April Birchbox: Ruby Wing Color Changing Nail Polish in Peony

I was so excited to get this polish in my box this month! When I heard it was an option for some of the subscribers, I cross my fingers and wished very hard.

And, voila, I got it!

Unfortunately, that was the only good thing to come out of this polish. What follows is one of the most disappointed polish reviews I've ever had to write.

This is the polish, indoors. Hm...I was told it would be bubblegum pink.

Something doesn't seem right here. In fact, this looks more like a coral. A very bright, very orangey coral with an undertone of pink. 

And...wasn't it supposed to change color? Y'know...like...a lot?

Oh look, an imperceptible sliver of color change, after spending ten minutes in the sun. And the instant the sun went behind a cloud, wham. Gone. 

My left hand had been in the sun for about ten minutes, my right hand had been in my back pocket. Also, pardon the terrible picture. My husband had to take it since my hands were busy modelling. 

Now, that was just the tail end of my woes. Let me start at the beginning. 

Out of the box, I knew something was wrong. This was coral, not pink. Maybe in some bizarre planet where the sun sets in the East, this is pink. But on this planet? In this time stream? This is an orange coral. 

Fine, whatever. It wouldn't be the first time I've been lead astray by marketing, especially nail polish marketing. And I like the color, so I decided to roll with it.

The formula, however, was an absolute nightmare. Even being very careful, using very thin coats, this polish was dreadful. It was thick and goopy, stringy like my bottle of Seche Vite towards the end of its lifetime. There was so much pooling around my cuticles that I had to pause my television show just to focus more on my manicure. 

Five coats later, and it is still patchy. There are bald spots aplenty near my nail beds and right before my nail line. 

And the color change? Non existent. I don't know if I just got a bad bottle or what, but the color change was so imperceptible I would hesitate to call this color changing polish. In the sun, it came out as a little more pink. Just so slightly deeper. But still, definitely, a coral. 

Even after ten minutes of sitting in full, bright sun, the only spot on my nail that changed color was one of the baldish patches along my cuticle. 

I'm thinking that this polish's cool effect works best with two coats or fewer, but the formula just does not allow that. 

Unfortunately, this is one product I'm iffy about buying. I've heard some of the other, full size bottles are much better. And that this shade, in particular, has issues. 

But I'm honestly kind of upset that they sent an iffy formula to Birchbox subscribers. 

Luckily, Ruby Wings has excellent customer service. After informing them of the problem, they have offered to send me a different bottle of Peony or another bottle of my choice. I'm going to try out a different polish and see what happens. Keep an eye out for that review!

Thanks for reading.