Day 3 - Nutra Nail Gel Polish - Moonstone

I must say, I'm pretty disappointed with this product.  I mean - I wasn't expecting Shellac or Gelish quality, but I did kind of expect something more than what I've gotten out of it.

I took these photos first thing in the morning, because I am fairly confident this won't last the day.  I have huge chips on my index and middle fingers, complete with a huge vertical crack in my middle finger that is barely visible if you embiggen the photo.

Both thumbnails self-destructed yesterday.  The right thumbnail went first.  I tried to save it by filling in the huge chip but it wasn't happening.  Instead I tried using the polish as a regular polish and the activator as a top coat.  That worked flawlessly, for about three hours.  Then it all peeled off in one flexible sheet.

The left thumbnail chipped off in layers.  Seriously.  I could see parts where only the top layer went, and parts where the top two layers went.   I'm guessing that might have been because I polish from pinky to thumb, so that one had the most time to dry out between coats of activator and polish.  Anyway, it was clear by then that this was a failed experiment.

So, what didn't I like?  I didn't like that it self-destructed in such an annoying way, and couldn't be repaired.  Also, since this dries to a hard surface, you have to be careful when it chips, otherwise your bare feet will remind you.  I also didn't like that my nails felt thick and inflexible. I'm guessing that contributed to the catastrophic chips.

I do really, really love this color, though.  I might try it as a regular polish but I'm pretty sure it won't work.  And if you regularly use Shellac or Gelish this might not be a bad option - I've never used either so for all I know this real is comparable, and I'd destroy either of those, too.

Nutra Nail Gel Color - Moonstone

Today I have something different.  I'm going to be doing a wear test of this gel polish I picked up at Ulta. 

The box says it does not require a UV light so I figured I would give it a try.  The box costs about 7 dollars and contains everything you need.  I also picked up a box of the remover, and on my way home I thought, "Huh, I bet that's just acetone" and yep, it is.  I picked Moonstone because it was the only non-creme in the display at my Ulta.

This is all the stuff that comes in the box.  There's an "Activator", a "Cleaner", and the bottle of color.  The polish bottle is .17 oz, about the same size as a mini.  I don't know if it works as a regular polish - I might try it later.

Here are the instructions that come with.  Looks intimidating, especially since the first step is "unscrew all the bottle tops and leave them unscrewed".

This kit says nothing about base coat so I opted to skip it.  I started with a swipe of acetone.  First comes the Activator.  You brush on the Activator, enough so that your nails look wet and shiny.  It says not to let this dry, so instead of applying base coat to all ten nails, I stopped after one hand to apply polish.

The instructions say to apply the polish firmly with the brush and that it will be streaky.  The goal is to mix the polish with the Activator.  This worked OK though I had to play with it - if I got too much polish on my brush it kind of slid on the nail liks a blob.  Weird.

Anyway, once you finish applying polish to five nails,  you're supposed to wipe off the brush on a folded paper towel, then put the polish brush in the Cleaner bottle, and use the brush that was in the Cleaner to do the other hand.

It says right off that this requires two coats (and you don't just apply the polish twice, you do the activator/polish combo for each coat).  I needed three coats for adequate coverage.  I don't know if the cremes work like this - I only bought this one. 

So what do I think?  I'm not sure yet.  I intend to wear this one until it dies, just to see whether I think it's worth buying again.  I think there is probably enough in this kit to use at least one more time. 

I didn't really have a hard time with application once I figured out how much polish to use on the brush.  It says not to let the activator get on your skin but of course I messed that all up and had to pick it off.  By the way, it doesn't explicitly say this but I would bet you money that the Activator is just super glue.  It smells identical. 

I used three coats of color for opacity, and when it was done it didn't dry quite as fast or hard as the package says it will.  Since I had already decided the activator was just glue, I used another coat of it as a top coat and it worked perfectly.  Rock hard in five minutes.  The directions actually have some troubleshooting tips - it says if your polish is still a little bit tacky, run them under cool water, and if it's a lot tacky, do another coat of activator and polish.

All that business aside - I do really like this color.  It reminds me a LOT of Butter London Victoriana, except the shimmer and sparkle in it is gold instead of silver.  It's overcast today so I didn't get any sun photos, but I'm sure one of my wear test posts will be in sun.  Unfortunately, I don't have any posts backlogged so it's just going to be this for a while.  I might do some comparisons on a nail wheel though.