Well, hello there!
I've been slacking big time. But I had a lot going on. I went to Vegas, worked like crazy, celebrated a friend's birthday, went to the Pac-12 Championship game where I froze my toesies but got to see my Ducks win and head off to the Rose Bowl again. Now it's a matter of squeezing in time to blog between work and keeping the Mr. Matt happy. Oy.
Anyhoo, I got to make a rare visit to Rite-Aid and I spied the Nutra Nail Gel Perfect UV- Free Nail Color display. I saw a couple of posts here and there about it and thought I'd pass because the colors I saw were meh. However, I was still intrigued by the concept and since I have yet to find another at home gel product locally, this seemed worth a try.
Thus I came home with this:
Moonstone Gel Perfect Kit
Activator, gel color, brush cleaner and instructions.
I really like the color a lot. It's a slate blue with gold-ish, silver-ish shimmer. Once I show the other pics, you'll see that this is a rather intriguing color.
Now, the kit comes with an activator, gel color and brush cleaner. You brush on the activator as quickly as possible while avoiding your cuticles and then paint on the gel color. It is very much like using regular polish but not. I had issues with application, namely, I got it on my cuticles and my brush stokes were very uneven. I chalk it up to first time user blues and finding the thin coats to actually be a problem. But more on that in a moment.
Bottle shot...
This applies really sheer. Nutra Nail says to apply it thinly and that you will need three coats to reach opacity. I ended using four because it really is sheer.My first thin coat looked like it was going to melt away on the nail so my successive coats were much thicker.Which was a big mistake. I was a little freaked out by having to alternate coats of activator and color and worried I was not working fast enough. I know now to RELAX.
The final product
The shimmer looks a little flaky, but oh so pretty.
You can see how it is uneven and messy. And this is not easy to try and clean from your cuticles. My fingers felt like they had super glue on them! I also had super thick patches that looked like I was trying to mold my nail or something. No bueno.
Though I wasn't pleased with myself for doing such a horrible job, I decided to torture myself for wearing this as long as possible. If anyone can give a torture test to gel polish, it's me. So, the next couple of days I sorted through giant boxes of Xmas decorations, hauled tree stands, merchandised shelves, stocked shelves, cashiered, degreased my bike chain, cleaned my house, colored my hair and washed my hands elebenty billion times.
This held up surprisingly well though I did not hold out hope since my application was so bad. Thus, the third and final day I received my big ass chips.
This is what Moonstone DOES NOT look like. I hate winter lighting.
Would you like to know just gave me that giant chip? Tapping my nails against the bar while waiting for a drink. For reals.
I am truly impressed. For a quickie, drugstore product it worked rather well and exceeded expectations.
What I liked:
Each coat cures very fast so you can accomplish a full manicure in about fifteen minutes and be ready to go.
The wear is surprisingly good. This stuff can stand up to a lot of hand washing and other abuse.
The removal was not any more difficult than removing a glitter polish. I used the foil method and held cotton in place for two minutes. Stuff slid right off.
What I did not like:
The color selection isn't great. This was the most interesting color I saw. This color applies very sheer and really requires more than three coats. The gel color is very thick and it is hard to apply an even yet thin coat.
My nails were not in the best shape before I applied this but I wasn't loving how they were after. I had so much peeling!
I will be giving this another go and see if I can perfect my technique because I really want to use it on my sister. Personally, I don't want to wear the same nail color on my hands longer than a day but I think this is a fab product for someone like my sister. (Who does not polish her nails because, oh it chips and she doesn't want to change it. I do not understand.)
What do you think? Is this a product you would try?
