I found this polish to be much better than some of the reviews I'd read would indicate. Yes, it's very sheer and streaky on the first coat, and unless you've got the steadiest hand ever, you'd probably be unable to wear just one coat. Two coats, though not perfectly opaque, gave enough opacity for my preferences (I'm not that fussy about having absolute opacity), and it's really pretty! Very bright, very white, and extremely pearlescent. It does show brush marks like nobody's business, that's definitely true, but, strangely, I don't feel like it detracts from the beauty of the finish. Normally, I hate brush marks (no, I really do), but the surface of a natural pearl often has swirls and swishes and so on, and that's what I was reminded of with this. So, yes, brush marks galore, almost certainly unavoidable, but to me, that's not a big deal with this polish, possibly because of the brightness. I can't say this looks especially great with my pale, cool complexion, but very pale polishes rarely do, and I pretty much expected that. This isn't horrible, though, the way some whites are. The pearlescent effect gives my nails a kind of jeweled aspect that makes it work, I guess. I also tried a single coat of this over a semi-sheer white base (OPI Funny Bunny) and that was quite pretty. Probably better than doing two coats of Kyoto Pearl, in fact. The white base worked to support the pearlescent effect really nicely. Very appealing.Honestly, I don't know why I like this polish as much as I do, but I do really like it, brush marks and all, and I'm happy to have it in my collection. I rarely wear white, so I expect it'll be in my collection for a long time to come, but it would make a fine base for certain kinds of nail art, and I might try doing some French tips with it (have done that before with another pearly polish; interesting look, to say the least).