Adorned Nails: Skin Food Nail Vita VI408 Violet Stone


Here’s another brand from the Far East. Skin Food is one of many (and I do mean, many) South Korean cosmetics brands targeted at the budget-conscious. It’s got a slew of products covering makeup, skin care, body care and hair care. The products are usually housed in classy-cute (could it possibly be anything else?!) packaging and have catchy names to reflect the star ingredient in each product.

Here’s what I mean: Salmon Brightening Eye Cream, Gold Caviar Nutrition Mask, Seaweed Cleansing Gel, Eggplant Waterproof Mascara Remover, Agava Cactus Toner. Get the idea?

This is what Skin Food says: We believe in beauty within food. It takes a long time for us to produce products from cultivating the ingredients to making them into actual cosmetics, but our products manifest effects for a longer time.

Interesting philosophy. I was intrigued by it all. It's a pity that the brand suffered a blow to its reputation recently. You see, in a test carried out by the Hong Kong Consumer Council on some samples of nail polishes from various brands, it was found that two of Skin Food’s nail products contained benzene and methanol. Ouch!

One report said that Skin Food has refuted such claims while another said that Skin Food Hong Kong announced that they would offer full refunds to anyone who had purchased the two products. If anyone’s interested, the two products in question were the Jojoba Pure Nail PK004 and the Milk Creamy Nail Base Coat (from that cute range that girls have been cooing over – their bottles are shaped like baby milk bottles). Read more about it here.

Right, let’s move on. This polish I'm featuring today comes from Skin Food’s Nail Vita range (its bottle design is surprisingly plain, no?). It’s actually called only VI408 on the bottle and I found out its other name, Violet Stone, from Skin Food’s website. The Nail Vita range is supposed to contain vitamin and keratin nutrients.

Uhm, Skin Food, you've neglected to tell us which vitamin??

I tried looking for its list of ingredients but couldn’t find it anywhere, not on the bottle and not on the website. So, I really have no idea if it’s 3-free. I suspect not, as the report about the random testing mentioned above also stated that the two offending products contain toluene (but they were below the limit set in the EU’s Cosmetic Directive). I wouldn’t know if the same may apply to this Nail Vita range. [shrug]


The formula was on the thick side. I skipped the brush-draining step and applied with the brush drenched with polish. If I didn't do that, I found that the brush got too dry and getting the nail tips coated with polish was a problem.

Oh, did I tell you that this polish stinks? I have a pretty good tolerance for nail polish smells but this one is [gag] for the initial few minutes.


The colour is....oh, how should I put it.....spellbinding. Yes, the name says it’s violet but I think there’s a very fine line between violet and blue when looking at Violet Stone. To top it off, its shimmers are stupefyingly pretty. Violet Stone is like a violet night sky densely filled with faraway pink, red, blue and aqua stars.




Being the party pooper that I am in this post, I have one more gripe. This polish, gorgeous as it is, started chipping a bit within 12 hours. It’s Day Two today and the chipping has progressed. Sigh, I suppose this is what one sometimes gets with a €2 bottle of nail polish. And gosh, you know what? I have two other Nail Vita shades in my drawer!

Curious? Have a look at the website of Skin Food, even if it's just to coo over the baby milk bottles!

28 comments:

Unknown said...

you paint it on your nails so precisely! Love the colour and I really adore the packaging =)

Mz. More said...

That is a gorgeous purple and perfect for the season, as purples are pretty big right now in the beauty world!

Unknown said...

It is gorgeous but if the smell and chipping is intolerable to you, I guess it's not worth it.

Witoxicity said...

@London's-beauty
Thanks. The colour's certainly fabulous. :)

@Mz. More
Yes, you're indeed right about the purples, but I'd wear such a colour whatever the season. :)

@Dao
Yeah, it's a real pity about the negatives because the colour is simply sooo beautiful! Sigh!

~Elizabeth aka Lacquered Lizard said...

You really do make the polish look like it applies itself.
This is a dead on dupe for Borghese Plumaggio Purple...and it won't chip on ya so much. :)

Arie said...

Very interesting post.
To bad that one stinks, looks pretty nice on you!

immarafrancesca said...

I super like! :)

Shop N' Chomp said...

It stinks *and* chips quickly? =(

Anonymous said...

It's strange how media hypes things up. Here I was thinking there were problems with the whole of the Skin Food nailpolish range. Nails by Rachel uses Skin Food alot and I've enjoyed all of her posts with Skin Food polish. The bottle may be plain but that polish packs a punch! Spellbinding is the perfect word! Purple polish suits you Witoxicity. Beautiful!

