Death Valley Nails: The Valentine’s Day Collection

Indie Nail Polish is still uncharted territory for us, but by now I know that indie polishes are so much better in quality and creativity than the regular drug store brands. Death Valley Nails, a 10 free, vegan, cruelty free, and non-toxic brand located in the California dessert, true to their name. According to the brand, ten-free means that their polish is formulated without formaldehyde, toluene DBP, camphor, formaldehyde resin, xylene, ethyl tosylamide, parabens, phthalates, or added fragrances. They also give 10% of their proceeds to the Mojave Desert Land Trust and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Fund.

Death Valley has some incredible colors, including an acid yellow-green neon called ‘Baptism by Fire‘, which I immediately added to my collection. Everything from the shade names to the packaging is so well thought out and beautiful. They were kind enough to send over their new Valentine’s Day Collection for us to review. The collection includes 3 shades: Marlboro Country, a hot pink creme, Hollering Woman, a golden beige to red shimmering thermal, and the Wolfman of Del Rio, a stunning blood red gelee polish.

All three polishes require two to three coats to get to opacity. The formula is relatively thin, which I actually prefer because the super thick polishes always end up super gloppy on my nails and they never end up drying and then they smear and smudge and it’s not good. So, the formula is really nice for me. I do wish the brush was flatter and thicker – the brush on their bottles is the thin one like the Essie bottles, which isn’t my favorite. But, the fact that the formula is thinner means that it is plenty workable with this brush. It’s just a personal preference.

I was really impressed with how well these lasted on the nails! I had a tendency to rip my nail polish off when it starts to lift, and that didn’t happen at all with this polish! I did end up peeling it off of one finger but that is because my nail broke when I was opening a can of cat food. Not on the polish at all. I used a Beauty 360 base coat with Seche Vite top coat, which I love, and I definitely noticed that the polish did not chip at all while I wore it. In fact, when I ended up taking it off, I noticed that it basically looked new aside from where my nails had grown out.

The pink, Marlboro Country, is a regular creme formula, the red, the Wolfman of Del Rio, is a gelee formula, which I personally love on the nails, and the shimmer, Hollering Woman, is a thermal! The thermal was so fun to wear. It would be really cold while walking to class in the mornings and my nails would turn bright red, then slowly go back to a peachy golden pink during class. I loved it and will be reaching for it a ton for sure.

Overall, I really enjoyed trying these polishes from Death Valley, and hope to try more in the future. I really love the style of the brand, the unique shades, and the formulas. All three of them applied beautifully overall, lasted a long time, and looked great. I also love the fact that they donate some of their proceeds to charities that fit well with the desert theme of their brand. I highly recommend Death Valley to indie polish newbies and experts alike!

*These products were complimentary from the brand for review, but that doesn’t change our opinion in any way. None of the links in this post are affiliated.