donations from private enterprise in order to ensure objectivity, or from individuals except when the donor is genuinely committed to espouse the cause of consumer protection.
As one of its first consumer-rights initiative, VOICE filed a suit against the ‘Wills Made for Each Other’ tobacco campaign, as it was monopolistic and discriminated against consumers who did not smoke. VOICE also challenged television manufacturers which were selling colour television sets at a premium to consumers during the Asiad Games.
In 1997, VOICE started to publish Consumer VOICE, a bi-monthly magazine that focused on bringing consumers information on product performance. ‘Voltage Stabilisers’ were one of the first product tests to be published in Consumer VOICE magazine.
The publisher of Consumer VOICE magazine since 1999 it is currently working in close co-ordination with the Dept of Consumer Affairs, Govt of India, on a comparative product testing project. The project aims to test a wide range of products most commonly used by Indian consumers in NABL-accredited laboratories. The test results are then published in Consumer VOICE magazine.
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