Hema 61 Living Coral

Hi everyone,


last Saturday my husband brought home a little gift to cheer me up: a pretty coral polish called Living Coral. The brand is called Hema, which is a general warehouse chain in the Netherlands (branching out to other European countries) that sells just about anything you can think of (baby clothes, house hold appliances, food, etc.) and that has quite an extensive beauty line that includes dozens of nail polish colors. The quality varies... a lot! Some are fast drying one coaters, others are patchy and streaky and never seem to dry, so let's see in what category the latest addition to my stash falls.

First off, the color: I love it!! It's bright but not neon and basically summer-in-a-bottle. Also, Pantone chose Living Coral as the color of 2019 and this looks like a good match.

Next, the formula. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't the best ever. It took three thin coats for a completely opaque, streak-less result on my ring finger but if your coats are a little thicker, two should be sufficient. It didn't dry lightning fast but I think the first nail would be dry enough for a new coat once you finish the last one if you paint all your nails.

Last, stamp-ability. I wanted to see if this puppy could be used for stamping. I didn't have high expectations so I was happily surprised with the results. As you can see in the picture it actually stamps quite good. It isn't as opaque as a true stamping polish but you can see in the picture it shows up great over both black and white. Also, as this is a normal polish, you have to work faster than when using a stamping polish but that shouldn't be a big surprise.

Living Coral dries pretty glossy by itself but I knew I wanted to try a pose where I was holding the bottle so I added a coat of Seche Vite to make sure I would smear polish all over the place while juggling the bottle and the camera ;)


And that's it! What do you think? Did my husband pick out a nice one? I sure think so!