Review & Swatchfest: Cos Bar Nail Polish

Cos Bar End Display at Target

I've been anticipating Target's partnership with The Cos Bar, a high end cosmetics retailer, for months. So you can pretty much assume I was there last Sunday when the bulk of Targets launched The Shops at Target - a new concept The Cos Bar created a special line of reasonably priced cosmetics for.

First, I have to say I was a little disappointed at how small and skin-care-oriented the display was. I was expecting something along the lines of the Napoleon Perdis or Pixi displays currently in Target. Instead, The Cos Bar picked three colors, with coordinating scents, and created a few products within each color. Don't get me wrong, they had lashes (that I need to go back for) and nail polish, but the bulk of their goods were lotions, potions, generally products I could get from any other brand - or a dollar store. That being said, the products I've tried are pretty good so don't confuse my surprise at the display/line with my feelings towards the products I'm reviewing. We'll get to some of those now!

Because these products are very reasonably priced (you'll find out how reasonable in a bit), I was able to get quite a sampling of the line. For organization's sake, I'm going to focus solely on the nail polishes in this post, but I also got face wipes and a body scrub to be reviewed later. The nail polishes deviated from the three color rule and, instead, there are four: purple, lime green, orange, and a bronzy brown. At $3 a piece, I had to try two to see if the formula is consistent across the board (and because, when it comes to cosmetics, the more the merrier, no?). So, I picked the lime green for its' Summertime potential and the brown because it's just gorgeous.

Lime green - a sheer, frosty, almost day-glo green

The green had the exact problem I was anticipating: lack of coverage. Most any brand has trouble with greens and yellows being too sheer, so I wasn't surprised when this was the case. The picture above shows my nails with three coats of green polish. The nice thing is that if you are thinking this day-glo green is your thing, just layer over a coat of white polish and you are good to go. It's still a pretty unique color (especially for the price) so it might be worth buying even if you have to layer it.

Brown - A deep bronze with light bronze shimmer

While not necessarily original, the brown/bronze is gorgeous and has significantly better coverage than the green. The picture above is taken with two coats on the nails. I find that both polishes has an average wear time of three days before I encountered tip-wear - pretty normal for my nails. For $3, that aint' bad. The only problem is the limited color range. They are nice, but I would love more!

Have you tried any Cos Bar products? What did your think?

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