notd: fuse gelnamel in polar bare

post has been updated.

hi guys! today i've got fuse polar bare for ya! i bought this polish because of the rotten luck i got with the sonic blue-m polish (see my review here) and i wanted to see if all of them suck or if it was just the blue one or what was going on. this polish is a really pretty pale or pastel pink with fine gold and silver glitter particles. i painted my ring fingers with one coat, and two coats on the rest. but i think that i like 1 coat better than two, because it's sheer and more natural looking. three coats might be opaque but i'm not patient enough to try it. ^_^ also, if you do purchase this and decide to only use one coat, make sure it's even before curing it. you don't want any streaks! anyway, i noticed there weren't many swatches of this polish online, so enjoy! ~Lin-chan ^.~

update:

so this polish probably got about the same wear as the sonic blue-m. pretty annoying. but i think it's a 2-coat thing. both of my ring fingers still looked pretty good when i went to remove them. the only problem was the polish didn't want to remove from those two nails as nicely as the ones that had two coats. i actually had to bust out a file and file the polish off my nails, even after soaking them for 15 minutes (i recently bought onyx professional soak off for gel & shellac). overall, i liked the one coat experience with this polish but i'm still reluctant about this line of polishes.

update: fuse gelnamel polish in sonic blue-m

hi guys! so here we are, making an addendum to my previous fuse gelnamel sonic blue-m post.

i previously mentioned how i really enjoyed how it was a 1-2 coats and go type process, with a small, one-finger lamp to help prevent polish from pooling on the edges. it's also a self-leveling polish, given that you allow enough time for it to do so, before you cure it under the lamp.

now onto the ugly: this is about 30 hours after my first application. (my other hand was ok still.)

ok. ok, so i decided to soak my thumb, pointer, and middle to reapply the polish.

removing this polish is pretty annoying. you need to ensure that (if you use the foil method) your cotton balls are thoroughly soaked with acetone and that you wait 10 minutes minimum before attempting to scrape it off. and don't expect the little baby orange stick provided in the kit will do you any good. the tip bent and kind of splintered off after a few tries. luckily i have a metal cuticle pusher, but still. this polish does not remove like most gel or shellac manicures. gel and shellac have cracks for the acetone to sink into and break the polish apart. this polish just kind of lifts from the nail and curls along the edges. but sometimes, even after the 10 minutes of the foil method, there's still patches that are attached. another issue i had with removal is that sometimes along the sides of the nail where it meets your skin, there are remnants that will not budge or remove completely. ugh.

and so i proceeded to paint the three aforementioned fingers. and two days later, this happened, along with a few other fingers on my other hand. really. really?!

now, i didn't take pictures round two with this polish just because i didn't think it was necessary. but basically, i had the same experience. within about two days of doing them, they were already starting to chip and it was still annoying to remove them. so i applied a dark polish on top (see post here) to avoid awkward blue edges sitting amid a light colored polish (see another notd post here).

overall, i don't think that this polish is all that great, considering the amount of time and effort it takes to paint and remove them, and their lasting power is awful. now, i have purchased another polish from this line to see if just this blue one is faulty or not, but we'll have to see about it later. ~Lin-chan ^.~

notd/first impressions: fuse gelnamel kit with sonic blue-m

update: i have made an addendum to this post, which you can view here.

hi guys! so on a recent cvs trip, i ended up walking in with like $5.50 in extra bucks, then made a purchase and got an additional $5. so i decided to spend it on a fuse gelnamel kit, which retails for $25. BUT cvs has it on sale for $20 until mid-april-ish (i think it said). so i got it for ~$11! granted, they only had 3 kits to choose from and had almost every color as singles (which are also on sale for $7ish instead of $10 until mid april-ish)..and they had a larger bottle of the fuse cleanser (i didn't pay attention if it's on sale as well or not), but they had the blue kit so what the heck!

this kit includes a usb-outlet plug, a usb mini cable, the "lamp" unit (which the top can be removed and be turned around to do your toes!), a mini cuticle pusher/orange stick, mini emory board/buffer, some lint-free wipes, and their cleanser (which smells like rubbing alcohol to me..but whatever..), and you pick up whichever box contains the polish color you want.

instructions (see instructions on fuse website): push cuticles back and buff nails. apply cleanser to a lint-free wipe and wipe down nails. do one thin coat of polish on each nail, one at a time. place your finger into the lamp and press the button. the lamp will turn off after 30 seconds. do not cleanse between coats, and cleanse your nail before moving to the next.

overall, the process took me about an hour to do both hands, with two coats on each nail. one coat looked almost like those gelly polishes..if you know what i mean. and i want it opaque. the instruction booklet is pretty good, it gives you the short and sweet version of how to and why you must follow the directions. it also includes some tips and tricks.

