So Not Groovy...Suncoat Polish Removal

First, let me just say that I love the Suncoat eco-friendly polish remover. It does a great job, gently, on almost every nail polish I use.

Except Suncoat polish.

Last night (Sundays are my manicure nights), I spent just over 2 hours - 2 hours - trying to remove the Suncoat water-based polish from my fingernails. This was the result when I finally gave up, and "medicated" my frustrated self with brownies and a romance novel:'Twas a work night, or I may well have gone for something stronger in a glass. Those scrapes/nicks you see on the tops of my nails are the result of my scraping the barely softened polish off after the first hour and a half, when it wouldn't come off with cotton balls.

I tried everything. I held soaked cotton balls on my nails for 5 minutes at a time, I actually soaked my nails in the polish remover, and still ended up using the blunt end of a plastic nail file to scrape away most of the polish after it was softened, but still wouldn't come off. As you can see, I still have several tips to get the polish off of tonight, and some buffing to smooth the tops again. Arg!

My three bottles of Suncoat polish are going in the garbage. With any luck, I'll finish the removal job tonight, and finish with a nice new pink french manicure that will come off when I want it to next week. I'm still in a pink mood, for some reason.

Tune in tomorrow for the results...

Suncoat Water-Based French

I’m not really having good luck with these water-based polishes. I want to like them, because they’re healthier to use, they don’t stink up the joint, and they’re easier on the environment. But honestly, I just have one more brand to try, and then I’m giving up. Nail polish should not be difficult…

I like the color of this polish – the pink is Suncoat #8, a cotton candy color. The white is, appropriately enough, #1, and the clear coat is #00. Last night I worked hard to make sure that all oils were off my nails, as water-based polish and oils do not mix. Unfortunately, it’s been rainy and somewhat humid here since late last night, and I think that probably added to my woes with this polish. That, and a hard brush that made it impossible to avoid streaks.

Water-based polish dries through evaporation, and basically “shrinks” onto your nail. The longer you wear it, the harder it gets to remove, which is why they recommend taking it off at least weekly. I think in my case, even though it felt hard and dry, it never actually dried all the way down.So when I got into the shower this morning, my polish started to soften. I’m pretty sure I lost the whole first layer (top coat) off my left hand, and ended up with weird texture issues on the tops of all my nails. I clean the excess nail polish off my fingers in the shower – as you can see, my left index finger released the polish even up onto my nail. Not groovy. On my right hand, my tips are chipped or peeled on at least three fingers, and I had to blow dry my nails before the remaining polish was hard enough again to do my hair.

It’s pretty polish, but far too complicated for someone like me (I shudder to think what might have happened had I tried to add rhinestones or other art items to it!). As it is, I’ll have to remove it tonight, and redo my nails…which I really don’t have time for, but I don’t trust this polish to wear well enough until next weekend.

So tonight I’ll try some Avon Speed Dry polish. I normally avoid speed dry at all costs, due to serious bubbling issues that normally plague me when polish dries too fast, but I can’t be waiting for polish to dry tonight – I have things to do! Stop by Thursday for my results (hopefully better)…

***Edited to say: I haven't had time for another manicure, so I'm still sporting this polish on my nails. It's wearing like a cheap drugstore polish, but doesn't look too bad if you don't look close. New manicure next week... ***

New Moodies & Suncoat

These polishes came in last week, and I was just too lazy to post them until now. But I’m looking forward to trying them out soon!
First, the new Nubar Moodies (click to enlarge). I got three: Turquoise to Blue (#M105), Hunter Green to Gold (#M106), and Seafoam Green to Honeycomb (#M112). I went with lighter colors here, but I plan to get brighter, bolder versions for summer later. They all should be fun, I think. They used to sell these in the drug store when I was in high school, I might have to see if I can find them locally. They were cheaper from Lotion Source than straight from Nubar though.
And secondly, my order from Suncoat, another water-based nail company. These polishes are numbered rather than named, and I got the bright pink, a white (thinking of a French manicure, though the pink is much brighter than I thought it would be, so maybe a reverse instead), as well as a clear top coat made to go with these polishes. I also bought a small bottle of their soy-based remover to try, we’ll see how that does as opposed to the sugar-beet Eco-Easy remover.

So a few more new things to add to the “to try” list. Now I’m trying to decide whether to do a Moodies mani next week, or try out that chrome polish Brook sent me…

Paint Me Stunning

I had high hopes for this water-based polish: "Paint Me Stunning" from PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics (flash photo above). It’s basically a plastic polymer in a water-based solution that cures through evaporation (no quick-dry option here). It doesn’t have any of those really nasty chemicals in it, so overall, it’s healthier for you – though I must say, the alcohol smell is pretty bad. The formula is really dreamy to work with – smooth, easy to control, it’s the cleanest mani I’ve done in a long time with minimal cuticle clean-up needed afterwards.

But alas, every one of my nails “bubbled” as it dried. I love nail art, but hate bubbles with a passion, so that was most disappointing. I'll have to try again later with a different room temperature. No-flash photo:
This polish boasts that it needs no base or top coat, so I thought I’d see if it would hold a few stones in on its own. I had some bows or butterflies (I couldn’t decide what they were) that match the polish perfectly, so I used just a few to see how they held up. I did this manicure on Sunday night, and since I had Monday off of work, I spent most of the day cleaning. As you can see, I lost one stone on my left hand, and I lost both the stones on my right index finger (not shown). So far, the others are still solid, so we’ll see how long they last with no topcoat holding them on.

I’ve gotten a little tip pull on all fingers…but I think that’s probably to be expected since it cures through evaporation, and I didn’t wrap the polish over the tips.

The main test, of course, is whether or not this polish will last without chipping or “wear” until next Sunday. It warns that the polish should be removed after 1 week, because the longer you wear it, the harder it is to remove. So we’ll see how the durability turns out next week.

I wanted to add a caution on the Eco-Easy Nail Polish Remover I reviewed last week. I thought I’d use a cloth to remove my Valentina mani last weekend. Seriously – just say no! Use cotton balls! With the cloth, the lovely red Valentina got all over my fingers, making a huge mess, and leaving me “red-handed” for the better part of yesterday. Not a great fashion statement.

Next weekend I’ll be trying out the soy based nail polish remover, so stay tuned. Later this week, pictures of my new Nubar Moodie colors, as well as more water-based nail polishes.