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~

Liz Earle Haul - QVC Todays Special Value

Hi everyone!

Happy Friday!

Today I have a slightly different post for you all.  It's not really a review, but a run down of my recent purchase from QVC.  Not long ago they had a 'Todays Special Value' from Liz Earle.

Now, not all QVC's TSV's are especially 'special'.  Sometimes they've only knocked a fiver or so off, and sometimes you can still buy the product somewhere else cheaper, although of course you probably won't get the 30 no quibble money back guarantee like you do from QVC.  Plus I find their P&P quite expensive.  So as you can imagine, I'm not snapping up TSV's all the time.

But this one caught my eye.  It came at exactly the right time, as my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish has just about run out and I was considering getting some more.

I like Cleanse & Polish.  I don't use cleanser much, and actually I usually just use a Liz Earle muslin cloth and warm water, no cleaning products at all on my face.  However I don't usually wear mascara as my lashes are dark anyway, and thanks to Revitalash they're pretty long too, so I don't feel the need.

So, if I'm going out (which is when I do use mascara, and a waterproof one at that), when I get back I want to get all the make up off my face.  That's when I get my C&P out.  I can rub it right over my closed eyes and rub at my mascara-y eyelashes, and give then them a rub over with the cloth and warm water, and voila! Nice and clean.  No stingy eyes, and no dry skin after.

It came in a plain white box, which was a little bit bashed, but makes it easy to wrap if you're thinking of buying it for someone as a gift.  It would make a great valentines gift actually!

There was quite alot in the kit, and it was reasonably priced for this brand (although still pretty expensive really). This is what I got:

Here's a closer view of the big items:

And here's what it says on the blurb -

Step 1 Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. 

Has won over 80 awards, including the QVC Customer Beauty Award for Best Cleanser.  Its gentle cleansing power is suitable for all skin types and delivers instantly visible results.

Step 2 Gentle Face Exfoliator. 

Our smoothing trouble-shooter for congested skin gently buffs away dead skin cells with fine jojoba beads to reveal skin that looks fresh, smooth and radiant.

Step 3.  Choose your treatment mask.

Intensive Nourishing Treatment Mask.  If your skin is dry or sensitive, our creamy intensive nourishing treatment mask is perfect for soothing parched, stressed and sensitive skin, when it's most needed.

Deep Cleansing Mask.  If you have oily or combination skin, our deep cleansing mask can help draw out impurities and leave skin balanced and calm.

Brightening Treatment Mask.  Our brightening treatment mask is a fast-acting pick me up which revitalises dull skin.

Here's a pic of the small stuff:

And a bit more blurb:

Step 4.  Instant Boost Skin Tonic Spritzer.

Our instant boost skin tonic spritzer refreshes, revitalises and brightens while adding a fine layer of moisture to your skin.  Gentle and alchohol free, it contains hydrating aloe vera, soothing calendula, conditioning natural source vitamin E and the heavenly fragrance of rose scented geranium.

Step 5.  Superskin Concentrate.

Winner of the QVC Customer Beauty Award for Best Anti-aging Product, Superskin Concentrate is a rich blend of pureplant oils including argan and rosehip, plus aromatic neroli, lavender and chamomile, to soften and rebalance all skin types.

Step 6.  Skin repair moisturiser.

Packed with naturally active skin-conditioning ingredients including borage seeds and avocado oils, toning echinacea and hops, plus antioxidants beta-carotene and natural source vitamin E, our three skin repair moisturisers help prevent moisture loss and leave skin feeling soft and smooth.

The booklet also gives you instructions on how to use each product.  There are also some accessories.  Two muslin cloths, a sponge for removing the face masks, and a hairband, which is supersoft and closed with a velcro fastener:

So for all this, and including the P&P I paid £50.95, which is alot, but I do feel like I got enough products to justify that price.

It is still available on the QVC website at the regular QVC price of £55.00 plus £5.95 P&P HERES the link theres more photos and reviews there too.  The item number is 200281 if that link doesn't work for you.  As you see, as a TSV I only got £4 off, but hey, that's better than nothing!

So what do you think?  Too expensive?  Or OK for what I got?  Is there anything you'd like to see me review?

I normally wouldn't put up a post like this, because I always think to myself that I'll review all the individual products like some kind of super-blogger, but of course that ends up never happening, and things get ruined or thrown out (for a typical example of this, theres an up and coming Ojon review that perfectly illustrates my point haha), but for sure I will end up reviewing some of them.

