Honestly, this is one of the hardest battles I have ever done because these two products are almost identical. I do have a favorite, but I really tried to be objective and compare these one at a time in the way I would other brands. In fact I went through and broke down every single area I did during my last brand battle for two nail strip companies. I am going to go through some different factors and dole out the winners for each one and then explain the reasoning. You may want to read
my comparison between Color Street and Jamberry, which was done similarly. At the end I will announce the winner of this brand battle. For those of you who don't know, both Color Street and
Rarity Nails are 100% Nail Polish Strips that sold by direct sales consultants.
I have had some feedback from sales consultants from Color Street. I am aware that the owner of Color Street has told you all that Rarity Nails and other brands do not offer 100% Nail Polish strips. I went ahead and did my own research by looking up every single ingredient listed in Rarity Nails sets and they are all ingredients commonly found in nail polish, the same as Color Street. Just like there are hundreds of brands of nail polish out there with different formulas, there will be other nail polish strip brands out there with different formulas too! Regardless of semantics, both of these items work similarly, and I will go ahead with my review now.
Variety goes to Color Street. Color Street is a little over a year old now and has 136 designs.
Rarity Nails on the other hand is only 4 months old and has 80 options. I remember when Color Street was at that stage and if I believe they had around 50. I have to go off of current numbers for this review but something tells me that in a few months
Rarity Nails will have pulled ahead here.
UPDATE - Rarity is now only 6 months old and has 98 options. Color Street has added some options and also discontinued some options so they are down to 131. It looks like my prediction might be right!
If you know me then you know I care about ingredients very much!
Rarity Nails and Color Street are both free of Parabens, Formaldehyde, DBP,
Toluene, Formaldehyde Resin, Camphor, Ethyl Tosylamide, and Xylene! Woo!
But Rarity Nails beat out Color Street by also being free of
Triphenyl phosphate. However I will admit that of all the "toxic"
ingredients often found in nail polish, this one is the least worrisome
to me. It is used to improve flexibility as well as being a fire
retardant. However in a study TPHP was linked to endocrine disruption,
and although scientists insist that the amount in nail polish is not
harmful, it is always good to be safe.
These two products are easy to use, to remove and they don't require any special glues ore removers. Both are gentle on the nails and honestly, it's a tie as to which brand is better for nail health. Both work wonderfully.
To me
Rarity Nails is the hands down winner of this category. They are a little thicker, they stretch better and they don't chip as easily. Even the packaging is less likely to tear and easier to re-seal.When I use Color Street I do tend to tear the nail strips and I often end up tearing them so that they don't evenly cover my nail anymore. I know that is user error in a lot of ways, but the strips are simply flimsier. I don't have that issue with
Rarity Nails because they are more durable.
This one was to close to call. Color Street and
Rarity Nails are used the same way and take the same amount of time to apply.
Once again they are used the same way. I wouldn't say that one is easier to apply than the other. I am mostly adding these so that people can see how similar they truly are, as well as because these are areas I have compared other brands in before.
Both Color Street and
Rarity Nails are 100% nail polish, but because
Rarity Nails are a little thicker, they are also a little harder to remove. Color Street's are absurdly easy to remove. You can use nail polish remover or acetone, wet down a cotton pad and just wipe it right off. With
Rarity Nails I did have to use Acetone, polish remover wasn't cutting it. And I definitely had to let the pad sit on my nails for a minute or two. There was no damage or scraping on either side, and neither were hard or time consuming, but in comparison Color Street is the obvious winner here.
Inclusiveness is a weird way of me saying, what all comes with the nails strips? Do I need extra parts? So in the package of Color Street Nail Strips you get 16 polish strips, 2 alcohol wipes and 1 mini nail file. In the
Rarity Nails Package you get 18 polish strips, 1 alcohol wipe, 1 mini nail file and 1 double ended orange wood stick.
So first of all the nail files that come in the Color Street ones are garbage in my opinion. I have always used my own because I feel like they don't do anything. The
Rarity Nails nail files are a little larger and sturdier. I can use one file for multiple applications. The alcohol wipes are very different too. The Color Street ones are branded with the logo and come with two, while rarity nails uses generic medical looking ones, and it only comes with one. However I feel the color street ones are smaller and dryer than the ones that
Rarity Nails have.I have to use one wipe on each hand with color street, and can use the same on both with
Rarity Nails.
Then you have the orange wood stick. You guys, this is genius. You really have to push back your cuticle to use these properly or they will look grown out day one. The Color Street doesn't come with anything for that but
Rarity Nails includes a pretty nice mini orange wood stick that is double ended! One end is the classic cuticle pusher. The other end is a pointed tip and it works great for pressing down on the edges of your nails firmly and securing them.
Rarity Nails has Color Street beat here handily.
Last but not least is value. This is a big one and the major difference between the two honestly. Color Street only has 16 strips per pack, while
Rarity Nails has 18. But
Rarity Nails are also half the price of Color Street. Color Street ranges from $11 for their solid colors and $13 for their designs, with $14 being the rate for their french manicures.
Rarity Nails is $5 across the board. Color Street has a buy 3 get one free deal that puts their sets at $9.75, while Rarity does buy 8 get one free making their sets $4.44. However the sale price of the Color Street ones are still more than the full price of the Rarity sets. Now before you say that that must mean
Rarity Nails aren't as high quality, you are wrong. Color Street is owned by Incoco, which is a polish strip brand that also sells at $7.99. Incoco and Color Street are practically identical. So you are paying a premium for the Color Street name when you buy them.
and the winner is.....
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So here is the deal, I am still a fan of color street, I still own a bunch of their product and I like their wraps a lot. BUT because of the high prices I am leaning towards
Rarity Nails and will pick them up more often! If you are already a Color Street fan, you may want to try
Rarity Nails too! The designs are totally different and you may end up finding some you are in love with. If you have wanted to try color street but can't afford them, these are a great alternative.
Full disclosure guys, I am going to post an affiliate link and will be getting kickbacks off purchases made through the links to
Rarity Nails on this page. Hopefully you don't stone me for it, but I am always transparent with you. You should consider getting onto social media and seeing if you have a friend or family member you could support first, but if not I'd love for you to support me.
You can pick up some Rarity Nails for yourself by clicking here.
You can pick up Color Street Nails here.