When Kiko And The Renaissance Unite: Nail Art & Review

The SoNailicious Italian polish Odyssey would be incomplete without showing you the most popular Italian brand, Kiko Cosmetics!

First, a bit of history. Founded in Milan 1997, this beauty brand offers an extraordinarily wide range of affordable products. For instance, Kiko’s main nail polish range includes well over 200 colours plus there’s seasonal, niche collections and limited edition colours and sets!

Being a colour hungry Australian nail polish lover, it was a real challenge for me to decide which colours to buy. I spent at least an hour in a Roman Kiko contemplating the selection. Special thanks to the super helpful Marco (I hope you’re reading this, Marco!) for guiding me through the different ranges and providing detailed information about so many Kiko nail polishes. We had quite a chat!

I walked out with 10 Kiko polishes and some nail care (the best top coat search never ends, hey?). During the trip I had a chance to try quite a few, even on my toes when my nails were busy. Today I present a detailed review of the Kiko Quick Dry polish range…

And dear readers, you may well ask “what does The Renaissance have to do with that?”. The answer is simple and beautifully complex, Renaissance architecture inspired this nail design. To be more precise, it was one of the halls in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope, in Vatican City (pictured below). See the connection now?

Feel free to click on the photo to see a larger size. This blue nail design was free-handed. For the sake of Michelangelo, it just had to be!  Now let’s move on to Kiko review…

REVIEW – Kiko Quick Dry Nail Lacquer:

• Formula:  Cruelty-free and 5-Free – no toluene, camphor, DBP, formaldehyde resin and formaldehyde but they contain nitrocellulose. Also, even though this is in the ‘Quick Dry‘ range, this polish is not particularly fast-drying. I’ve tried Kiko 850 (perwinkle) and Kio 849 (light blue) just on their own and they take forever (about 2 hours!) to dry without a top coat.
• Finish: For the purpose of test driving different finishes from the same range, I got: 1 – classic creme Kiko 850 in periwinkle, 2 – creme with a frosty silver shimmer effect – Kiko 849 in light cool blue and thick shimmer – Kiko 856 in dark cobalt blue. All three are not highly pigmented, a bit sheer-ish and not glossy after they dry. So you’ll definitely need a top coat to make these look nice.
• Application: The polishes go on evenly and flawlessly and are very easy to apply. Great brush too but you’ll need 3-4 costs to get a fully opaque coverage.
• Wearability: These Kiko polishes will last up to 5 days with a top coat and a good moisturising base. Without top coat, 1-2 days.
• Nail Art: Perfect for any kind of nail art or details. Great for gradient manicures!

Overall Impression: The Kiko Quick Dry Nail Lacquer range includes some fantastic colours and great finishes, but the polish itself is so-so. So if you’re looking for a high performance, long-lasting polish, these Kiko polishes are not it. However, if you’re looking for some great new colours to add to your collection or you change your nail colour often, then totally go for it! Kiko polishes are very affordable and pretty.