Bobbie Nail Polish | Kohl

My first memory of using black nail polish was in college... a guy schoolmate wanted to look like a rock star and asked us to do his manicure (just applying the black nail polish), and it was so difficult! After painting two of his nails, I asked another classmate to finish it off, and it was a big mess. That experience made me sort of decide not to go with black nail polish...but that's also because I am not so fond of nail polish back then; I just use it during Christmastime.

Watching one of my favorite TV shows "Criminal Minds" made me more interested with nail polish because of one of its characters, Penelope Garcia. Aside from her funky outfits and ever changing eyeglasses, I also always check her nails because of the beautiful nail polish she has, and one of the shades I hoped to get my hands on was this super dark gray color. Quite a tricky shade to find because it's super dark gray, but it's not black. Up to this day, I still haven't found that exact shade, but was happy to find this instead:


Bobbie Nail Polish in Kohl.

Actually, this has been on my stash for nearly a year now and I have used this once last year, but since I started buying more and more nail polishes, it took a while before I used this again. Now that I am blogging about the nail polishes I own, I would like to start with the old ones going to the new ones, in chronological order if I can.


It is black, but what I love about this compared the typical creme-type black nail polish is that this has a subtle shimmer in it, such a tragedy that my camera can't pick up the shimmer, though. Anyway, application is easy... and yes, quite a little messy to clean up should there be any nail polish touching the sides of the nail, but it was just so elegant and pretty! On my nails are two coats of Kohl plus topcoat.

Image taken from Bobbie website

If there's one thing I don't like... it would have to be the labels on the bottle. The "nail blogger" in me want to show the color of my nails as close to the color of the lacquer in the bottle, and since the labels aren't transparent and the bottle is slightly small (majority of Bobbie nail polishes are 8ml), I wasn't able to produce the picture I wanted to show. I checked the Bobbie website and saw this image... I hope pretty soon they would change to this transparent labels.

Anyway, the day I had this nail polish on, I was at SM MOA for the special screening of "Les Miserables." After the movie, my sister met up with me and together we checked different shops. We entered two Korean cosmetics stores - Etude House and Tony Moly, and because they have a tester for each of their products, I decided to try their glitter topcoats:


On my thumb: Two kinds of topcoats, one with the powder shimmer and one with the big shards of silver glitters with a slight holographic effect. I loved the first topcoat I applied, the big glitters, I didn't like at all.

On my index finger: Different sizes of hex glitters that also changes color as you move the fingers. The saleslady said it is called "Disco Lights," and it sure looked like a mirror ball.

On my middle finger: The bottle looked like clear top coat with lots of white particles (not glitter). It reminds me of Essie Luxe Effects (Shine of the Times), and it was love at first sight! The flakies go green and orange...but when I took pictures with flash, it also gives a brown color. Even the saleslady was amazed by how it looked, and I am thinking of buying it in the future.

On my ring finger: Purple hex glitters in different sizes. This was a different topcoat because it has a black jelly base, and can be used as its own. I loved it because it dried smooth (no rough textures because of the glitters), and I loved the purple-black combination.

On my pinkie finger: I wasn't able to capture its beauty because it was a mix of black, silver, and white glitters. Because I was wearing black nail polish as my base, the black glitters (bar, hex, and super small square ones) sort of fade into the background.

All of these topcoats cost 178 pesos per bottle. Very expensive, but I am craving for that flakie topcoat and I just might buy one of it.


On my pinkie and middle fingers: Hex glitters in blue and pink...it looks pretty, but with so many different types of glitters, this looked passe already.

On my ring finger: Dust-like silver glitters in clear base.

On my index finger:  Something similar to Etude House's "Disco Lights," but this one's much, much smaller.

On my thumb: This isn't a topcoat, actually... but Tony Moly's version of the sand nail polish. I love this way too much because unlike the sand nail polish I have used, this one didn't have the silvery powder; instead, this one looked a lot like grounded charcoal. It also has some pink speckles, making it a part of my wish list. Too bad it was priced 280 pesos. Gaaah!

Bobbie "Kohl" is the only black nail polish on my stash. I am very open to owning more, but because black comes in just one shade, I think I will buy one given it's different effects, just like the Bobbie "Black Shadow," which has glitters in it. I might also buy a black creme-type nail polish just to compare the application and the finish.

Bobbie nail polish in 8ml bottles cost about 36 pesos each, but Landmark (TriNoma and/or Makati) sells it at 29.75 per bottle.