Here’s another brand from the Far East. Skin Food is one of many (and I do mean, many) South Korean cosmetics brands targeted at the budget-conscious. It’s got a slew of products covering makeup, skin care, body care and hair care. The products are usually housed in classy-cute (could it possibly be anything else?!) packaging and have catchy names to reflect the star ingredient in each product.
Here’s what I mean: Salmon Brightening Eye Cream, Gold Caviar Nutrition Mask, Seaweed Cleansing Gel, Eggplant Waterproof Mascara Remover, Agava Cactus Toner. Get the idea?
This is what Skin Food says: We believe in beauty within food. It takes a long time for us to produce products from cultivating the ingredients to making them into actual cosmetics, but our products manifest effects for a longer time.
Interesting philosophy. I was intrigued by it all. It's a pity that the brand suffered a blow to its reputation recently. You see, in a test carried out by the Hong Kong Consumer Council on some samples of nail polishes from various brands, it was found that two of Skin Food’s nail products contained benzene and methanol. Ouch!
One report said that Skin Food has refuted such claims while another said that Skin Food Hong Kong announced that they would offer full refunds to anyone who had purchased the two products. If anyone’s interested, the two products in question were the Jojoba Pure Nail PK004 and the Milk Creamy Nail Base Coat (from that cute range that girls have been cooing over – their bottles are shaped like baby milk bottles). Read more about it here.
Right, let’s move on. This polish I'm featuring today comes from Skin Food’s Nail Vita range (its bottle design is surprisingly plain, no?). It’s actually called only VI408 on the bottle and I found out its other name, Violet Stone, from Skin Food’s website. The Nail Vita range is supposed to contain vitamin and keratin nutrients.
Uhm, Skin Food, you've neglected to tell us which vitamin??
I tried looking for its list of ingredients but couldn’t find it anywhere, not on the bottle and not on the website. So, I really have no idea if it’s 3-free. I suspect not, as the report about the random testing mentioned above also stated that the two offending products contain toluene (but they were below the limit set in the EU’s Cosmetic Directive). I wouldn’t know if the same may apply to this Nail Vita range. [shrug]
The formula was on the thick side. I skipped the brush-draining step and applied with the brush drenched with polish. If I didn't do that, I found that the brush got too dry and getting the nail tips coated with polish was a problem.
Oh, did I tell you that this polish stinks? I have a pretty good tolerance for nail polish smells but this one is [gag] for the initial few minutes.
Oh, did I tell you that this polish stinks? I have a pretty good tolerance for nail polish smells but this one is [gag] for the initial few minutes.
The colour is....oh, how should I put it.....spellbinding. Yes, the name says it’s violet but I think there’s a very fine line between violet and blue when looking at Violet Stone. To top it off, its shimmers are stupefyingly pretty. Violet Stone is like a violet night sky densely filled with faraway pink, red, blue and aqua stars.
Being the party pooper that I am in this post, I have one more gripe. This polish, gorgeous as it is, started chipping a bit within 12 hours. It’s Day Two today and the chipping has progressed. Sigh, I suppose this is what one sometimes gets with a €2 bottle of nail polish. And gosh, you know what? I have two other Nail Vita shades in my drawer!
Curious? Have a look at the website of Skin Food, even if it's just to coo over the baby milk bottles!
Curious? Have a look at the website of Skin Food, even if it's just to coo over the baby milk bottles!
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