Hopscotch Kids' Nail Polish Say, Say Oh Playmate

Nail polish and kids is always a somewhat controversial topic. Do you let them wear it? At what age? What if they're still really oral and they eat it off? Is it better to peel off or not? Then, what about colors? Should they be allowed to wear any color they want or only "pretty" colors like light pink?

Truthfully, I'm not sure where I am on the whole nail polish stance. I do think it is cute. I think fun and crazy colors are cuter than the pale pink colors. I don't think it is appropriate for little ones that can't keep their fingers out of their mouths. I prefer less exposure to chemicals, even though the doctor in me knows that nails don't absorb things, I still don't want them in my kid's polish.

Hopscotch Kids is free of pretty much every chemical they can put in nail polish ( toluene, dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde, nitrocellulose, butyl and ethyl acetates, acetone, FD&C, coal tar and lake colors), to the point that I wonder if there's anything left to put in it. In fact, this is a water based nail polish, so there's one ingredient at least.

I was sent a really pretty pink/purple shade to test. In the bottle there is silver sparkle, though it always appears that the silver has settled out. No matter how much I shook the bottle**, rolled the bottle.... yeah, always looked like that. Finally I decided to ignore that situation and apply anyways.

The polish is more watery than other polishes as well as somewhat sheer. Don't put too much polish on your brush or there will be big time pooling issues near the cuticles. 3 thin coats to opaque. The silver shimmer is subtle in person and very pretty. During application the shimmer appeared very streaky, but it seemed to sort itself out by the time the polish was dry. It did take about 8-10 minutes to be somewhat dry, and then a full hour to be totally dry. I'm not sure that this dry time is optimal for most kids, maybe a dedicated 5 year old could do it, or if there was a distraction a younger kiddo would be ok.

While Hopscotch isn't billed as a peelable nail polish, it was for me. I took this swatch picture the day after application, and you can see a few small issues with the finish. Rather than a traditional chip, the polish folds back on itself, which I liked. Rather than having polish chip off all over it stays put in one piece. I did think that the polish was a bit fragile, accumulating these folds rather easily. After 3 days I had to remove the polish. I was able to easily peel each nail of polish off in 1 piece, no remover required.

Hopscotch Kids comes in a pretty big variety of colors. Other kids polishes that I've seen are simply globs of shimmer in a polish that chips when you look at it funny and lasts at most a day. I really loved this purple shade and will be wearing it again.

Product Sent for Review

**Yes, I know not to shake polish before application as it causes bubbles.