Review & Swatches: Models Own Scented Nail Polish in Blueberry Muffin

Purchased by Me 

As I mentioned here a few weeks ago, the popular UK beauty brand, Models Own, is now sold at Forever 21 (both in-store and online). Right after my first post about this, I placed an order for a few products on the Forever 21 site, and today I'd like to show you the nail polish I purchased.

As longtime readers know, I have a thing for pale blue nail colors. But it seems that the lighter the blue, the more finicky they are to work with (in most cases). So I thought I'd try Models Own Blueberry Muffin, as a test. Hey, if they can successfully execute a pale baby blue, then their other shades are probably nice too, right? Well, that's my logic anyway! Let's take a look...

Models Own Scented Nail Polish in Blueberry Muffin

(retail: $8, 0.47 oz)

For the record, I think that I may have owned a few Models Own products years ago (received in swaps from some of my UK-based pals) but I do not own anything from their current lineup. Their polishes are brand new to me, so I'll be treating this review accordingly.

made in England

This polish arrived fully safety-sealed. It may be hard to see in the pic above, but the bottle is encased in plastic, with only the top and bottom of the bottle uncovered.

The ingredients aren't listed on the packaging, and they're not on the F21 site. They're also not on the Models Own site. Therefore I cannot confirm whether or not this formula is, at the very least, 3-free. After doing a quick Google search, I saw some blog posts from circa 2011 indicating that their polishes are not 3-free, but I do not know if Models Own has since updated their formulations.

I like that there's a scratch n' sniff sticker on the bottles.The sticker smells more like a straight-up blueberry, without much "muffin". I was actually excited when I sniffed the sticker (before I tried the actual polish) because I love pure blueberry scents more than bakery-type blueberry scents. 

The brush is standard. It's a thin, round, traditional brush that's not too long and not too short.

two coats, no top coat

I'm happy to report that this polish only required two coats for what you see in these pics. Based on my experience with lots and lots of pale blue polishes, you're lucky to find one that has this kind of coverage after just two coats (most tend to require three or even four to eliminate streaks).

I did have some leveling issues (you can see that better in the pic below, taken in lower lighting).

Overall, this wasn't an incredibly difficult polish to apply, but it wasn't a dream either. The first coat was sheer and streaky, but the second coat evened things out considerably. However, the second coat was also thick and a bit goopy, which I think led to the leveling issues you see above. Dry-time for the first coat was quite good (it was dry to the touch within just a minute or two) but I'm sad to report that the second coat just did not want to dry. After three hours, I was still able to scrape it with my fingernail and basically peel off the entire manicure. To be fair, it was extremely hot here in San Diego while I was testing this polish (95 - 100 degrees with high humidity) so that very well could have led to the issues described above. I'll definitely have to revisit this one in cooler weather. On the plus side, this polish dried to a nice, shiny finish. 

As for the scent, it was very, very mild. In fact, I really couldn't detect it unless I held my fingers right up to my nose, and even then I could barely smell it. This is definitely more of a straight-up blueberry fragrance rather than blueberry muffin, which is fine be me since I'm not a huge fan of blueberry muffin fragrances (unless we're talking actual blueberry muffins!). 

FINAL VERDICT: It's hard to give you a final verdict until I know if the issues described above were due more to the hot/humid weather here in San Diego, or the formulation itself. I mentioned that I don't know if this formula is 3-free and I can't find anything current on the internet to indicate whether it is or not. What I love about this polish is that I only needed two coats for full opacity, which I find pretty rare for a pale blue. I also love the nice, shiny finish, and that the scent is extremely mild and more like straight-up blueberry rather than blueberry muffins. At this point, I can't say that this polish was quite worth the $8 price tag, but if the dry-time improves when the weather is cooler, then I'll have to adjust my rating accordingly. I'll let you know if that happens!

Do you own any Models Own nail colors? If so, how do YOU feel about them?

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