As another positive, Liz Earle state on their website that they NEVER test on animals, and that they are completely cruelty free.  Also their products are all vegetarian, although some formulas do contain animal-friendly products such as beeswax or manuka honey.  Another reason to feel good while you're having a pamper :-)

Anyway, I'd better go, this post has ended up waaay longer than I intended!

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Pretty Jelly - Grape Escape Review

Hi there!

The sun came out :-)

This means it's holo time!  The next one on my to-try list is another polish from the Pretty Jelly Glamorous Thief collection that I bought recently.  I've already reviewed Bullet Rouge from the same collection, and you can see that post HERE

I was in two minds as to whether to swatch any polishes this weekend, as I still have that slash on my cuticle, but as I don't feel like I've seen any sunshine for MONTHS, who knows when my next chance will be?  So I decided to go for it, and cover up the slash with my watermark, YOLO, right?

So here's Grape escape in all its sunshine-y glory:

Awesome, eh?  It's a lovely mid-toned purple, leaning to the lavender side, and really wearable.  I still haven't managed to catch the real life holo loveliness properly, as it looked much more holo than it appears in these pictures.  Definitely this could be office appropriate though, as in the shade it looks just as pretty but in a less 'disco' way:

This photo also shows the finish nicely too.  This is two coats over regular base coat and no top coat.  The formula was lovely to apply, and very forgiving, as I dug the brush into the first coat accidentally when I was applying the second coat.  Other polishes could have made a bald spot clumping argument about that, but this polish said 'hey mistakes happen, let me smooth that out for you', and it did, nice.  It left the brush (which was one of the thin-ish type, not pro-wide or flat) at a nice controllable speed and didn't flood or clump.  Dry time was medium-fast.  I like alot.

As a large swathe of the UK, including us here in Cumbria, have had alot of snow this week, I thought I would carry on the theme with snowy nail art.  Looking through my stamping plates, I was surprised to realise I only have one full nail snowflake plate design, so it wasn't really a hard decision which one to use. Bundle Monster BM-323.  I tried a few different polishes with this plate.  Barry M Indigo worked really well, but it wasn't really the look I was going for. 

The Essie Borrowed and Blue I bought from Amazon was delivered this week.  I have been so disappointed with it.  The colour is really pretty, but the formula is awful!  Plus I thought Essies had wide brushes now, and mine has a thin brush in.  Clumpy, floody, just a bottle of yuk.  So imagine my happy surprise when I discovered it stamps perfectly!

Here's what I came up with:

As you can see from the photo, I'd lost the sun, so I took a pic under the kitchen lights so the holo could come out to play:

I'm really pleased with how this came out.  It's definitely gone onto my list of 'lets do this one again' manis.

And just because I can, here's a picture of the polish nestling in the snow:

Just one little green shoot sneaking up past the cap, spring is trying to peek its way through!

Pretty Jelly polishes can be bought in the US HERE for $10 each, they are 3-free and cruelty free, so it's all good.

What do you think?  Do you own this one? 

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

A-England Princess Sabra - Review and Nail Art

Hiya again!

Today has been a day of excesses for me.  I stayed in bed too late, went shopping and spent too much, came home and ate too much junk food, and didn't get any housework done.  Slapped hands. 

Well, never mind, on the positive side, I've FINALLY bought myself a pair of work shoes that actually fit me, rather than struggling on with the ones I bought before Christmas that are way too narrow, and making my toes swell up.  I just didn't want to think I'd wasted my money as they cost me £40, but I've finally admitted defeat and thrown them in the bin.

Also, it's impossible for me not to buy polish at the moment, as spring is coming and all the pretty pastels are in the shops.  I adore pastels, and I bought 3 from Marks & Spencer which I'll swatch for you another day, they're so pretty in the bottle I hope they don't let me down.  I've also ordered Essie's Borrowed and Blue, as it looks like the perfect powder blue I've been looking for, fingers crossed!

Anyway, on to business.  Recently A-England had a fab sale where all their polishes were reduced to £6 each. Two of them I bought straight away, Princess Tears and Princess Sabra, and three, Tristram, Dragon and Lady of the Lake I ordered later.  Princess Tears and Princess Sabra were delivered on Friday, so I swatched Princess Sabra yesterday.

