Nails Inc. Special Effects The Old Vic Collection Holiday 2011 Swatches and Review

The Old Vic Collection is one of three new Nails Inc. Special Effects Overglaze polish duos now available at Sephora. These are the same as the Nails Inc. Gossip Girl duos released in the UK; The Old Vic is the same as The Serena Collection.


The duo is packaged in its own special packaging that shows the finished nail look. It's a small touch, but I appreciate it. The back of the package has some suggestions for use, including a recommendation to use the flaky topcoat over white, which is one of my favorite things to do with flaky topcoats.


The set contains two full-sized bottles of Nails Inc. polish. One bottle of Black Taxi, which is a black creme, and a bottle of The Old Vic Special Effects overglaze polish, which is clear with blue/purple flakes.


Nails Inc. Black Taxi. This is just your run of the mill black polish. It's not the best I've ever used, but it's not the worst, either. It's a two-coater and takes a little longer to dry than I had expected it to.


Nails Inc. Special Effects Overglaze in The Old Vic. This is a clear base with tiny, irregular shaped pieces of clear blue/purple/slight turquoise duochrome flake glitter. The flakes in this are more subtle looking than other colors of flakes, like the red/green/yellow type of flakes in Essie Shine of the Times / Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure / Nubar 2010, et cetera. They're smaller and they're not as strongly colored. I think they look pretty cool by themselves, I'm wearing two coats here.



Nails Inc. The Old Vic Special Effects Overglaze over Nails Inc. Black Taxi. Two coats of each. See how the flakes in The Old Vic are pretty subtle, even at two coats? They're visible, they're just small and not as boldly colored. I mean, the color of them is bright, but it's not as bold or strong or noticeable as other types of 'flakie' topcoats. Note the slight purple duochrome.


The formula on these was just okay. Black Taxi was runnier than I expected it to be, but not troublesome. The Old Vic had a little bit of a runny texture, too. They didn't feel like any of my other Nails Inc. polishes, but they weren't bad. The truly bad thing about them is the dry time. These seemed to take forever to dry and when I wore them together I could still dent the polish after four hours. This has not happened with any other Nails Inc. polish I've worn. I don't know why, but the formula of these two doesn't seem like normal Nails Inc. formula.

As much as I love flaky polishes, I'm not overly impressed with this one. The flakes are really sparse and the dry time is too long. If the dry time was better, I wouldn't have any qualms about buying another one of these. These Nails Inc flaky topcoats are only available in the duo packages at Sephora, and the duos are $20 each. Slightly more expensive than buying two Nails Inc. polishes separately. I'd prefer to be able to buy the Special Effects overglazes individually, so hopefully that will be an option in the future.

I got mine at Sephora. Side note: The descriptions for these sets are sort of mixed up on Sephora's website; this one lists The Wyndham topcoat and Kensington polish, but it actually has The Old Vic and Black Taxi.