the polish itself doesn't apply too bad. but in the bottle, it's kinda gloopy. as you pull the brush out and wipe it along the side, it creates bubbles in the bottle's neck easily. which is kinda annoying because you're trying to remove excess polish from the brush..not add to it.

compared to the coture gel nail kit i received, this process was much easier and nicer since you're not using a full-sized lamp. with the "salon-size" lamp, since you do your whole hand at once and stick it in there, you have to have your hand flat in the lamp. but your thumbs don't sit flat like the rest of your fingers. because of this, polish tends to pool on the edges of your thumb nails while it's taking 90 seconds to cure. with the fuse kit, since only one finger can fit under the lamp at a time, there's no pooling issues--assuming you applied a thin coat and removed the excess polish before using the lamp.

i approve. i'll have to update this post later to let you know if/when it starts chipping. ~Lin-chan ^.~

also used: dappen dish with acetone, mua F3 brush -- both for clean-up before using the lamp

review: couture gel nails kit & notd: after midnight, super model, & vip list

hi guys! a few months ago, i received a couture gel nail polish kit as a giveaway prize. the kit comes with three polishes of your choice, a base coat and top coat, a nail prep kit with cuticle pusher, toe separators, emory board, and a buffer, uv lamp (with bulbs), and an instructional dvd & booklet.

 

after midnight

initial thoughts: ok, so i was lazy and didn't watch the instructional dvd; but i did read the instruction sheet. lol. anyway; it says to use the included buffer block on your nails, apply basecoat and cure for 2 minutes. apply first coat of colored polish, cure 2 minutes, apply a second coat and cure if desired. then apply the topcoat and cure 2 minutes. apply additional topcoat and cure if desired. apply rubbing alcohol (91% is better) to cotton balls and wipe nails to remove the stickiness. done! (be sure to remove any polish from the skin before curing nails.)

so my first run through, i was lazy and didn't use the included buffer. instead, i swiped on some orly primetime to prep my nails. i then went through the process mentioned above, using 2 coats of polish and 2 coats of topcoat. i did sectione off my hands: four fingers, both thumbs, and the other four fingers; and painted each section individually. also, before curing my nails, i would take elf's pro angled liner brush in some acetone and cleaned up the edges. it took me about 2 hours for the whole process, but it was my first time doing it, so i don't think it was too bad. i did them on a sunday afternoon and by end of the day monday, i lost my first 3 nails. by tuesday, i lost another two. and by wednesday evening, i just felt like peeling off the remainder because they were all lifting up around the edges. so. a 2-week manicure lasted me 3 days. i did like how they peeled off, all in once piece, and my nails were basically clean*.

*because peeling polish off removes a layer of your nails and weakens them, i gave my nails a few weeks' break before using this kit a second time.

2 coats of vip list (pink) & 3-4 coats of super model (purple)

round 2: this time, i did actually use the included buffer. i haven't totally figured out how to not get this polish to pool on the edges...or to put it on "thinly". my sort-of fix for pooling is taking cuticle nippers along the edges after i'm done, but that's definitely not something "good" to do for its longevity.

additionally, this purple (super model) is ok. it took 3-4 coats each to get to the opacity i liked. which, is forever: 2 minutes to cure x 6 coats of polish (base, ~3x color, 2x top) + cleanup = ~30 mins. i initially was going to do all but my ring fingers in super model, but yeah. no. so that's why my thumbs are pink (vip list), which is gorgeous by the way.

this second time wasn't too bad. i painted them on a thursday evening, and i wasn't seeing tip-wear until about sunday night (mostly because my actual nails were breaking or flaking underneath). they also didn't lift up around the edges. around the one week mark, there was some lift-age and i peeled two off that were coming up really bad. there weren't really chips in the polish, but if it would peel and crack into a smallish piece, i'd pull it off..so it kind of looks like it was chipping...but not. and by the 8-day mark, i decided to peel off the rest of them because they were starting to lift off.

top: day 7, bottom: day 8

2 coats after midnight & vip list

round 3: idk. it still pooled on the edges of most of my nails. on one thumb (pictured above), it pooled only on one side and the other looks nice and flush with the nail. ~.~ this time, i used 2 coats of polish and 2 coats of topcoat on each nail, after the basecoat. i'm not sure what happened this time. relative to last time, the first one lifted up and was promptly peeled off on day 3. then a bunch of them began lifting up by day 4, and i peeled them off too. my ring fingers lasted until about day 6, and my remaining thumb lasted to about day 8.

day 4, day 8

overall thoughts: i have no freaking clue. i think that if i got this whole "no pooling on the edges" thing figured out, it would last a bit longer and for a consistent length of time..... this set is a meh because of the amount of time invested for each manicure session relative to how long on average each mani lasted.

i did not attempt this process on my toes. i barely have enough patience to finish both my hands, much less trying it on my toes and being super clumsy.

this kit retails for $129 on couturegelnailpolish.com.

~Lin-chan ^.~