Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Varnish > Reviews (45)

To complete my trilogy of nail varnish reviews I am doing a two-in-one as I own two different types of ‘Rimmel 60 Seconds’ nail polish so what better than to do a BOGOF review of the subject matter?!

I do love nail lacquers of all different varieties, textures and colours – from the pasty pastels that are translucent in hue through to the vivid neons that are vinyl in finish. I find these lacquers can compliment a mood or outfit perfectly and finish off my ‘look’ very nicely indeed. Now everyone close to me knows how much I love most different shades of polish so my daughter bought me ‘Vinyl Shine’ Rimmel variety for my birthday back in May and kindly popped it in a gift basket she made up for me.
The other 60 Seconds type is one I purchased for myself on a 3 for 2 promotion running in Boots earlier this year with each bottle costing £3.69. I have priced the Vinyl Shine variety up on the internet and it’s coming in at around the £3.39 on Chemist Direct’s website, however the Rimmel brand can be purchased in many major stockist so is not difficult to find.

The bottles are quite different although both glass and topped with a black lid with the brush applicator built-in of course…

The first part of this review is going to focus on my ‘619 Pulsating’ colour which is a fantastic deep vibrant pink. The bottle is round with a flat top edge and white writing on it telling me the shade, the fact it is flammable and that there is 8ml of solution within. On the lid there is an illustration of the quite long tapering brush which they call ‘Xpress’ and the claim that you can coat each nail in one second.

Now to be honest the design of the brush is brilliant, but I would say it takes a couple of sweeps to cover the bigger nails on each hand although the polish itself is fluid and easily spread. The one thing this liquid is not is gloopy, so it covers really well and does set in sixty seconds to touch-dry as Rimmel also claim on the back sticky label. I can also safely say one coat of this beautiful shade is enough if you were in a hurry, although two coats does look even more fabulous than the first! Another great plus point for me is how resilient this shiny, glossy varnish truly is. I have used with both a top coat and without time dependant of course. Without a top coat I get a few days out of it without chipping. There is no flaking of peeling either, this is hard-wearing stuff indeed.

The ‘Pulsating’ variety comes clean off with my normal nail varnish remover and does not stain at all which is great…all in all a very classy and decent quality product from the makers of Rimmel. Rimmel London pledge ‘Picture perfect colour in a flash!’ and they certainly delivered on this occasion. Twenty four shades are produced including such treasures as Red Carpet, Ethereal as well as Grey Matter.

‘818 Candy Shine’ is the subject matter for the second part of my review. A Vinyl Shine variety, I cannot find a swatch list for this on Rimmel’s site, but websites such as Chemist Direct do sell different colours separately if you’d like to check this type out after reading my review…

Again it promises a 60 second finish on the product’s lid but sadly this time due to the nature of the plasticy finish Rimmel do not deliver on this.

I found the bronze shade to be mouth-wateringly gorgeous - but the little tinker just would not set properly! Very frustrating it was and worse was to come. It peeled after only a day without a top coat on and caught and snagged on everything the first hour or so of painting it on.
With a top coat I only got three days before it started to chip straight off so it was a really disappointing varnish to use despite the glorious shade. It was hard to believe these two offerings came out of the same stable to be honest, folks. Sad too.

So there you have it really. The basic 60 seconds variety is a triumph for the money but the vinyl variety has been a bit if a disaster the few times I’ve used it. The finish is super-glossy and defined but what use is a liquid that just won’t set? Rimmel London really need to sort out the formula for the latter. The bottle is lovely with a gently curved top and again white writing that looks very effective against the bronze, but sadly this one is designated to the back of my huge nail varnish collection for now until I have a spare hour to sit and wait for it to set. It 'is' easy to apply - just a devil to solidify!

For the purposes of stars it would have to be a 5 for the first product and only 1 for the latter so I’m going for a 3 overall score to be fair. I personally think it is useful to review more than one item that comes under the banner if you have them as each type can vary in the results so much. I hope I have been fair in my assessment of each one, and I can honestly say I wouldn’t hesitate on buying more of the basic product out on my travels for the superb results and simple good old-fashioned value for money.

Thanks for reading my thoughts and wishing you all a good day!