A Tale Of Two Glitter Removing Base Coats

Hello my nail friends!  Today I've got my review of both Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A Peel and OPI Glitter Off. Both Glitter A Peel and Glitter Off are base coats that you wear under your glitter polish. They both claim to make glitter polish easy to remove. I've recently tried both out and have had some success and a lot of failure. So let's get started!

Back in March, I was searching high and low for the OPI Glitter Off but I couldn't find it anywhere. I had heard of Glitter A Peel by Nail Pattern Boldness so I thought I'd try it first-I do love to support indie brands over mainstream. My first experience was a fail. The photo below was just a day and a half after application.

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue and OPI Muppets World Tour

I used two thin coats of Glitter A Peel. I may not have let each coat dry enough before applying my glitter. Since then, I've used Glitter A Peel with varying success. It does help to let each coat dry completely but I've still had issues with it chipping and coming completely off within a day or two of application. The other issue I've had with Glitter A Peel twice is it not wanting to peel off at all. Both times that happened, I've had to really scrape and pick at it to get it to come off.

I finally found the OPI Glitter Off at my favorite not-so-local (40 minutes away but oh so worth it) beauty supply store. I have only tried it once but I must say that I am impressed by the results. I used it last Sunday evening. Monday morning we left for a few days of camping. After three days of camping, setting up and taking down camp,washing dishes without my usual rubber gloves, and not doing my usual routine of cuticle oil/lotion-my nails were still in decent shape. I only used the Glitter Off on an accent nail but it was still perfect. I did have some tip wear and slight chipping on my other fingers but the accent nail was still going strong.

OPI Hotter Than You Pink and OPI In True Stefani Fashion

Once we got home from our little camping adventure, I removed my polish and the glitter came off without a struggle but only when I wanted it to.

As much as I love my indies, in this case, I will probably use the OPI Glitter Off more often. The Nail Pattern Boldness has just been too much of a struggle. I will continue to try and use it and figure out what I'm doing wrong-I think my issues are mainly user-error so I'll try to tweak my application to see if that improves my results.

What about you guys? Has anyone out there tried either of these and what success or failure have you had?

Disclosure Statement:  I purchased all of the products listed above myself. I am not receiving compensation and all opinions are my own.

Indie Love: Candy Lacquer Unicorn Bubbles

Today's polish is one I've had my eye on for a few months. However, every time I'd go to order it, it would be out of stock. A couple weeks ago I finally was able to grab it and I'm so glad I did!

Candy Lacquer's Unicorn Bubbles is described on their website as "Pastel circles mixed with some holographic silver, white and a few metallics with ultrafine iridescent glitters and a touch of multi-colored sheer shimmer." I am a big fan of circle glitters and this is truly a glitter bomb. I can definitely say I'll probably wear this a few more times this spring. It's got an Eastery feel to to it but I think you could pull this off year round. 

Here I have Unicorn Bubbles as an accent nail with two coats over two coats of Nicole By OPI's It's All About The Glam. I did a coat of Gelous, followed by a coat of Seche Vite.

On my other nails I'm wearing Julie G nail polish in Cupcakes & Castles. I love the color but the formula was a lot more sheer than I was expecting. I have on 4 thin coats and I could have used another. In the bottle, it's a pale pink with a slight green duo chrome effect to it. On the nail, you see more of a shimmer than the duo chrome. Again, I finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

Overall, I think this mani was saved by the glitter. I love light pinks but the Cupcakes & Castles just didn't do it for me. However, I will be wearing Unicorn Bubbles again soon!


Disclosure Statement:  I purchased all of the products listed above myself. I am not receiving compensation and all opinions are my own.

Intro

So I began this blog over a year ago but I never posted anything. After a rough year personally, I thought that it was finally time to stop procrastinating and start blogging.

I am a 30 something girl obsessed with nail polish. Not a very unique story, there are a ton of other nail blogs out there. However, I'd like to think I can add to the mix without being the same as everyone. I've always been into nail polish, for as long as I can remember. I grew up the only girl in my family with 3 older brothers. It's safe to say, I was a bit of a tomboy when it came to hair and makeup. But I've always enjoyed doing my nails. I still suck at doing my hair and my makeup skills have only slightly improved, but my manicures have seen much improvement over the years.

I spent a lot of years with my bff shopping for nail polish on Saturdays, then going back to either her house or mine and we'd sit and paint our nails. Once I met my husband, I kind of stopped for awhile. I didn't have time to paint my nails-I had a cute boyfriend to spend all my time with! As we moved in together and then got married, I kind of got back into the routine of painting my nails again. The obsession began when I started dealing with some health/personal issues and I needed a distraction. On a random trip to WalMart one Sunday, I discovered that they now sold Essie nail polish. I ended up buying Essie's It's Genius and I went home to do some research to see if the Essie sold at WalMart was legit. By doing that, I discovered nail blogs. And now not only was I painting my nails, I was reading about it too. That was in 2011. In this past year, I discovered nail and beauty videos on youtube and now I've fallen even further down the rabbit hole.

So how will I be different? 1.) As a general rule, I try not to spend more than $10 on a bottle of nail polish. Needless to say, I do not own any Deborah Lippman, Butter London, Illamasqua, or any other high-end brands. That's not to say I never will but I believe there are plenty of great brands with great formula's without spending that much money. And honestly, when I do hit that $10 price point, it's usually an indie polish I'm buying. 2.) I've really gotten into indie brands in the last year so I'd like to focus a little bit more on those. 3.) I'm a small-town girl, living in a mostly rural area. The closest Sephora to me is 1 1/2 hours away. My closest Target & Ulta are 45 minutes away. Drugstores, Sally Beauty Supply, WalMart, and the internet are my main sources for purchasing polish. I do have a great little beauty supply store about 45 minutes away from me where I can purchase OPI, Essie, and Zoya's at great prices, so I try to get there when I can. So I will focus mainly on main stream polishes I can buy locally and on indies that can be purchased online. My favorite main stream brand is Zoya. I love their formula and color selection. For indies, right now I'm loving KBShimmer. She's got some great glitters and glitter is definitely my favorite!

Umm yeah, a lot of words just to introduce myself! Basically, I'm a small-town girl who loves her husband, family, and cats. I also love to read, I think coffee & tea are the best things in life, and I love the outdoors. I hope you'll stick around and I hope you'll find something here that catches your eye. Until next time, have a great day!