Blue

Catrice Poolside of Life Nail Lacquer [C02 - Deep Dive] Review

By Maychiri's Thoughts - May 20, 2025

Only review for today, and it’s a limited edition item! This is the Catrice Poolside of Life Nail Lacquer, in the shade C02/Deep Dive!
 
 
 
I spent so much time just trying to decide whether to buy anything from the Poolside of Life LE. It was a cool mini LE, but all the colours were a bit meh to me. I then decided that I would at least buy one of the nail polishes, if nothing else; there was one shade that was really pretty to me (C03/Purple Skies), but I already have quite a few lavender nail polishes that are excellent quality, so this felt like a boring choice. And that’s how I ended up buying this light blue polish, I wanted to buy something I don’t already have like 6 similar copies of. But light blue? Really not my kind of nail polish colour... and it is metallic. I realise I am taking a bit of a risk buying this, as there is a high chance of me disliking this colour, but what the heck – let’s have fun! And let’s see what this polish is like, and whether it is different to the iconic ICONAILS!
 
 
 
 
Packaging: very modern, even for Catrice! Instead of being that classic nail polish packaging that Catrice is known for, this bottle looks much more like an Essence nail polish as it is a bottle with a round cross-section. Instead of being rectangular. The cap is the same shape, so the result is that it looks like a large cylinder, nothing wrong with that! The white is the perfect colour to go with the icy blue of the nail polish! It creates this stunning contrast that makes everything look even more modern! I especially love that white Catrice logo! Text is white, as well. The cap closes very tightly. Very fun bottle, indeed!
 
 

 
Source: www.catrice.com
Ingredients: açaí (Euterpe oleracea) fruit oil for nourishment; 3-free (DBP, formaldehyde, toluene). The scent, at first, smells completely ‘normal’ like any other nail polish, but that changes after you are done applying the polish. I swear to god, I thought I was losing my mind! I thought my brain was imagining things... why would a nail polish smell like... lemons??? But it does really smell citrusy! Oh... looking at the ingredients list, well, would you look at that! It has perfume and limonene! Yeah, that would explain it. Nowhere did it say that this was a perfumed nail polish, but it’s a nice scent. Very summery! And it’s not too intense. The expiration date is 36 months after opening.
 
 
 
Brush: simply fantastic! As usual for Catrice nail polishes, after all! This is a wide flat brush that picks up way too much nail polish, this thick formula needs to be applied in tiny layers, not what this brush picks up. So tap off the excess to avoid having a disaster on your hands – literally! The brush applies the polish super evenly, aside from the brushstrokes being visible, but the brush cannot do anything in that regard since that’s an issue with the formula. However, the brush makes it very easy to try and make it streak-free as it is so wide that you truly need just a few swipes and that’s it! When it fans out, it covers the entire nails, which further simplifies the process. And it is surprisingly precise! 
 
 
 
I was able to paint my nails without having a huge mess on my cuticles, despite the brush being so large! It’s a really high quality, almost professional level brush! I love it! Though, it might have shed one hair... I have no idea where that one tiny little hair came from. It possibly wasn’t even from the brush.
 
 
 
Colour: first and foremost, this is not a summery colour. Now, with that out of the way, this is a very, very bright light blue. It’s like a light sky blue or a baby blue; it has a good amount of white undertones, which gives it this icy look. Frosted, even... oh god, this is taking me back. Back to... gasp! The 00’s. I lived through the worst of Y2K styles, and this nail polish is sooo Y2K-coded. It’s the fact that it’s pearlescent and light baby blue... shivers... see, when I look at this colour, I see: tank tops on tank tops on lacy tunics on bell bottoms jeans. Bonus points if it’s with a cropped denim very or a bolero. I see: chunky plastic bangles, heaps of layered tacky chunky necklaces and crimped hair. 
 
 
 
 
 
And I see light blue shimmery eyeshadow with white highlights all over the eyes, extra tweezed stick-thin eyebrows, pastel light pink frosted lipstick with about 3 tubes-worth of lipgloss on top... nightmares, in short. I may be over-exaggerating a little bit, but I really am not feeling this almost frosted light blue. I was hoping it would be much more lavender. See, this nail polish is supposed to be sort-of duochrome, switching from this baby blue to a lavender colour, but, thing is, this effect is barely visible. Perhaps it’s because the colours are too similar, or perhaps it’s because it’s very metallic shiny when any sort of light hits it. Or perhaps it’s both. It’s really only visible in low lighting, and in very specific angles. It’s light lavender, so when it is visible, it is truly beautiful! 
 
 
It looks like a beautiful aurora, and the pearlescent finish makes it look three-dimensional, which makes both the light blue and the lavender pop more. I love it when I can see both colours, such a shame that the iridescence is so poorly visible. And you know what, this light sky blue/baby blue actually looks good on my pale skin! It looks even more intense on pale skin, and the blue is popping way more than I thought it would! A very pretty colour, I am just sadly not feeling it.
 
 
 
This is an odd formula, I am not used to Catrice nail polishes having such thick, but creamy, formula. Usually, it’s gelly, but this nail polish isn’t really gelly. Well, for the most part, as it can become somewhat gelly on the second coat. But it’s super creamy actually! Like, legit creamy! This makes it very easy to spread across nails (as long as you tap off the excess and apply thin layers), as it’s not runny and never becomes goopy. It also applies fantastically evenly, from the first coat! It really is no problem painting your nails evenly, and the second coat turns out much more even than the first one, and I wasn’t even trying particularly hard. Just a few swipes and that’s it!  
 
