Disappointing products - the nail edition

Over the past couple of months I've come across a few nail products that haven't quite lived up to expectations so I thought I'd do a little round up here and explain why these three just aren't working for me.

Ciate Monochrome Manicure set* - I'm a huge lover of Ciate and buy pretty much all of their nail art kits, so I'd expected to absolutely love this one. The premise is quite simple - there's a black and a white paint pot included, plus a set of nail art stickers in different geometric styles that can be used to create interesting patterns on the nails. As well as using the black and white polishes, they also suggest creating a 'negative space' manicure, where you only use one colour of polish and leave the rest of the space as your natural nail colour. Now, the kit itself works really well and you can great a great finish with a steady hand and a bit of patience. What was disappointing was the black nail polish. It's absolutely rubbish. Normally blacks are very opaque, but after four coats of this (yes, I went as far as four) it was still a slightly washed out shade. Given the fact the kit costs £25, I don't think it's worth the money when only one of the polishes can actually be used effectively. I love the idea, they just need a better formula black polish included.

Barry M Sunset Nails* - these looked like a really interesting summer launch from Barry M and I was really excited to give them a try. There are some lovely shades in the initial collection - the hot pink shade had my name all over it. These were promoted as 'daylight curing' - when combined with the special Sunset top coat, they would cure using natural daylight and give a gel like finish without the need for lamps or special removal methods. I gave these a try a few times and didn't really feel like the special top coat made much of a difference. They dried pretty much the same with or without it and lasted about the same amount of time as any other polish. I really love the shade selection so will quite happily use them throughout the summer, but I think the 'daylight curing' part might be a little bit of a gimmick.

CND Vinylux* - given the fact I can somehow chip my nail polish in my sleep, the lure of a week long manicure that doesn't need curing was incredibly appealing. CND are pretty famous for their Vinylux weekly polish so I gave a few shades a try and to be honest, I was rather disappointed. While the finish might be lovely and glossy, and the colour range fantastic, I got noticeable chips within 48 hours. I wouldn't normally moan as this is about average for me, but for a polish that promises a long-wear and requires you to buy their special top coat in order to use it properly, it just hasn't quite delivered.

Have you tried any of these polishes? What are your thoughts?

*PR samples