I’ve been uncharacteristically lax about having color on my nails in the past couple months (which is changing because of the holidays). Whenever they’re painted, though, I am routinely asked what my secret is to making my polish last.
Do I add a new coat at some point to mask tip wear and chipping?
Do I remove mid-week and re-paint with the same shade to maintain the illusion of longevity?
Have I in fact sold my soul to the devil in exchange for bullet-proof polish?
To all of these things: No.
We’ve all dealt with it – a manicure that is stubborn to remove (dark colors, glitter), or is more of a mess during removal than anything. I use pure acetone these days, but when I heard about 1st Acetone Power Gel (from Cutepolish, I think?) I had to try it out.
As far as I know, it is carried at Wal-Mart in two varieties: a regular and a Glitter formula. I went with the glitter formula because I tend to have trouble with glitter removal more than other varieties.
Here’s my nail before. There are two coats of China Glaze Wish Upon a Starfish. It’s one of those glittery, sandy-textured polishes (basically, there’s no smoothing it out without twelve coats of top coat). In short, it’s a pain to remove and an excellent polish upon which to demonstrate this product.
The non-glitter variety is in identical packaging except the pink and yellow parts are switched.
Inside is a thick, viscous, translucent pink gel. Unlike regular liquid acetone-based nail polish removers, 1st Acetone Power Gel does not assault you with a strong, chemical odor. That said, it DOES have one – don’t get curious and sniff the jar; if I had to guess it is because the gel doesn’t throw off fumes quite like liquid does.
It’s been a while since I’ve hauled. I was on a No Buy in April, and was successful. If it’s been a while since I’ve shopped for makeup and hair items, it has been longer since I’ve gotten any nail goodies. Despite my love of polished nails, which existed long before my interest in makeup, I’ve been slacking lately! I’ve just been keeping my nails shaped and tidy, leaving them bare often, being semi-bored with what I did have (listen to my first world problems, waah). I decided I want some more colors, but resolved to wait until Sally Beauty had a BOGO (buy one, get one) free sale.
My patience was rewarded. A couple weeks ago Sally Beauty had a 3-Day BOGO polish (RNP and gel) sale…and I had a 20% off coupon. The hunt began. I originally planned to order online because the two stores nearest me aren’t ultra-convenient, and I don’t really like how crowded the aisles can be AND there’s often only one employee working.
Due to the free ship threshold, I ventured out in person to seek my Sally Beauty Haul. Instant gratification was nice, but waiting 20 minutes for someone to ring me out was not. (Another customer decided to DIY destroycolor her hair for the first time…and instead of doing research, she wanted to play 20 Questions with the employee.)
Anyway, here’s the loot!
Sally Beauty Haul – May 2015Total? $26 before tax. Yassss. RNP at regular price wouldn’t be that cheap!
That’s well over $70 of stuff – and I got some tools (that were super cheap, <$1 each).
I don’t get crazy with my makeup, but I do get crazy with my nails. I slapped on ORLY GelFX Melt Your Popsicle right away and am liking it a lot – I really wanted an orange (now I just need a true, non-fluorescent/highlighter yellow). With this Sally Beauty Ha, I’m pretty well set for summer nail shenanigans.
Have you had any beauty hauls recently? How did you do?