A-England have a lovely way of creating a background story for all their polishes, Princess Sabra's story on the website is "The heart-stoppingly beautiful daughter of the king, whose misfortune it was to have her name drawn as the next sacrificial victim of the dragon".  The founder of A-England, Adina, has based the colour of this polish on the eyes of her cat, Tristam.  She describes it thus:  Alluringly feline golden olive bronzite, the sacrificial Princess constantly shifts with her elusive, myriad hues.

So let's get on with the swatches.  Here's how it looks out in the garden.  Yesterday was cloudy and overcast:

It looks to me like a greenish toned antique gold.  This is two coats over basecoat with no topcoat.  The formula was nice, and has seemed pretty consistent across all the A-Englands I've tried so far.  Dry time was medium/fast. 

There is some scattered holo in this, but don't buy it expecting a holo fest, or you'll be disappointed.  However the best thing about it was that it's kind of metallic, and no brush strokes!  I hate brush strokes, I think it completely ruins any look of sophistication a polish might have.

It doesn't completely do my skintone justice at the moment, but I think in the summer when I get a bit of colour it will be perfect.  Here's another outdoor pic:

Try as I might, I couldn't really get the holo to show in my pics.  Here's the nearest I got, you can kind of see it up near my cuticles:

To jazz it up a bit I used some small circle stickers to mask off an area of my nail, then stamped using the snakeskin effect on Bundle Monster plate BM-215, and an Elf polish called Chocolate, along with NYC polish Canal Street blobbed randomly.  As it was I needn't have bothered doing that as the mottled effect I had planned didn't really show, but hey-ho it was worth experimenting because you never know:

In my impatience I smudged my index (pointer) finger with my SV topcoat, but it's not too noticeable, so I didn't bother to re-do.  Here's a final pic, taken under the kitchen lights.  Again, the holo allllmost comes out to play:

All in all, I like this polish.  I don't own anything like it, and I think it's going to make a versatile neutral-ish base for a lot of looks.  I can also see this coming out alot around Christmas time (I know it's a long way away, but planning ahead), and already I'm wondering what it might look like with Nubar Black Polka Dot over it, also safari/animal prints... and so on.....

It's available with free international shipping for £9 on the A-England Website HERE.

What do you think?  Are you a fan of gold toned colours?  I am, even though they don't do me any justice haha, I keep at them!

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Pretty Jelly Bullet Rouge - Review and and Nail Art

Hi everyone!

Hope your Saturday's going well.  I've had a day of biscuits, Dexter, and swatching, so I'm a pretty happy bunny, as you can imagine. 

I'm managing to stick with Detox January, no alcohol so far this year.  Saturday mornings are so much easier this way, I'm starting to wonder whether to stick with this all the time unless I'm going out.  And seeing as I don't go out much AT ALL, that would mean hardly any drink.  Perhaps that's a good thing, as I don't seem to be missing it much.  We'll see, I might change my mind completely on the 1st February haha.

Today I bring you a review of a polish that's part of a set unfortunately not available in the UK.  Luckily for me I have a good friend in the States who sent them to me, a million thanks to Wes at Polish Me Manly

This is an indie line called Pretty Jelly and this holographic collection is called Glamorous Thief.  The first polish I've chosen to swatch is called Bullet Rouge.  The name would make you expect it to be red, and indeed on their website it's described as a magenta-red, but to me it looks more like a slightly muted fuschia, and in some lights a dusky pink. 

It's been an incredibly cloudy and dull day here today, with flakes of snow, not a day to bring out the best in holo's, but here's what it looks like in cloudy daylight.  As you can see, the holo doesn't show so much in that light but I think it gives a good idea of what the base colour looks like without the sparkles.  This is two coats:

Application was lovely, this is my first indie polish, and I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was easily as good as any others I've tried, including the high end brands.  The formula was quite thin(ish), but opaque in one coat, however I did two to give me the depth of colour I wanted.  As you can see it self levelled nicely over my ridged nails, and dry time was medium-fast, I was very pleasantly surprised!  It reminded me alot of A-Englands formula.

But, of course, none of this is its piece de resistance.  First and foremost its main appeal is that it's a holo, and we need some better lighting to show that.  Ideally I would like to wait for a sunny day and do this properly, but as this is January in the North of England, I think we'd be waiting a while.  Therefore I've gone back to my trusty kitchen under-cabinet lights, and we'll just have to imagine a lovely sunny day instead:

Pretty eh?  As I mentioned, this is two coats, over a regular base coat and no top coat.  As much as I love looking at super duper swatches that make polishes look awesome, I'd like my swatches to accurately represent as best I can what you can expect if you buy this polish and get it home.  Too many times I've been disappointed by a polish, because I've bought it on the back of a swatch which probably had aqua base, four coats of colour, and Seche Vite on the top.

