Review: Bongo Beauty Nail Polishes in Catching Kisses and Sweet Cheeks

Purchased by Me 

So I finally made it into to Kmart and spotted the new Bongo Beauty Collection that I posted about a little while back (click here to see what the display looks like). After examining the nail polishes in this display, can you believe that I opted to skip all the blues and teals? Yeah, me too! But they all seemed to be dupes of other shades I already own, so I ended up getting two more "traditional" shades:

Bongo Nail Polish in Catching Kisses and Sweet Cheeks

(retail: $2.99 each exclusively at Kmart, 0.34 oz)

Since this is a brand new polish line, I'm going to go a little bit more in depth in this review than if I were reviewing an established polish line...

The formula of these polishes appears to be 5-free (no dibutyl phthalate, toluene, formaldehyde,  formaldehyde resin or camphor). When you peel back the label, there's a full list of ingredients:

The brushes are pretty traditional (thin and round as opposed to thick and wide):

The ends of the brushes are cut nice and cleanly--no wonkiness to either brush. I also like the "bumps" on the lid, which make the lid easy to grip. The stem of the brush isn't too short, so you shouldn't have trouble with awkward application. 

But if you dislike wide caps, not to worry. You can easily pull straight up on the lid and use the inner lid instead:

Now for some swatches. Let's start with Catching Kisses:

My camera makes it look like the glitter in this polish is purple, but in real life it's actually pink, with some gold in the mix as well. This is not a jelly polish--it's more of a crelly (jelly-creme). The color isn't so much coral as it is cantaloupe. If definitely veers more to the orange side of the spectrum than the pink side.

Three coats, no top coat:

Where do I begin? OK first of all, this polish isn't sheer. The reason why I required three coats for what you see above is because it's streaky. And lumpy. And bumpy. You can see the lumps and bumps above. Even after three coats, there are very visible streaks. Other than that, this was an easy formula to work with (until I saw those streaks I thought it was going to be a winner at just two coats). Dry time was very good on the first coat and average for the second and third coats.

BUT, all is not lost. Applying a good top coat really does improve this one and helps level things dramatically. Here's what my nails look like after a coat of Essie Good To Go top coat:

Much better, right?

Moving on, let's take a look at Sweet Cheeks:

 

I knew going into this that this was probably going to be a sheer, layering polish, but I wanted to see what it looked like on its own. 

Three coats, no top coat:

Visible Nail Line galore! But other than it being sheer, this one is not streaky and it has a nice consistency. The only thing I don't care for is that dry time is slooow. The first coat dries quickly, but if you apply a second coat or more (or use this as a layering polish on top of another color) it takes forever to dry. So be sure to use a good quick-dry top coat if you buy this one, 

The glass flecks in this polish have a lovely duochrome quality to them--you can see it better in these pics (taken in lower lighting):

And of COURSE I had to swatch it over black. Because, well, how could I not?

(One coat over a black creme polish, no top coat)

In low light, the purple duochrome-iness really comes out:

FINAL VERDICT: Nothing groundbreaking with either of these two colors, but they're both pretty in their own way (though both have their quirks and issues). For $2.99, they could have been a lot worse. So in that respect, I'm pleasantly surprised by both shades I purchased. But I'm not freaking out about these and urging you to get your booties to Kmart STAT to grab some. If you're already at Kmart and you catch them on sale (or have some extra ShopYourWay points), they might be worth considering if you see anything in the range that looks unique or different from the polishes you already own. Put it this way: I don't regret my purchase, but I think I'm probably set with just these two since the other shades in the range look a lot like polishes I already own.

Have you seen the new Bongo Beauty Collection in person yet? If so, have you made any purchases? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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