Sephora Collection Nail Polish Review

Beauty junkies everywhere should be familiar with the name Sephora. This makeup mecca sells beauty potions in every color and scent from a wide range of cult-favorite brands.

Thanks to some of the little perks they give customers, I try to shop at Sephora whenever possible. They give out free samples with every order and have a rewards club that helps you earn free products, so those are pretty nice bonuses. Another perk is free shipping over $75 as opposed to the $6.95 they'd charge otherwise.

My last order totaled $72 before checkout, so I started looking around at some of the less-expensive products available on the site to hit the free shipping mark. I quickly spotted the Sephora Collection nail polishes and decided to give them a try. I've tried and enjoyed some of their other store-brand products in the past, so I figured I didn't have much to lose.

At $5, the Sephora Collection nail polish is priced on par with most drugstore nail polish brands. Note that this is NOT the Sephora brand by OPI, which sell exclusively at Sephora for $9 a bottle. Sephora Collection nail polish is available in a pretty large palette of colors, including 8 glitters. I chose Black Strass, a black shade full of silver glitter.

The Bad

My only real complaint with this nail polish is the fact that the bottle is so small. There's no mention of the size on Sephora's website, but this nail polish comes in a teeny-tiny 0.16 fl oz. bottle. By comparison, a bottle of Sephora's Multi-Action nail polish (which sells for $6) is 0.33 fl oz.. The Sephora by OPI brand polishes are even larger, more than tripling the size of my bottle at 0.5 fl oz..

This makes the Sephora Collection nail polish even smaller than the Petites drugstore brand polish, and on par with Sally Beauty Supply's child-sized Sally Girl polishes. Those small bottles of nail polish usually sell for about $1 rather than $5, so I feel a bit duped by the price. I also find it misleading that all of the other nail polish choices on Sephora include size information. Had I known the bottle was so small, I would have sprung for one of the OPI line shades instead. There are other Sephora Collection polishes in the same size available on the site at the time of this review, but only the glitter shades were available for online purchase when I placed my order.

The Good

Beyond my gripes with the price, this turned out to be a good product. It goes on very smoothly, without making a huge mess. It dries fairly quickly, despite not being a speed-dry polish. Though it still smells like any other nail polish you've ever used, the scent isn't as overpowering as it is with some other brands (that seem to stink up your entire house). The brush size is proportional to the small bottle, making precision application very easy. I've used this nail polish as the tip color for a French manicure, and it did the job perfectly.

Like most nail polishes, this requires two coats to get even coverage across all your nails. The lightweight formula makes it possible to get varied looks by adding additional coats. This also layers well with other nail polish colors, if you're a fan of gradients or other nail art effects. Some of the other glitter shades from this collection are more neutral, making them more of a glitter layering polish over an opaque base than something you'd use on its own. The "Black Strass" shade can hold its own either way.

The closest duplicate I could find for this shade was China Glaze's "Black Diamond." This was part of the Ski Collection, released back in 2007. Check out "Black Diamond" on nail polish blog All Lacquered Up to see how it looks on. "Black Strass" shows up a bit darker than "Black Diamond," but has the same finish. Putting on a layer of opaque black polish underneath would probably achieve closer color results.

My favorite feature about the Sephora Collection nail polish is its glitter. Many types of glittery nail polish feel gritty or sandpapery to the touch. This can sometimes affect the "finish" on your top coat, making your nails look rough and dull instead of shiny and smooth. Having rough bumps in your nail polish can also make it easier to chip, reducing your manicure's life expectancy by several days. The glitter in this polish is flat, leaving your nails with a smooth finish for a lasting manicure. I've gotten a week or more out of this polish each time I've used it, with no chipping.

I'd recommend this polish based on the quality, but the high price for such a small bottle puts me off. If you can find it, you're probably better off grabbing China Glaze's "Black Diamond" and getting a full-sized bottle for around the same price. You could also achieve similar results by overlaying a silver glitter polish over any opaque black nail polish.

Further Reading:
"Avon Mirror Shine Nail Enamel Review." Associated Content.
"How to Make Your Manicure Last Longer." Associated Content.
"5 Tips for Beautiful Feet." Associated Content.