I received the shades:
* Quicksilver (soak off gel polish) ~ glittery white silver
* Plum Addict (soak off gel polish) ~ a rich plum
* Dancing in the Moonlight (colour chameleon gel polish) ~ glitter pink when warm, glitter purple when cold
* A La Mode (colour chameleon gel polish) ~ warm bubblegum pink when warm, dark purple when cold
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| Quicksilver |
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| Quicksilver |
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| Plum Addict |
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| Plum Addict |
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| Dancing In The Moonlight |
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| A La Mode |
First Impressions:
I am especially taken with the colour changing "chameleon" gels. I love anything "gimmicky", glittery and fun like that, so these are right up my alley! My fave shade out of all 4 I received is definitely Dancing in the Moonlight.
I applied a thin layer, cured for 2 minutes, another thin layer, another 2 minutes and repeat again. Both Quicksilver and Dancing in the Moodlight applied thicker, due to being a heavier, glitter base, but I was able to get thin layers quite easily.
All 4 brushes aren't too thin, and definitely not as wide as a lot of polish brushes are. They move easily and feel very controlled when applying the polish. I personally found there was a tendency to go "outside the lines", but I'm not especially careful when applying nail polish. I'll happily scrape/ clean up the residue with my other nails. However, if you do that too, I'd recommend cleaning up before curing, as it's much tougher to clean up. Or you could find a bottle of that latex product that people seem to be using more frequently.
The nail application goes on smooth without too much fuss and cure evenly too.
Again, with the 2 glittery shades, Quicksilver and Dancing in the Moonlight, being thicker, they were opaque by 2 coats, both Plum Addict and A La Mode were opaque with 3 coats, all of which you do want to be thin so curing is quicker and you get a more even, smooth finish.
Being the novice that I am, especially when it comes to gels, these are easy to use and complete novices, and of course, pros, won't have an issue using them.
On my second "real" go, it took me maybe 25 minutes to do both hands and feet. They're fantastic, as once cured, there's no drying time, so you're good to go without having to be cautious about wrecking your polish job.
They smell plasticky, and do smell compared to other nail polishes. I'd advise doing them in a decent space with good air flow, which you should be doing anyway.
Easy to remove? On my fingers, a few nails peeled off (with assistance), and I just picked the rest off (naughty naughty!). On my toes, I just used a non acetone nailpolish remover, it did take a fair effort and time, so I would advise buying an actual soak off remover to make the process easier and quicker.
After a month:
I don't know what it is, but I cannot keep these on my fingernails, but my toe nails? These last forever!
Fingers: I believe that it was completely my non prep as to why these polishes didn't work on my finger nails: (a list for total transparency)
* My finger nails were too smooth (I buffed and shined my nails before use).
* I didn't use a base coat, so the polish didn't stick as it should.
* I'm pretty hard on my nails (yes, I use my nails for everything like opening cans etc, which you "shouldn't" do... They are tools to me lol).
* I used just a normal OPI top coat afterwards.
So maybe this review is flawed as I didn't do everything, or really, anything, to get the best performance out of these polishes. On my fingernails, they lasted just under 2 weeks.
Toe nails: All of the shades lasted well over a month, until I took them off to put another shade on. I didn't buff my toe nails and I don't do anything crazy, or strenuous with my toes haha. So I'm going to say it was these 2 main reasons that my fingers didn't last as long. Each colour remained opaque and chip free from application. You could see my nail grow out before application was altered in any way.
The colour change polishes didn't faulter in any way, from application to removal, they kept changing colour from warm/ hot to cold, and under water.
Would I purchase?:
After my personal shittiness with my fingers, I would still say yes. These work very well on my toes and last longer and don't chip like normal polish. There are a TON of amazing colours from neutrals, through to neons and glitters and my personal faves, colour change chameleons. You can also buy everything you need like base/ top coats, starter kits etc on the website. I bought my LED lamp on Ebay for like $5.
Available: madamglam.com
RRP: from $19.95USD
Madam Glam ships worldwide
All Madam Glam items sent to me for consideration, as always, thoughts and opinions are my own.