Because I can't get enough of the holo loveliness, here's another pic:

There is more holo to this in real life than shown in these pics, my camera just didn't want to pick it up.  The brush was quite thin, which was strange to work with after all the pro-wide brushes out there at the moment, but it didn't hamper the application in any way.

 

So me being me, then I wanted to do some nail art over it.  I've re-found my mojo for stamping lately, so I got my plates out:

I used Konad special polish in black for the stamping.  The bows are from Konad plate M59, and the hibiscus on my accent finger are from Bundle Monster plate BM-318.  I didn't get the bows on straight, but they are a definite improvement on my past efforts to line stamps up so I must be learning something.  I kind of wish I'd done the flowers on all the nails because I really like how they came out, but I'll try that another day. 

 

Heres another pic, I'll make this the last one, I promise!

You can buy these polishes by going to the Liquid Jelly website HERE the full size bottles like the one I got are $10.

 

The polishes are 3-free and cruelty free, so you can shop with a clear conscience.

 

I also have the other three colours from this collection to swatch, so watch this space!

 

Are holos amongst your favourites too, or do you prefer glitter for your bling fix?  What do you think of this one?  If you have any polishes similar to this, I'd be intrigued to hear about them, I don't think I could ever have too many.

 

Until next time...

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~

A-England Holy Grail - Review, Swatch and Nail Art

I can't resist a bargain. It's just one of those things, I can't help myself.  Even if its something I don't really want, if it's super cheap, I'm there.

So, when I found out a-england were selling off their Holy Grail polishes for £5 a bottle with free shipping, I was so excited, I had my laptop open and was on the website faster than Usain Bolt running away from an angry bee!

If I remember rightly it was because this polish is being discontinued, and as of today (29 Sep 2012) it's still there on the website waiting to be snapped up.

It came in a couple of days, considering it was free P&P I was expecting it to be sent on the back of a trained snail, but no, just as fast, if not faster, than any normal shipping.

So without further ado, lets get on to the pictures:

The formula was thin, with a little bit of VNL on the first coat, but it was nice and obedient to work with.  I found the brush ever so slightly on the soft side, but it worked well with the formula. The first coat did emphasise ridges, but the second coat covered that all up nicely.  Here's another picture:

It did threaten to blob once during application, but never actually did, and there were a few quite faint brush strokes left.  I couldn't decide if I had VNL or not after 2 coats, which means I probably didn't, but I ended up doing 3 coats anyway just in case.  Sometimes you don't see any in real life, but then they show up in the photos which is weird, and I didn't want to take the chance. 

Dry time was medium, maybe five minutes between coats, with a final five minutes to set it, and I still ended up with a little dent, but that happens sometimes when you're moving your hands about to take the pics.

Here's a picture under the LED craft light, I think it shows the finish well, the polish formulation is *very* shiny but offset a bit by the shimmer:

And then, me being me, I decided to do some nail art on it.  As it's a very yellowy gold, I wanted to make my fingers into bumblebees, but despite doing some test nails, I just couldn't get them to look as good as I wanted, and couldn't see any tutorials on YouTube that had the finished look I wanted, so ended up doing something else:

When I started off doing it, my intention was to do a paisley look, well, as you can see that didn't quite work out.  However I like the blobby look of this, so am going to pretend it's what I intended all along haha.  It's actually the first time I've used the pen nib bit of my Rio nail art brushes, as I've only ever used the striper before and it was actually nicer to use than I thought, I'll have to try something else with the other colours I've got.

Heres another pic, this one taken outside:

And finally, the obligatory brush shot:

And there we have it!  I actually don't think this colour works particularly well with my skintone, but that's obviously not the polishes fault!  I actually already have a gold I'm more than pleased with, but I couldn't resist the temptation to try out the a-england formulation that everyone seems to love at such a bargain price.  I'm glad I did, because I do like it, and if I see one of their polishes in a colour I want (all their recent releases are a bit dark for me), I won't hesitate to buy it.  At full price.  And thats saying something coming from me ;-)

Until next time.....

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~