It’s no secret that I’ve tried my fair share of at-home gel manicure kits.
Although there are a ton of no-UV gel polishes out there, the best gel manicures you can get are the ones that include the light to cure the polish. Sure, you can go to the salon to get this done, but many brands have at-home kits you can buy for around the same price of one salon gel mani that work just as good.
I’ve tried sets from Le Mini Macaron, Red Carpet Manicure, Sally Hansen, and SensatioNail, and although some are definitely better than others, one of my favourites has been the latter. I’ve had the SensatioNail Gel Nail Polish starter kit with UV lamp for years now and it’s one of the ones I recommend to friends when they ask me my opinion on the best at-home gel kit.
Late last year, the brand actually released another version of the popular kit, this time though they took it a step further and enabled you to use any polish and turn it into a gel. The Polish to Gel Transformer starter kit allows you to mix any of your nail polishes with the SensatioNail Polish to Gel solution in order to get the wear and shine of a gel manicure. Typically brands have their own formulation of gel polishes that only set with the help of a UV or LED light, however, you can always do the sandwich method, i.e. use any polish but with their base coat and top coat to cure it.
This set, which retails for C$49.99 at Shoppers Drug Mart and Rexall, includes their special Polish to Gel transformer. So you mic equal parts Polish to Gel and your own nail polish, then you paint it on, cure it using the LED lamp for 30 seconds, and then repeat for two to three coats. You then seal the colour with the same Polish to Gel transformer and cure for 15 seconds, wipe with the cleanser, and voila! You’re supposed to have a gel manicure.
Key words: supposed to.
I was very excited to try this kit out before my trip as I wanted to have colour on my nails that would last three weeks. So I grabbed the kit, did what it told me to, and put it to work. I chose one of Patrick Starr’s collabs from the Formula X Color Curators collection from last year and mixed equal parts polish with the Polish to Gel transformer, cured it, did it again two more times, then used the cleanser to take away the tackiness. Well, not only did it take away the tackiness, but it also wiped away the entire polish. Basically, this kit did nothing for me. It didn’t cure the polish and it created a big mess (I got pink all over my sink when I went to wash the mixing pot). I also want to note that you’re supposed to use equal drops of each product. Yes, drops, which if you’ve ever sat there and waited for polish to drop, it takes forever.
I ended up packaging this product up and grabbed my Red Carpet Manicure kit, which gave me a fabulous gel manicure that lasted the full three weeks in Asia. With the being said, the original SensatioNail kit also gives you a great gel manicure as well, I just didn’t have it on hand at the moment.
I like the idea of this kit, it just didn’t actually work. But here’s the kicker, as long as you use every other product that these kits come with, you can use any of your nail polishes, just instead of curing the polish, you would just wait for the colour to dry, then apply the special topcoat and cure it. It works the same way, just without the mess that this Polish to Gel transformer gives you.
If you’re looking for an at-home gel manicure kit, skip this one and go with the original, it works way better and retails for a little more than this one.
What’s your favourite at-home gel kit?
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I’mmmm backkkkkk!
This has been the longest hiatus I’ve had from blogging since I started A Pop of Colour in 2011. I tried to do as many posts as I could before I left on vacation, but with the holidays, it was just too busy. Anyways, in case you missed me, I was gone for three weeks in southeast Asia, namely the Philippines, Thailand, and Bali.
Now that I’m back, I’ve had the chance to go through all my photos and share some of my favourites. I went on the trip with my three best friends, one of which has a house in Manila, so we stayed there while we were in the Philippines.
Although the Philippines is known for their beautiful islands and beaches, we just spent time in busy Manila and visited Taygaytay one of those days, which is just outside capital (and offers a nice break from the chaos and a stunning view of the ocean). The Philippines definitely had the nicest people that we met and it was the one country where I felt the most fortunate to live in Canada.
We actually started and ended in Manila, but our second stop was Thailand. First we spent a few days in Bangkok, then went to Koh Phi Phi (where they filmed the movie The Beach), then Koh Samui and Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party.
Out of the three countries, Thailand was my favourite, however, I found it to be the most aggressive as well. It felt like everyone was trying to rip us off. From the taxis not running the metre, to the hotel front desk staff saying there were no breakfast places open aside from the buffet one at the hotel (it was 9 a.m.), I was so over people trying to get more money out of us.
