Mermaid Nails: Max Factor Max Colour Effects Mini Nail Polish

Tried to use the flash to see if you could see the (sea) green better. It hasn't worked, and the paint job looks worse for it. Never mind!

I love mermaids. Ariel, despite her frustratingly anti feminist tendencies, has always been my favourite Disney character. I love her red hair, and all of the glorious greeny blues and ocean hues of The Little Mermaid. As a child, I took my love for her quite literally and could often be found flapping around in swimming pools, with all the grace of a flailing salmon on a fishing deck, imagining my life as King Triton's youngest daughter. Throughout the years, I've managed to tone it down a little, but I do have red hair, and I still swoon over sea green clothes and turquoise jewellery. So when I saw my friend wearing this gorgeous sea green holographic nail varnish, I knew I had to have it. She told me that it was the Max Factor Max Colour Effects Mini Nail Polish in Dazzling Blue (she actually just said 'it's a Max Factor one' - I've embellished) and true to my crazed inner mermaid fanatic, I made a beeline for it as soon as I entered Boots the next day. A few weeks have passed since then, and I thought I'd write a review of this beautiful colour, now that I've gotten to know it a little better.

First of all, the colour! It's a holographic polish that claims to be blue, but there's definitely a lot of green in it too, and in certain lights, it has a muted gold hue. It's simply stunning, and very difficult to capture on camera I might add. You can only really see the blue in the pictures, which is a real shame. It's quite opaque too, one coat being satisfactory, but two coats giving it a wonderful shot of vibrancy. I've seen a couple of reviews claiming disappointment at the bad coverage and streaky finish of these polishes, but either they got one of the other, clearly more wishy washy colours, or they're wrong. Either way, I have no complaints about mine.

One niggle I do have is that it doesn't have very good lasting power, and it chips like a mofo. Granted, I do work in quite a hands on environment, so I'm forever chipping nails. Even the most hardy of varnishes look forlorn at the end of my shift, so maybe this would fare a little better in a less labour intensive workplace. But hey, you can't have it all, and I love the colour so much that I'm willing to overlook it.

Also, it'd be nice if Max Factor did these in bigger bottles. As the name suggests, these polishes are sold in teeny bottles and, although they're lovely for trying out new colours, I've tried it now, and I know I like it! I want more! 

Lastly, as a little side note, I have had my eye on Fishwife from Butter London for a while now, but alas, it isn't available in the UK. I think that this polish, although not really very similar, has the same kind of vibe to it, making it a fantastic alternative at a fraction of the price.They retail for £3.99 in Boots, the price reflecting the size, with a whopping 36 shades to choose from, if you're not a fan of this beauty (although if you aren't, what?!), you're bound to find something to suit your taste.

Do you have any lovely green polishes? Have you sampled the Max Factor Mini range? What did you think? Let me know!

S.