Borghese Rapido Fast Dry Nail Lacquer Collection for Summer 2011

Borghese has a new line of fast dry polishes, Borghese Rapido, available now. It's twelve shades in a new quick-dry formula, distinguished from the regular line by the gold-trimmed white caps. The shades are:


Anemone. A medium fuchsia with blue-purple flash. Slight shimmer.




Chroma. Super shiny silver foil, very dense pigmented formula.


Limoncello. This is a new shade, re-using the name from last summer's collection. One of three colors with recycled names, confusing, I know! This year's Limoncello is much better than last year's shade. This is a glowing, gilded lemon lime shade. Very, very yellowy green, metallic finish with hints of orange shimmer, marginally streaky. This is my favorite shade in the collection and it gets extra points for not being sheer like the last Limoncello.



Lira. Gold foil. Yellow toned. Not as dense and pigmented as Chroma.

Maraschino. Not to be confused with the previous year's Maraschino, which was a lovely bright cherry-coral. Maraschino 2011 is more of a plain hot pink creme. Not particularly bright or bold, pretty much an 'average' pink.





Marino. A dusty medium blue creme. I know it looks bright and clean here, but it does have a softer, dustier finish in real life. Really very pretty.



Menta. Menta 2010 was a ridiculously sheer turquoise- a five+ coater. Menta 2011 is much improved. This Menta is a creamy mint chocolate chip ice cream green with some very subtle blue shimmer. It's still sheer, but this is three coats and, though it could use a fourth, is mostly opaque.


Mochaccino. This is one of those purple-brown-taupe type of shades. The base color is more on the brown side but it has some nice complimentary purple shimmer in it.


Rosso. Bright red creme.



Siena. This looks like a very pretty color- a rich, sparkly light brown with little hints of gold sparkle. And it is a pretty color... It's the formula that's ugly. This is inexplicably sheer and watery- none of the other shades are like this. What you're seeing on my nails is six unruly, watery coats. Six coats and it's still a bit see-through when the light hits it. I like the color of it but I can't recommend it due to the nightmarish formula.



Vigneto. Nice deep purple shimmer with a bit of a red and gold sparkly shimmer running through it. Not really unique, but a good shade of purple regardless.


Violetta. Pale lavender frost.


The formula on these was varied. Some were perfect (Maraschino, Rosso, Chroma, Marino), others were watery (Menta, Siena, Mochaccino, Vigneto). The rest were just average. I can't say I was a fan of the formula or the application of most of these- some were so sheer and watery that it made application very difficult and messy. I'm also not a fan of the brush in these. It's too stiff and thick and doesn't conform to the shape of the nail. That, combined with the sheerness of some of the shades, makes it apply thickly at the edge of the nail and sheer in the center. I've never had a problem with Borghese's double-brush thing before, but this version is too stiff. The formula claims to dry in 60 seconds, but that's really not the case. The dry time was actually very slow on some shades but average on others (the ones with the best formula were also the ones that dried quickest.)

Overall... Well, I'm not moved by the color selection or the formula. My favorites (in order of preference) are Limoncello, Marino, Menta, Chroma and Mochaccino. None of the colors are ugly, but they're not unique and are easily dupe-able. The formula on some was not what I hoped and anticipated it would be based on my previous experiences with Borghese polish and I didn't find the fast dry claims to be true. I much prefer the regular Borghese line's formula and brushes over the Rapido line. One thing I do really like is the pretty bottle. I like the vintage looking shape of it, looks very cute.

These are available at Ulta and are $8.00 each.

(These were sent to me for review.)