This "Your Nails, But Better" Polish Has The Internet Talking. Here's What It Looks Like On Real People
We've seen the "no makeup makeup" trend — which is all about enhancing your natural beauty with minimal makeup — take off on social media, and French nail brand Manicurist has jumped on the trend, only this time for your nails.
The Active line from Manicurist features five polishes. Each polish is meant to serve a different purpose — but all essentially give off minimalist "Your Nails But Better" vibes. Each one is also marketed as an "all-in-one" product, with no base or top coat needed.
The five polishes include (all $16 each):
-Two Active Glow polishes, which are sheer nail glosses that give off slight tints of raspberry and blueberry.
-The Active Smooth polish is a CC polish meant to smooth nails.
-The Active Shine polish adds a shine to nails.
-The Active Bright is meant to nourish lackluster, dull nails and enhance their natural shine.
Each of the 80% plant-based formulas contain ingredients meant to improve nail health — like nourishing sweet almond oil, fruit extracts to help restore peeling and brittle nails, castor oil, and other hydrators and strengtheners.
Due to these polishes taking off on social media — including here on BuzzFeed — I recruited some of my colleagues with different nail concerns to try out some of these Active polishes and report back if they live up to the "low-maintenance and impossible-to-mess-up" hype.
The testers:
• Ross, who rarely gets manicures or paints his nails, thinks his nails look dull.
• Lauren, who typically wears press-on gel nail strips that she puts on herself, wants to strengthen her nails.
• Megan, who doesn't regularly have her nails done, thinks they look ungroomed and said they tend to break and tear easily.
• Kirby, who usually gets gel manicures, is focused on strengthening her weak nails.
• Joelle, who only gets a regular manicure done once a year, always deals with her regular nail polish staining her nails.
• Sarah, who usually wears acrylic nails or has a gel manicure, feels that her nails are brittle and break easily.
• Emily, who gets a manicure almost every month, tends to peel her polish off, which over time damages her nails' top layer, so she's looking to restore that.
We specifically tested the Glow, Shine, and Bright polishes. (The brand was sold out of the Smooth polish at the time of purchase.) To get a comprehensive review, we made sure to record both our initial reactions at the time of application — then what we thought several days later after the polish had been on for a while.
We also noted our feedback on how our nailed looked versus how our nails felt, since the brand nods to nail health.
APPLICATION DAY: The polish earned high marks from just about every tester right off the bat. Many agreed that the polish went on smoothly and was easy to apply. Because the color was so subtle, people liked that they didn't have to be super precise — it didn't matter if you got a bit outside your nails and on your skin, for example.
• Ross [wearing Active Bright, above]: "The polish went on really smoothly. It was easy to apply, and I thought the brush worked pretty well, too."
• Lauren: "I actually really enjoyed applying it because these felt thinner than other nail polishes, and it applied evenly. It wasn't streaky at all. Also, because of how light these colors are, the mistakes (where the polish was on my skin) were really hard to spot."
• Emily: "I found applying this nail polish significantly easier than most I have tried before! It was light and dried super quickly."
Testers also loved that it dried quickly and — notably — did not have the standard nail polish smell. (In fact, it had no smell at all.)
• Megan [wearing Active Shine, above]: "I was surprised by how much I ended up liking the Shine polish. I don't tend to gravitate toward glittery polishes, but I love how subtle the shine is. It's like super fine glitter. I could see wearing it for a holiday party or event, and I think it would make for a really pretty summer pedicure, too."
• Joelle and Sarah: "These polishes don't smell like nail polish. You can whip this out in any public setting and not disturb the peace (airplanes?). The polish dried quickly, too. I didn't have to wait between the first and second coats."
SEVERAL DAYS LATER: Unfortunately, the testers collectively said their manicures and polish did not last long. This was disappointing (and surprising) since some of the social media buzz around the brand claimed that the polish can last "a week or longer" without chipping, and that no base coat or top coat is needed.
Joelle noticed chipping the first night after application, after taking a shower. Lauren and Megan's polish lasted slightly longer but started chipping two to three days after application — though, as Megan pointed out, it wasn't that noticeable.
Kirby, Sarah, and Emily said their nails chipped, too, but it didn't bother them: "Since it's so sheer, you can't really tell unless you're looking really close," Sarah explained. "The polish did lose a lot of its pinkness as time went on, so now it's basically clear, which I was a little sad about. I thought it looked so cute and rosy when I first put it on."
The marketing of the Active line also nods to nail health — with each formula containing ingredients like almond oil, fruit extracts to help restore peeling and brittle nails, and other hydrators. Some of the testers felt that the change in their nail health was noticeable but subtle, while others didn't notice a change at all.
• Lauren [wearing Active glow with Active shine layered on top above]: "The top layers of my nails peel sometimes, but the polish acts as a protective layer. But I honestly didn't see much else of a difference. Maybe with longer use, I'd notice more."
• Ross: "If there was a change for the better, it was definitely subtle. I don't think the polish made a big difference at all with nail health, but my real nails look nice."
OVERALL: The testers agreed that there were pros and cons to these polishes. All loved how easy it was to apply, how quickly it dried, and the sheerness of each polish.
• Kirby [wearing Active glow and Active shine, above]: "Overall I think this is for someone who is looking for very neutral nails — it's subtle but pretty and would be easy to reapply every few days to keep it going strong. I was experiencing some breakage before applying and ended up having to trim all my nails afterward, so I can't say that it *saved* my brittle nails, but they do feel a bit stronger."
• Megan: "Because I am lazy, I love that it's not obvious when it chips so I don't feel like I have to take it all off and start over. I would definitely buy this polish."
However, most were underwhelmed in the end — and felt that the polish didn't live up to the hype. "[These polishes] are a good idea, but now that I've used them, I'm not blown away." said Lauren.
"I'm also not going to purchase it either," she said. "Mainly because I like my own method of painting my nails more, and I prefer brighter colors than this line offers."
Your mileage may vary, though, as other BuzzFeed and HuffPost staffers — not part of this test — really love these polishes. (Read more about their thoughts here.)
Have you ever tried these polishes? If not, would you? Is there another nail polish that you love? Share all your thoughts with us in the comments below!
