Back when Dior’s Pink Boa came out the spring, I tried it and didn’t like it at all.  I had problems with streaking and thought it was sheer and boring.  But recently when I needed a super conservative nail color for a meeting, I decided to give it one more chance, and found that I really like it!  There are a few tricks to making Pink Boa behave…

My previous, unsatisfied review of Pink Boa is here.  Pink Boa is a bright, warm pink that is a bit sheer so it still looks classic and conservative.  It has the new Dior rounded brush, which was still kind of new when it came out in the spring – Pink Boa was the first sheer creme that I tried with the new brush.  I think that was part of the problem; I needed more practice with the brush.  It’s not quite so critical with the heavier shimmers, but with the sheer, creamy formula you can’t push very hard with the brush or you’ll get streaks.

Since the spring, I also invested in Dior’s Diorlisse Ridgefiller, although not with Pink Boa in mind.  But I used it for these pictures, and I think it really helped Pink Boa come out nicely.  It’s a light milky pink basecoat that adds a little bit of color to your nails, so the layers of Pink Boa already start out a little less sheer.  I’m sure you could also use other ridgefiller basecoats to lessen the sheerness.  I also used three coats of Pink Boa for these pictures, although back in the spring I could only get to two coats before giving up, because of drag and streakiness.

So, with a ridgefiller basecoat, a light touch and three coats, Pink Boa comes out a beautiful, squishy light pink that’s warm and vibrant while still staying classic.  It has a jellyish glow and is more orange than a lot of light pinks. It’s sheer but not so much as to be a problem – it’s about the same slight sheerness as Deborah Lippmann’s Naked.  I gather that Dior also has another polish color called Candy Pink that has the same number as Pink Boa, so it seems like it might be the same, and Pink Boa does have a sort of candy-ish, bright feel.  It’s a little brighter than it appears in my pictures, but it still worked for my serious work event.

One final difference between now and the spring: my nails are in much better shape, with no peeling sections.  In the spring I had a peelie middle finger that really stuck out under two sad coats of Pink Boa.  So I do think it helps to have healthy nails if you’re going to wear a sheer polish like this.  Cut off the peelie sections if you have to – if my nails start to have problems now, I just shorten them and start over rather than trying to coax them along.

I think Pink Boa was a Nordstrom’s exclusive this spring, but if you really go searching for it you can still find it at a few etailers.