Purple Glitter Mani & Peel-Off Base Coat Review

Today I have another impromptu mani to share. This one was done using only glitter polishes!

Purple Glitter Mani

Polishes Used:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 'Grape Shifter'
NYC Strip Me Off Base Coat
Picture Polish 'Mardi Gras'

Now, normally I wouldn't do a complete glitter manicure, just because it is such a pain to have to remove it with nail polish remover. Because of this, I really have neglected a lot of my glitter polishes, only using them for an accent nail here and there.

I'd heard about peel off base coats designed to solve the problem of having to remove glitter and textured polishes, but I never really got around to trying one out until today. So far, I'm pretty happy with my first peel off base coat experience! The polish came off fairly easily, and there was no visible damage to my nails.

There were a few things that I was slightly disappointed with. The first is that the polish didn't come off in one sheet, as I had assumed it would. Ultimately, the removal was still a vast improvement over using nail polish remover, so this didn't really bother me all that much. The second minor issue, was that I feel like it took a lot longer for the polish to dry. The surface seemed susceptible to nicks and dents for about an hour or so.

The third issue I had with the base coat, was that I started showing tip-wear by the end of day 1 of the manicure - that's a lot earlier than I normally would. And finally, the fourth issue I had with the base coat was that it left a slight residue on the nails which I could only fully remove with nail polish remover. However, it did come off fairly easily with the nail polish remover.

Ultimately, most of the issues I had relate to diminished staying power of the nail polish caused by the base polish. But in a way, that's exactly what the strip off base polish was designed to do, so I can't really fault it for making the manicure more fragile! At the end of the day, I'm glad that I didn't have to scrub at my nails with cotton balls soaked in remover for 2-4 minutes per nail. That's a time savings of approximately 20-40 minutes!

The brand that I used for today's base coat was NYC. I recently purchased OPI's 'Glitter Off', and also, a dear friend of mine generously whipped me up a batch of home-made Peel-Off base coat, using non-toxic white school glue, and water. I'm looking forward to trying these out too in the near future!