Guest Review of BECCA Summerdaze Nail Varnish

I've mentioned a few (million) times before that my nails are not up to much. As a self-confessed destroyer of nail polish, I do struggle to review polish in terms of wear time and general performance. Nail polish is very new to the Becca line up so I really wanted to get an expert opinion. Helen from Just Nice Things, nail blogger extraordinaire and my go to for all things nail related, was kind enough to offer to test it out properly for us.

It’s pretty fair to say that I know a lot about nail varnish. Enough to state that “hard to find OPIs” would probably be my Mastermind subject. Well, either that or “the tattoos of Nikki Sixx”, but that’s a whole different blog post.

Yet for some reason, Becca products had never really featured on my radar. Perhaps because they are new to nail varnish? I’d heard a lot about their make-up, mainly from Modesty Brown here, but I have to be honest and say that I’d never tried any myself. So when I was given the option to test out Summerdaze, from Becca’s new nail varnish range, I jumped at the chance.

First impressions were good. It’s always nice when something comes packaged in a box. Makes it feel more exclusive and expensive somehow. The Becca packaging is nice as well. The varnish itself is in a rectangular bottle, with (joy of joys!) a rubberized cap. Nail fanatics love a good rubberized cap. It’s one of the reasons I own so much Orly – because the handle is a joy to work with. It doesn’t slip or slide, and it makes it easier to open the bottle after a few uses as well, when it can often become sticky and creaky.

Application was brilliant. I have large nails but the brush covered really well and I had no pooling, dragging or bubbling whatsoever. This is a really thick crème though so you do need to work fast – it dries ridiculously quickly as well. What you’re seeing here is two coats with a base coat of OPI Nail Envy and a topcoat of CND Air Dry. I’m always amazed when companies can get their paler crèmes to be so pigmented, and it makes me very happy. The formula is also TFCDF free; free from Formaldehyde, Toluene, Camphor and Di Butyl Phthalate (or in nail lingo, Big4 free = A Very Good Thing).

A note on the colour. Summerdaze itself did me no favours whatsoever. It is a salmon pink shade that really only the coolest of cool skintones can get away with. Salmon polish gives me lobster hands. Interesting simile but true. Also, it’s a heck of a lot brighter than my camera picked up on. Neon salmon. Hmmm.

It’s a shame the colour didn’t work better with me really as this polish was going nowhere. It stayed put through several showers, cooking sessions, and a little Chuckle Brothers inspired incident in the Focus Do It All car park (you try putting a table and four stackable chairs in the back of an Audi A3 and not lose your patience or any of your nail varnish). And so for that, I hail Becca polish as something of a hero. It still looked as good on the fourth day, when I took these photos, as it did the moment I applied it. I only took it off as I couldn’t cope with the colour any more, otherwise I think it would have gone a good week and still looked smart.

So thankyou Jane for allowing me to road test this one for you – I am a definite convert and will be keeping my eye out for other shades. Less fishy ones perhaps though.

Thank you so much for the fantastic review Helen. It sounds like it had a really thorough road testing at Focus! You'll be pleased to know that there will be some more subdued colours coming out with the A/W collection later this year.

Summerdaze is part of the current BECCA Halcyon Days collection. The polish costs £12 and I bought this particular bottle from Zuneta.