Witoxicity said...

@Elizabeth
Thanks for the tip on Borghese! Well, wouldn't life be so much easier for us if nail polishes would polish themselves. :D

@Arie
I really, really love this colour, but I can't simply ignore the negative points, can I? :(

@Mara
Me too! :)

@Shop N' Chomp
Yes, double whammy there. :(

@The Diva's Polish
Thanks, my dear. :) Well, media hype can make or break a brand. While the random testing involved these two Skin Food nail products, among others, one can neither conclude nor disprove that all other Skin Food nail products are also bad. And it doesn't help that there isn't a list of ingredients!

DinaXYYan said...

The colour is beautiful! Too bad it chips so fast..

Witoxicity said...

@Dina
My sentiments exactly! :)

makeup merriment said...

This is gorgeous! I love the complexity of the shimmer in this color. I have had a couple of items(a mask and the bean eye pencil was quite nice) from Skinfood. I wasn't aware that they had nail polish. Lovely blog x jeanie

Witoxicity said...

@jv
Hi Jeanie! Thanks for dropping by. Oh yes, some of Skin Foods' dark nail polishes are simply gorgeous (never mind the question mark surrounding the ingredients). Violet Stone is quite breathtaking to look at. Do check out their nail polishes the next time you come across Skin Food in the store. :)

The Beautifier said...

Hey honey! I love the color! At 2 euros its definitely a steal! xoxo

Witoxicity said...

@The Beautifier
Yup, it's quite a bargain! :)

Cynthia Z said...

That shade is gorgeous! Too bad about all the cons though. It stinks?! LOL! Interesting to know that SF suffered a blow. I've only bought a few things (not nail polish) from the brand n I love them.
I still regret not getting their Rice Mask last time :\

♥xx♥

Witoxicity said...

@Cynthia
That's funny. I, on the other hand, didn't get anything from there except for nail polishes! But I must admit, they do have very interesting products. It was so difficult to choose only a few things, so I gave up and chose none. :D

Vonvon said...

That is a nice shade.

so, it's true from what I heard of the Skin Food nail polish.

That's one reason why I am so not into nail polish. Just got too paranoid about these things. As for my little girl, I am quite selective of what she can put on her nails and what not. But I have since limited her nail polish to her toenails only.

And speaking of nail polish, I have 2 waiting for me to try out and review. ;)

Witoxicity said...

@Vonvon
So, you've heard less than favourable things about Skin Food too! Yeah, kids and nail polish... it's better to err on the side of caution. Ooh, I'm looking forward to seeing your nail polish posts! :D

Anonymous said...

Yikes, quite a blow to the company when something like that is discovered. I didn't hear anything about it, but then again I don't keep up to date with Skinfoods. In fact, I've never tried any of their products but they all do sound quite intriguing!
Despite a couple setbacks, the polish does indeed look so pretty. I feel mesmerized like I'm looking out into the night sky!

Witoxicity said...

@Natalie
I wasn't aware of the controversy till after I had purchased the polishes. I haven't tried their other products yet but yeah, I'm fascinated by their names too.

I see you agree with me about this polish. It's gorgeous, isn't it? :)

ThRiSzHa said...

theres a skin food store here in Manila and I only bought 1 polish and my 2 extra polish was a gift for me.. would u believe that I havent try my skin food polish yet nor even try to swatch it?? I read in some post that this SF polish has a high lead content.. anyways this color has quite similar on one of my The Face shop polish..have u heard about it? its also a korean brand..

Witoxicity said...

@ThRiSzHa
Haha, I have the same issues with polishes left neglected like that. Lead content?! Oh dear! Yes, I have heard of The Face Shop brand. I have a few polishes from them too. :)

ThRiSzHa said...

oppsss.. i mean led content.. the faceshop is quite good and there bottles is great... but from all the korean brand polish I love etude house polish most..

Witoxicity said...

@ThRiSzHa
Oh, don't worry about the spelling! It was correct the first time! :) So, you recommend Etude House, eh? Hmm, I think I may have one in my drawer somewhere (it's one of those poor neglected polishes). I must put it on one day! :D

Lolipop said...

Love the color!!
Did it start chipping even with some top coat?

Witoxicity said...

@Lolipop
I haven't tried it with a top coat yet. I couldn't bring myself to open the bottle again, not with that awful smell wafting out of it. Well, there are two other Skin Food polishes to try still. I'll try them with top coats on next time (and a face mask too!). Stay tuned! :)