 
 
 
However, the big problem with this formula is that it is very streaky; that is, you can clearly see the brushstrokes, even if you applied it precisely. It improves a lot with two coats, but I can still see the brushstrokes. Also, this formula is thick! So you really need to use the bare minimal amount to avoid making a huge mess. But since it applies so evenly it’s not usually a problem. Pretty nice formula, even though I was shocked by it at first. There really aren’t many Catrice nail polishes that are like this.
 
 
 
One coat is almost opaque, but I can still see the nails peeking through a little bit. But, this isn’t why this nail polish cannot be worn with one coat, it’s the fact that the colour looks faded and there are for too many brushstrokes visible. This makes it look a bit messy. Let’s try to apply a second coat and see what happens. Okay, with two coats, it is completely opaque and looks quite thick. So definitely don’t apply more than 2 coats, it’s going to be nightmarishly thick if you do. Although, it doesn’t look gelly thick, more like glazed thick, which is nice with this colour. Though, it still shows brushstrokes, so you have to be careful how you apply it so that that isn’t too visible. 
 
 
 
 
The texture is a mixture of highly metallic, glazed, and pearlescent. It’s quite a unique texture, and, if you look closely, you can see the tiny shimmer inside, which gives this nail polish a subtly grainy look. I’d say it is mostly pearlescent, but it is also very, very shiny! As long as just a tiny bit of light hits it directly, it develops a high metallic shine that prevents the iridescence from showing properly. And it’s like this most of the time. But in low light, it looks much more 3D and pearly, and the subtle shimmer is much more visible. Really pretty finish, but I would like it more if it didn’t have that super shiny metallic shine. Everything else is gorgeous, dare I say!
 
 
 
 
Longevity is insane! It did not have any signs of damage throughout the 4 days I had been wearing it, literally, no damage at all! It doesn’t get scratched up one bit, no matter how rough you are with your nails (although, even if it did get scratched up, you wouldn’t see it as the bountiful shimmer conceals it). And it didn’t get chipped one bit until I washed my hair; but even then, I only had one tiny chip on one nail, which is incredible! Now, I don’t know why, but these kinds of pearlescent nail polishes usually do have bonkers longevity, and this one just further proves that point! I was actually contemplating leaving it on for a few more days, I felt bad removing it when it was in such amazing condition.
 
 
 

 
I was afraid that this nail polish would be hard to remove since it has so much shimmer inside, but it is actually pleasantly easy to remove! I didn’t have to rub a lot, although the top layer did need a bit of coercing to break through it. But after that, everything else was easy! It didn’t leave any residual shimmer on my fingers and it did not appear to discolour nails. It’s a light enough colour, but blue nail polishes sometimes make my nails slightly greenish-yellow; fortunately, this one does not! My, my, positive surprises all around!
 
 
 
 
 
 
All in all, alright, I have to admit, this is one crazy good nail polish! I had no real expectations, I just hoped it would be nice, but it’s actually much better quality than even the ICONAILS polishes! It’s all about the longevity, which is bonkers! Let me tell you, I did not expect it to last 4 full days without any single chips! And no scratches, either! It is a survivor – being able to go through a hair wash with just a single, tiny, chip that shows that it is not, in fact, invincible. But it is still ludicrously long lasting! I was certain it would chip when I went to open makeup cases with my nails, but it didn’t! I was certain it would chip as soon as I started to really wash my hair – but it didn’t! I believe that the only reason it did chip is because I wore nitrile gloves to hand-wash some clothing, and that friction against the nitrile proved to be too much for the polish on one finger. But again, that’s just on one finger and even then, it is a tiny chip. Astounding! The formula is similarly astounding, as it is super creamy and thick but so very easy to apply evenly. This formula is something new for Catrice; I have never used a Catrice nail polish that had such a creamy, thick formula. It actually feels luxurious, ngl. And it’s never goopy, so you can freely apply 2 coats without worrying that it will become a goopy mess. The brush is, as usual, simply fantastic; it applies the polish perfectly evenly and thickly, so painting the nails takes very little time. One of the few flaws I can mention is that the formula suffers from having visible brushstrokes even if you’ve applied the polish properly. However, this is known to happen with these kinds of pearlescent, metallic nail polishes. Oh yeah, did I mention that this isn’t actually just metallic, but pearlescent? It’s got a very fine grainy texture that, combined with the high shine, makes it look like the inside of mother-of-pearl. However, the iridescence isn’t as visible as it should be. This is a very light bright blue colour that is supposed to have a lavender shift or shimmer. It seems to me it is supposed to be somewhat duochrome, changing from the bright blue to the lavender depending on the lighting and angle. But the effect is minimal, I only see it becoming lavender in dim light, as soon as there is any decent lighting it becomes just blindingly bright light blue and the metallic shine takes over. This is a shame, as I really wanted it to be like half light blue, half lavender. In any case, it’s a colour well-suited for the colder months of the year – and for any Y2K look you might want to do. This is my main gripe with the colour, it is just so frustratingly Y2K! It reminds me of all the worst parts of Y2K fashion, that I tried so hard to escape from growing up, and now I pick the one most Y2K colour??? Look, it’s a beautiful colour, for sure, but it’s just not my cup of tea. It meshes well with my pale skin, but I am just not one for anything Y2K... I was just looking for a suitably wintery colour to wear in winter. And oh is it a good wintery colour, it would look amazing with snow and icicles and stuff! Oh, it’s also scented – it smells like lemons! So, what started off as a sort-of forced purchase, ended up being a seriously incredible nail polish! The finish and colour might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean that the polish itself isn’t high quality, because it is superb quality! Able to match Essies in its longevity! So yes, it does come a surprise to me that I will, in fact, give this nail polish a recommendation! It is far too good for me not to give it one, even if I have to force myself to get to like the colour.
 
 
 
Rating: 9/10
 
 
Would buy again? Hmm YES?
 
 





  • Share:

0 comments