Review & Swatches: Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polishes in Magic Stardust and Mintilicious

Purchased by Me 

The newly-relaunched Rimmel 60 Seconds nail polish line debuted at the beginning of 2013 with a display that looks like this. I say this is a newly-relaunched line because I'm sure a lot of you remember the original 60 Second polishes from back in the day with bottles that looked like this.

Anyway, I have yet to spot these in a permanent display in my area (only this type of counter display) BUT, the other new Rimmel polish line, Salon Pro, is now in the permanent display at many CVS locations. You can see my review of one of the Salon Pro polishes here (I love it).

So let's take a look at the two 60 Seconds shades I purchased at Kmart a while back:

Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polishes in Magic Stardust and Mintilicious

(retail: around $2.50 each, 0.27 oz)

These bottles are small--they're not as small as minis but 0.27 oz feels like a deluxe mini to me. That's great if you can get them for $1.99 or so in your area but they were closer to $3 in my area, so definitely look around before you buy.

Swatches:

Mintilicious

Three coats, no top coat

This polish was difficult. I'm used to difficult pastel cremes, but this one was thick yet streaky, and it actually dried so quickly it was difficult to get a nice, even coat (look closely at my pic above and you can tell). While I was painting my nail, the first brush stroke was dry before I finished painting the entire nail, and it was just an overall frustrating experience.

On the plus side, this polish dries QUICKLY and it dries to a very shiny finish. It's s a beautiful color but it's definitely similar to China Glaze For Audrey, Wet n Wild I Need A Refresh-Mint, etc. etc.

Macro shot of Magic Stardust 

One coat of Magic Stardust over Mintilicious
no top coat

Magic Stardust is very similar to NYC Starry Silver Glitter and Sally Hansen Ice Queen (which are pretty much identical--click here to see a comparison). It would not surprise me one bit if Rimmel Magic Stardust was indeed identical to the NYC and Sally Hansen shades, since Coty owns all three brands. I couldn't locate my bottle of Starry Silver Glitter to do a swatch comparison, but let me tell you that I don't remember ever having any issues with that NYC shade.

But Magic Stardust, on the other hand, refused to dry. It applied very easily, which was great, but it never dried  A full 24 hours after application, I could lightly press my nail against this polish and leave a large, noticeable mark. In fact, after a day of wearing the combo above, I took my finger and wiped across one of my nails with a fair amount of pressure and the entire top layer just smeared right off.

This polish did dry on the surface, but it just never dried all the way through. Of course I didn't try using a quick-dry top coat because the name of this line is 60 Seconds, so I wanted to test the claim. I would imagine that Seche Vite or another good quick-dry might be able to help get the bottom layer dry, but why bother when NYC Starry Silver Glitter is only $0.99 and doesn't come with this issue?

FINAL VERDICT: Sadly, neither shade that I purchased from the new Rimmel 60 Seconds line worked for me. In fact, they were both extremely frustrating to use in their own way. I know that a lot of you like the new 60 Seconds polishes, so I would be open to trying another shade in the future, but let's just say that I'm not off to a good start with these. On the other hand, I ADORE the polish I reviewed from the new Rimmel Salon Pro line, and those are a better value since you get more product for about the same price.

Do you own any of the new Rimmel 60 Seconds polishes? If so, I would absolutely LOVE to hear from you. Which shades do you own, and how are they working for you?

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