New Kat Von D For Sephora High Voltage Lacquer Collection for Spring 2012

The newest addition to the Kat Von D for Sephora line... Nail polish! The brand new High Voltage Lacquer collection by Kat Von D consists of only four shades, but they're good ones.

No Regrets, Sparklehorse, Mad Max and Wonderchild.

Kat Von D High Voltage Lacquer in No Regrets. This is a bright fuchsia-pink shade with iridescent glass fleck shimmer. It has a very subtle orangey-red duochrome flash at certain angles, and the glass fleck particles reflect different shades and tones of pink with a tiny hint of purple.


Kat Von D High Voltage Lacquer in Sparklehorse. This is a bright lemon yellow glass fleck shimmer. The flecks in this one are larger than the others, almost a small flake shape instead of a round pearl like most glass fleck polishes. The shimmer particles reflect green and orange at certain angles, and there's always a little bit of green reflection visible at all times.


Kat Von D High Voltage Lacquer in Mad Max. This one looks very duochrome in the bottle, but it's probably the weakest color shift of the collection. It's mainly a blue/turquoise glass fleck shimmer, and occasionally you can see a little purple flash. It's very subtle, but you can see the purple flash in the first picture, on my middle finger, near the left side, center of the nail. It does shift from light blue to darker blue, but not many other colors are visible in it.


Kat Von D High Voltage Lacquer in Wonderchild. This one looks like it has the strongest duochrome effect in the bottle, and on the nail it does not disappoint. This is the most complex of the four shades. It's a rich purple glass fleck that reflects and sparkles many different colors. Darker, more blue-toned purple, lighter red-toned purple, pure blue, orangey-red, and a little bit of pink with gold accents. Absolutely gorgeous.

The formula on these was perfect. It was thinner than I expected it to be, but the thin texture lead to a smooth, lump- and drip-free application. It was very easy to get a thin, even coat and I had no problems with streaking or pooling or bubbling. The brush had no defective bristles and was easy to control. The bottles have slightly rubberized-feeling caps that sit comfortably in my hands. Drying time is good and they dry fairly glossy without topcoat. My only complaint about the formula is that it's sheer; these each require a minimum of three coats. I did three coats (no topcoat) in these pictures. Four coats would be even nicer, but I'm happy with how they look at three.

Overall, I think these are really nice. I was really excited to see these when they first showed up on Sephora.com, and they're almost as cool-looking in real life. The promo shots exaggerate the duochrome effect a lot, but they do still have a bit of duochrome in real life. There's not as much as I'd like, but at least they still have some. They're also not entirely unique colors, but none of the colors are bad or 'duds' or anything like that. For a first collection, I think they did a pretty good job. They got the formula right and that's very important. I wish they were more opaque and had more duochrome, but even the way they are, I like them a lot.

The only true complaint I have about these is the price. These may look like full size bottles, but they are only 0.25 fl oz and cost $12 each. The average full size polish is 0.4 - 0.5 fluid ounces and costs around $7-$9. $12 is really not that expensive for a nail polish, but for the price I'd expect it to be a full size bottle.

I liked the formula, I liked the colors and I like the bottle design... Now I'd like them to do a black-based "oil slick" effect glass fleck multichrome. Pretty please?

These are available now at Sephora, $12 each, and they are limited edition.

(This was sent for review.)