Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat 60 Day Review

Hi there again everyone, I hope your weekend is going well?

Today I bring you the culmination of two months of trialling The Perfect Formula Pink Gel Coat nail strengthener.  I kept a diary as I went along, and as with all things like this, I started off really keen and wrote in it all the time, then as time went on it wore off, and by the end I hardly wrote in it at all haha.

This review came about because the kit was for sale on QVC on a Today's Special Value deal, and I went online looking for blog reviews (the only place I go for reviews now), and they were all after one week or so of use.  My main problem with nail strengtheners is that they make my nails go brittle after a month or so of use, so short term reviews were not what I needed.  I have had this problem with Nail Envy, Diamond Strength, Maximum Growth, and others.  One minute I would have nice long nails, and the next minute, ping! nail missing.

Therefore, I decided to buy it anyway and write my own review, so here I am.  Apologies in advance that quite a few of these pictures are iPhone pictures, therefore a bit blurry, but they show what they need to so I decided to go with them anyway.

This is the kit that I got:

It contains two 18ml pink gel coats, one 18ml clear gel coat, and one of each in travel 5ml sizes.

Here's the front of the box:

As you can see, it sounds great, strong and long nails?  Lovely!  Now, silly me, I didn't take a picture of my nails before I started, because I did have peeling and splits, but I couldn't get it to show, I wish I'd taken the picture now, but too late for regrets!  I will just type out the diary as I wrote it.  Here goes...

Perfect Formula Diary

First application: thinner and faster drying than i was expecting from past reviews, is just like normal base coat

 

Tues 9th April Day 1 - nails do feel less bendy
Quite a bit whiter almost blue looking (surprising!)
Ring finger with split feels a bit more sturdy
Doesnt fill ridges

 

Day 2
No apparent chipping or yellowing
Ring finger split starting to give way - superglued
Hairline crack appeared in middle finger
Did another coat to smooth over spilled superglue

 

Day 3
Nails more natural colour with 2nd coat
Ring finger split glue holding
Middle finger crack no worse
Also ridges more covered but not gone
Painted nails, didnt like colour, took it off, PF removes fine with polish remover
Applied 1 coat again

 

Day 4 Friday 12th April
Nails back to being super-white/blue looking
Glued ring finger split holding
Middle finger crack feels like its about to give way
No new peeling/splits
After work bashed middle finger on door, nail broke along crack
Filed it down, will file rest down to match, hopefully get down past ring finger split

Days 5&6
Weekend so polish on & off all weekend - all nails filed down to match - left with one coat of PF on
Good because nails have no peels or cracks so will see if any new ones form

 

Tues 16th
Looking REALLY closely can see some tip wear. Bluey/whiteness has toned down (yellowed?)
No peels or splits
Painted nails; didnt like it, took it off
Put on 2 coats of PF after, wrapped tips this time

 

Weds 17th
Back to bluey white nails
Theyre feeling quite hard, hope they dont go brittle (a'la nail envy)

 

Thur 18th
Bashed right hand middle nail on door hard, peeled a bit but actually held up better than normal. Filed/buffed resulting jaggy edge
Some chipping is slightly evident but have to look really close

 

Mon 22nd April
Had polish on all weekend, removed on sunday night, loreal turquoise (sunflower nails) no staining, but not sure if this colour stains. Dont usually have much probs with staining anyway though. No peeling still, quite impressed, nails not feeling brittle yet either
Caught right hand middle on door (again!) this time no breakage

 

Weds 24th April
Feeling a few jaggy edges (maybe mild peeling) right index & left middle. Applied thick coat to all nails
Just noticed, left index, big peel starting!

 

Thurs 25th
No further peeling, have put a thick coat on left index peel so it doesnt catch on anything, that nail is now slightly pinker than the rest, ha!
Right hand index showing a small split right at the end

 

Weds 1st May
Filed left index down due to peeling, right little/ pinkie showing translucent/weakness on outside edge. Right index small peel. Had nails painted & removed yesterday, bare overnight, fresh coat of PF this morning. Yesterday a miniscule chip appeared in right middle finger nail. But so far in use no breaking and no brittleness which i would have had by now with nail envy or maximum growth

 

Thurs 2nd May (day 24)
Nails that are a bit peely now:
L&R index, left little finger
Rest ok
No brittleness

Nails a bit dehydrated.  Oiled all over after taking this pic, including under free edges:



Saturday 4th May
Star wars day lol. Filed down left middle, ring & little (pinky). No damage but they were starting to outgrow damaged index & look untidy

 

Wednesday 8th May
Quite significant peeling on both index fingers. Nails not brittle though. Filed and buffed to minimise appearance of peeling

 

Thursday 9th May (day 31)
Both middle finger corners looking a bit peely, but on the whole nails feeling strong & still not brittle

 

Sunday 19th May
Both index & right middle show some peeling. Nails are starting to feel a bit hard & look dehydrated

 

Saturday 25th May
Just over half the bottle gone, starting to get 'strings' of polish because of the gloopiness, have put some thinner in it. Left middle finger nail broke on the corner while removing polish, where it had had a peel, so filed down past it

 

Saturday 8th June

So here we are at today:

Yes, I know I called my review the 60 day review, and it's day 61, but what the heck.  I do still have a little bit of slight peeling on my index fingers, but they take alot of bashing from typing all day so it's hardly suprising. 

 

An interesting thing happened the other day though, and solved the question I had on how a pink gel coat could have a blue-y tinge to it.  I was washing my cup out in the works kitchens the other day, and there's an ultraviolet fly killer in there, and what should I notice?

It glows!  How cool is that?  That must be the brightening effect in action.  It wasn't easy taking a picture of my nails without anyone seeing me do it haha.

 

So to recap, I didnt have any splitting at all, and after almost two months I am two thirds down the bottle having applied on average a new coat every other day.  It is alot gloopier now than when i started, but still useable. Am not sure you'd get right to the bottom used up without thinning it though.

Not a miracle product as i still did get some peeling, but overall impressed as my nails didn't go overly brittle as they have a tendency to do with strengtheners.  If I had to give it a score, it would be 7/10.

 

Here's a pic of the brush:

You can kind of tell the gloopiness from the bead of polish hanging onto the brush, but am almost out of thinner so until I get some more it will have to stay gloopy!

 

I would recommend this if (like me) you have problems with other hardeners making your nails brittle, as I haven't experienced that with Perfect Formula.  You can buy the kit I got from QVC UK (link) for £30.10 plus £3.95 shipping.

 

I couldn't see on the Perfect Formula website whether the brand is cruelty free, so I've emailed them and will update this post when I find out.  *EDIT: Perfect Formula have replied to me, and ALL their products are cruelty free - so happy days :-)*

 

The formula does contain formaldehyde (as most strengtheners do), but that doesn't bother me really, although I know it's a concern for some people so I thought I'd mention it.

 

And there we have it!  I hope it's been helpful.  What's your favourite strengthener?

 

Until next time...

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~