We started in Bangkok and did some shopping at the Chatuchak market (I got some major goods there) and then we got scammed into a boat tour before finally heading to the Grand Palace. I personally didn’t go in, but two of my friends did, after they closed we had the immense trouble to trying to find transportation back to our hotel. We ended up getting a tuktuk to take us to the subway station, which took forever. We eventually got back and hit up the Vertigo Skybar (which was in The Hangover 2) before retiring for the night.
After Bangkok we fly to Phuket and then caught a ferry to Koh Phi Phi for a couple nights. Koh Phi Phi was my favourite place on the trip since it was so breathtakingly stunning. From the turquoise water to the islands to the sunsets, it was such a stunning island. Best of all, since there are no roads, it wasn’t as chaotic as everywhere else we went.
Our last stop in Thailand was in Koh Samui, which is located on the other side of the mainland, so we had to take a ferry, then a bus, then another ferry to get to the island. Although I did like the hotel we stayed at, I would highly recommend staying at a resort on the beach. We were away from the action and although it was a five-minute cab ride, the taxis wouldn’t run the metre, meaning that every ride was overpriced and you couldn’t really walk since there were no sidewalks and motorbikes whizzing everywhere.
Our last stop was Bali, Indonesia, where unfortunately is where I ended up getting sick. I could barely eat, and another one of my friends also got very sick, so although we had all these plans to do stuff, we ended up just chilling at our Air Bnb for most of the time. The great thing about Bali though is that the transportation is so cheap. We mostly took Ubers everywhere (they were like $2 rides), so we got some shopping in and checked out some cute restaurants (well, I didn’t eat much…).
The one thing I absolutely wanted to do though was surfing. My friend and I picked up a brochure at the airport for Pro Surf School which offered 25 per cent off, so we fully took advantage of that and spent one of the mornings surfing (I got up a few times). I will say that it was harder than I thought, but not the actual surfing part. Moreso battling the waves, trying not to trip over the leash, and battling the trash in the water (Kuta Beach was filled with trash along its shores and in the water). Other activities that we did included a day tour of Ubud (waterfall, coffee plantation, and the water temple), and on our last night we hit up Potato Head Beach Club to watch the sun go down.
After Bali we headed back to Manila and then left there midnight of January 23 for our long journey home (which included a 12-hour stopover in freezing Seoul, South Korea).
Although I had an amazing time, it really made me appreciate the fact that I live in Canada. Small things like fresh air, tap water you can drink, and toilet paper in public washrooms were all things I missed greatly being overseas.
If you’re heading to Thailand, Bali or the Philippines and want some tips, leave me a comment below. I hope you enjoyed the photos!
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Lip colour has been all the rage lately.
Pigmented colour, long-wearing, and long lasting are all things that we expect from lipstick nowadays. Move over conventional lipsticks, it’s all about liquid lip colour now.
Brand new from Make Up For Ever, the Artist Acrylip Lip Paint is available in 10 different shades, from baby pink to dark purple. Packaged in a squeeze tube with a cotton tip, you squeeze the product out and apply the colour to the lips. Each shade contains buildable colour and shine, and these colours glide on the lips similar to a gloss but with the wear of a lipstick.
The best part about these, aside from the crazy pigmentation, is that you can build the colour up. Want more a wash? That’s cool. Want full-out colour, just squeeze a little harder. The formula isn’t sticky and it’s fast drying and comfortable to wear. No dry lips here!
I received three colours to try out, 200 Candy Pink, 201 Fuchsia Pink, and 501 Eggplant. All three colours went on very bright and were incredibly creamy and rich with colour. Although I expected to love Candy Pink the most, I actually found all of these to be very impressive.
As for wear, like I said, these don’t dry out the lips and I found them to be very long wearing. I wore 501 Eggplant for most of Sunday just lounging around and the colour stayed put for the bulk of day.
I absolutely love these, however, they greatly remind me of the Maybelline Lip Studio Colour Jolt Intense Lip Paint, which feature an incredibly similar applicator and is also available in bright shades. The Make Up For Ever ones do offer a greater shade range than the Maybelline version, but they are a very similar dupe for less money (these retail for C$29 each).
Overall, they aren’t the most original formula out there, but the pigmentation and wearability on these are great, so I definitely recommend checking them out.
What shade do you want to try from the Make Up For Ever Artist Acrylip collection?
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