Runway-Ready Nails With Borghese’s Fashionista Collection

When I first saw the display of nail lacquer bottles in Borghese’s new Spring 2010 nail lacquer collection, which is aptly dubbed Fashionista as it was inspired by some of the more alluring nail color shades spotted on runways in Milan during their Spring 2010 shows last fall. The six-piece collection features a broad color palette: from a deep midnight blue (Mezzanote Blue) to a shimmering purple with red undertones (Bella Berry), a creamy taupe-beige color (Biscotti Beige), a vampy shade (Plumaggio Purple), a iridescent, light nude color with moody gray and white undertones (Almondine), and an amazingly metamorphosi-prone shade (Stellare Note) that looks like an emerald green color in brighter light and resembles a lilac silver shade in more muted lighting.

Having tried all the hues, I can say I’m floored by some of the colors (although I am a bit ambivalent about a couple of them). To check out how these lacquers look like on nails and read more about each, allow me to break down each one for you:

Borghese Almondine:

I’m not typically smitten with really light nail lacquer shades, but there’s something about this color that just transfixes you. Though you can’t fully grasp the effect from the above picture alone, the lacquer is this extremely pale almond honey hue with a slightly gray undertone, but that’s not all — the micronized gemstones in the formula feature hot pink and white pearl hues that give the lacquer a heavenly translucent effect , particularly when under the sun’s rays. It’s probably my favorite hue in the whole collection.

Borghese Bella Berry:

This purple shade reminds me of glistening, dewy boysenberries or maybe some juicy plum fruits. It’s a pretty dark and kind of vampy color, but the shade of purple is rather unique and the metallic finish adds a bit of drama and vibrancy.

Borghese Biscotti Beige:

This is probably one of the creamier, milkier colors in the collection. It doesn’t have a matter finish by any means, but it also doesn’t pack as much shimmer as some of the other hues. The color, meanwhile, is a nude shade that kind of reminds me of old-school store mannequins or of granny panties (a horrible reference but true nonetheless). I wasn’t crazy about the shade sine, perhaps because of the mental affiliations I conjured up, it made me feel like it was a bit “adult” for my taste.

Borghese Mezzanote Blue:

After all the black nail lacquers we saw in the fall, this hue is a welcome relief — it manages to continue the dark nail color trend, but it gives it a twist with the midnight blue shade. My only issue with this color was the actual application. For some reason, I found this one incredibly gunky and messy. It took me several tries to get the color just right and even then it felt a bit off. It also chipped incredibly easily, which only heightened my frustration.

Borghese Stellare Notte:

This is my other favorite lacquer in the collection. It’s truly one of the most unique nail colors I’ve ever seen. When you look at the nail lacquer in the bottle, you’re draw by the swirl of iridescent colors: the teal hue, emerald green, purple tones, and grayish shades swiveling about. When you apply Stellare Notte on your nails and you look at them under bright light, the color will appear to be this greenish, mermaid tail-esque hue. In darker light, however, the shade transforms into this purplish gray hue. In fact, the color seems to change as much as a mood ring depending on the light conditions and the way in which you move your hands. My mood when I wear this: oh so happy!

Borghese Fashionista nail lacquers, $8 each. Available at drugstores nationwide.

**Press samples were submitted for review purposes and were utilized in order to write this post and properly assess the qualities of each of the nail lacquers discussed herein.