Moonstruck in Jersey's Blog

We all do posts on nail polish, actually multiple posts, as most of us that blog love, love, love to put color on our nails. We have many, many little bottles from many different brands to play with and play we do. Some we love, some are okay and some are not so much, but trying different lines is definitely part of the fun.

I think most of us are very happy that acrylic nails are no longer part of fashion. I think that we do miss the fact that our polish may have worn a little on the tips, but when we wore acrylic nails we never had chipped polish. With natural nails you get about 24 to 48 hours before the polish starts to chip depending on what you are doing with your hands. Not only does it look ugly, but where does the chipped polish go? I always worry that it is ending up in the food I am preparing – yuck! Every couple of days we need to redo our manicure.

Then came gel polish that hardens under an LED light. Gel manicures are supposed to last about two weeks (I never got two weeks), needs to be soaked of with pure acetone and takes about 20 to 30 minutes to remove. Soaking in acetone dries out the nails and skin, but more importantly, after about two gel manicures the nails start to soften, just like with acrylics, as they cannot “breath”. When the gel starts to lift, it is very tempting to peel it off. When you do that, a layer of the nail comes with the gel. If your nails get a little too long for your style you cannot file as the seal will be broken and the gels will lift. The gels look beautiful, but there are a lot of negatives and perhaps the biggest one is price. In my area a gel manicure goes for $30.00 to $45.00 not including tip. Pretty pricey when it needs to be done every two weeks.

I kept seeing advertisements in beauty magazines for Revlon’s Colorstay Nail Polish. The beautiful movie star model always had an on trend color on and her nails looked, of course, gorgeous. The ad said that you got a gel-like shine and wear for up to 11 days (when worn with the Colorstay base and top coat) without an LED light and it removes like any other polish. Not bad, but I didn’t believe it.

The Fall is here and I want some wear time out of the rich, saturated colors I love so much. I caved. A local drug store had a BOGO half off sale so I purchased the base and top coat and three colors – Red Carpet, Bold Sangria and Stiletto (red, purple, black).

I tried Red Carpet and did just a basic manicure, nothing extraordinary, remembering to wrap all the polishes around the nail tip. The polish is thick, but dries very quickly and the brush is flat and wide so with three stokes the nail is covered. Thirty minutes later I was using my hands – period. I had Red Carpet on for five days and took it off because I wanted to try another color. Absolutely NO chipping, none. I got some wear, but nothing noticeable unless I looked at my fingers in a magnifying mirror.

Next I decide to use the base coat, Chanel’s polish in Black Pearl, a beautiful gunmetal grey, and the top coat. Five days with NO chips. I did another polish change, this time using Chanel’s Vendetta..  This is now day four and it still looks great.

In the past few days I have done all the things I normally do – take care of the dogs, clean, do laundry, shop, make dinner, play with the grandkids, etc, but I have also decorated the house for Halloween, washed windows and done lots of keying on the computer. When it was time for a little fun, my nails still looked great.

I am excited that the base and top coat work with the polishes I love and I don’t necessarily need to use the Colorstay polishes.   Try it. you will have a beautiful manicure for at least five days and more.

Peace