Review and Swatches: Revlon Parfumerie Scented Nail Enamels (four shades)

Purchased by Me

If you'll recall, I sort of lost my mind when I first saw this new nail color collection from Revlon. Everything about this collection speaks to me, from the concept to the packaging to the shades to the scents. So when I found the display at my local Bed Bath and Beyond last week, I had a difficult time narrowing down which ones to buy first. Luckily, I was able to get my hands on all four of the shades that I really wanted the most, so now I'd like to share my thoughts with you!

NEW Revlon Parfumerie Scented Nail Enamels

(retail: around $4.99 each, 0.4 oz)

If you missed my original post, you can see what the entire collection look like here. There are 16 shades in this range broken up into three categories (Fruits & Florals, Freshes and Sweets & Spices). These polishes are scented (of course) but the scent does not come out until your polish has dried (or is almost dry). So you can't open the bottles and take a whiff right in the store, and I know that some of you said you wished that Revlon would have included scratch-n-sniff stickers or something like that on the display.

Well I'm happy to tell you that the following little double-sided brochures are actually available in this display, free for you to take with you, and they're just like the scented perfume inserts you find in magazines. So you can smell both Autumn Spice and Surf Spray before you buy them. And just FYI, Autumn Spice smells exactly like the brochure--it's completely accurate.

Front of brochure:

Back of brochure:

These bottles truly remind me of little French perfume bottles (sort of like those adorable little L'Aromarine bottles). I love the ball-shaped cap and the shape of the glass bottles--they even have beveled edges:

For size comparison, here is a Parfumerie bottle next to one of the original Revlon scented polishes:

As you can see, the brush and stem are about the same width, but the length of the Parfumerie stem is much shorter:

I have had absolutely no issues with using the Parfumerie brush. The ball-shaped cap is surprisingly easy to grasp, and I feel like I have a lot of control over the brush due to the shorter stem. If you're scared that this is going to be an awkward polish to use, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to maneuver. 

All of the following swatches were photographed after two coats of polish and no top coat:

Italian Leather

Italian Leather is a beautiful, dark olive green with gray undertones and subtle golden shimmer. The formula is thin and a bit sheer on the first coat, but you can see that after two coats, the opacity is great. I had no issues with application--the formula, though thin, is easy to work with. Dry-time is great and this shade dries to a very shiny finish, as you can see above.

Scent: I've heard from a few of you that this doesn't really smell like leather, but I have to disagree! To my nose, it smells like leather...and chocolate. Almost like a very nice men's cologne, actually. And there's a little bit of a powdery note mixed in as well. 

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a deep wine-colored jelly-creme. The formula is thin but easy to work with, and two coats yeilds perfect opacity. Again, dry-time is great and this polish dries to a very shiny finish.

Scent: Sure, I have lots of polishes that resemble the color of red wine, but NONE of them actually smell like red wine! I had to have this the moment I saw it, and it definitely did not disappoint. This polish smells like fruity red wine (almost like sangria, actually) and for lack of a better word, it's amazing. I'm partial to wine notes in my perfumes though, so I do understand that not everyone is going to want to walk around with their fingertips smelling like red wine. I personally couldn't get enough of this one the entire time I was wearing it, and it's definitely my favorite scent of the four that I'm reviewing today.

  

Lavender Soap

Lavender Soap is a frosty, pale lavender. The formula is thin and streaky on the first coat, much better on the second coat. I didn't anticipate that this was going to be a frost when I saw it in the bottle (it looked more like a pale lavender creme with hidden silver shimmer) so in that respect it was a bit of a disappointment. I'm not big on frosts (or the brush strokes they leave behind) but I do love the paleness of this color. Dry-time is good and this polish dries to a shiny finish.

Scent: Fresh and clean. It reminds me a bit of fabric softener. I get a some lavender but not too much, and I definitely detect a soapy note here. I think it's lovely and quite refreshing--nice for springtime.

Autumn Spice

Autumn Spice is like fall in a bottle. The base is a chocolate-y brown and there's a gorgeous micro-fleck shimmer going on in this one. The shimmer is golden in certain lights, bronze in others, and then there's also a pinkish-red flash that you get at certain angles. You can see the pinkish-red flash a bit better in this photo:

This formula is almost a one-coater (but as with all of the polishes in this post, I used two). It's very easy to work with, dry-time is great and once again, it dries to a very shiny finish.

Scent: To me, Autumn Spice smells exactly like pumpkin pie filling. NOT pumpkin pie--there is no buttery crust note to this one. It's like a big, delicious bowl of pumpkin pie filling that's waiting to be scooped into a pie shell. I get pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar here, but it's not sugary sweet. It's quite lovely, but it does make me hungry!

Additional observations about the scents in general: All four of the scents I am reviewing here today are fairly strong when they first dry on the nail (the strongest scent would be Bordeaux, the weakest Italian Leather). Overall, I have to hold my nails about 4 inches away from my nose in order to detect the scent, so it's not like you're going to leave a trail of wine or pumpkin pie wherever you go while wearing these polishes. True to what Revlon states right on the display itself, these polishes really do have "light fragrances" that "last all day." On day two, I could not detect the scent at all--for any of these shades (for the record, I do wash my hands a lot and I took two showers in that period of time). I also want to note that applying clear top coat does NOT diminish the scent. I tried applying Out The Door top coat and also Essie Good To Go top coat on top of these polishes and, by the time my top coat dried, the scent had completely returned. 

FINAL VERDICT: I loved everything about these polishes before I tried them, and I love everything about them now that I own them. The packaging, the perfume-themed scents and the colors are all quite beautiful (with the exception of Lavender Soap but, again, that's just because I'm not a fan of frosts).  The lids are surprisingly easy to grasp and work with, despite their unique shape, and I love that the bottles are square, so they'll stack together nicely in whatever storage system you use for your polishes. I'm also quite impressed with the formulas (thin, but perfectly opaque at two coats and easy to work with), and I really love that all four polishes dry to very shiny finish (and dry pretty quickly, as well). You could absolutely skip top coat with these (I did while I was testing them and my nails looked great, without any chipping, for three days). All three of Revlon's claims (on the display) are absolutely true: "Fragrance revealed when dry", "Vibrant, shiny shades" and "Light fragrances last all day". Even if you're not a scented polish fan, I think you might be pleasantly surprised by these. I say give them a try!

As of the time of this post, the Revlon Parfumerie Collection has only been spotted at Bed Bath & Beyond stores that have an extended beauty department (you can see the display here). I would imagine that this collection will start hitting drugstores and big box stores before the end of the year. As of the time of this post, I believe that this is a permanent collection but if I find out that it's limited edition, I will be sure to let you know.

The products featured in this post were purchased with personal funds. For more information, click here.