Nutra Nail Gel Perfect- Fail

 

Nutra Nail Gel Perfect- Pic from http://ivoryandolive.com who also gave this a poor review…

 

 

I wish I had pictures to share of the product on my nails…but it didn’t happen…you’ll see why.

 

So I was heading off to Pennsic war this year, and unlike last year I wasn’t able to afford to have the lovely and talented Gina Cella give my nails a mighty shellacking. I was able to afford the inexpensive store-solution to the shellack manicure, aka Gel-Polish.
I found boxes on sale at Marc’s, 2 for 9 dollars, with a 2 dollar off coupon. Quite the deal, so I decided to give it a whirl…I wanted color that would last the week with no chips, and make my nails stronger so I didn’t break them all in the Pennsic wilderness.

I followed all the directions on the box, washed my hands, removed extra oil and dirt with 100% acetone no less…and then I got to work while watching Labyrinth….ahh…David Bowie…and I still say that’s a potato in his pants…
ANYWHO…

With the Gel polishes, you lay down a coat of something called an activator that looks, smells, and acts like super glue, then quickly mix in the polish color with the glue. Let it dry, and repeat cleaning off the paintbrush ever 5 fingers. Easy enough…and away I go…

The application process was easy, no doubt. And quick too…but you have to be SOOO super careful not to get it on your skin or cuticle, and quite frankly, the brushes that come with the bottles don’t exactly lend to the ability for precise application. The brush for the activator looked cheap, was brittle, and looked as if a toddler had been painting their nails, the bristles were just everywhere.
It was a huge pain in the ass to go back and remove the glue from my fingers…I’m lucky I use 100% acetone and have cosmetic Q-tips sitting around…Plain polish remover wouldn’t have cut it.

The polish did dry quickly…that’s a true claim. And you don’t need a top coat, although I did want one. I wasn’t happy with the semi-matte pretty much blah finish. I put a top coat on to see what would happen, it peeled right off. Although I wasn’t impressed with the matte of the polish, I was impressed with the color. I used 12304 Quickstep, which is…surprise surprise a teal.

I woke up the next morning, showered and went about finishing the last few things I had to do to prepare for Pennsic, and got into the car, looked down…and saw a chip. What the hell? It hadn’t even been 8 entire hours. I also noticed on one of my nails a little bump…as I was driving, I was picking at the bump, hoping it was just on the surface when an entire chunk of the polish on that finger popped off. Not talking a tiny chip here, no like half the nail…HALF.

When this stuff chips, it’s not a small imperfection…it’s a HUGE MASSIVE COMPLETELY NOTICEABLE OMFG LOOK AT ME chunk! I can’t STAND chips in my polish….of course I freaked out and spent the next 2 hours while driving picking at it and popping the rest of the polish off that nail…I was smart enough to bring the gel-set with me, and I fixed it while at a diner waiting for lunch.

Needless to say, the rest of the week didn’t go so well for the Gel-Perfect polish. I started off Sunday repairing the chips that had happened while moving things into my tent, and the same with Monday. By Tuesday I was trying out a new trend, 2 nails with no polish, 3 with…and by Wednesday morning the polish had been chipped from every nail quite easily…yes…it was terrible for my nails…but I really couldn’t stand it anymore and had run out of the acetone I had with me.

It couldn’t survive a shower. A SHOWER. One. Shower.

I’ll never waste my money on this crap again…honestly, just visit your trusted salon, or better yet visit Gina at Mod. You’ll pay 3 times more yes, but the quality of the product and results will be worth it. There’s nothing I hate more than wasting money. Uch.

Product Fail!! Didn’t even last long enough for me to snap a picture!!!