First off, apologies for the state of my nails as my pointer nail has been repeatedly breaking for the last two months. A blogger recommended biotin and after using countless nail strengtheners I think it might be something I will have to start taking if only to show you some beautiful nails! I am no newbie to gel polish and have used a variety of brands, but one that I have been meaning to try is the Toronto-based Bio Seaweed Gel as all products are 5-free and will not damage natural nails. The reason BSG got on radar 2 years ago was this “rumour” that I had heard that not only can this polish be cured by LED/UV lamps, but also by direct sunlight! Yes, this would make sense, but I had never heard of a company that openly stated that their polishes were SolarCure!
For August and September, myself and a few other nail polish loving CBBers have teamed up with the folks at Bio Seaweed Gel to bring you some summer-inspired nail art! This is actually my second attempt at this as I painted my nails shortly before I left for vacation last month which is where I shared with you all the LED lamp that I was using (here). Isn’t it adorbs? Unfortunately, I had some timing issues with curing and ended up screwing up my design AND forgot to take a blogworthy photo so needless to say, I had to start all over with this new polka dotted design!
For the summer-inspired nail art, I chose the shades #256 Ottawa* (15mL/$18.00 CDN), a bright light purple, and #262 Whitehorse*, a creamy turquoise. On both occasions that I have needed to cure these polishes, there has been no direct sunlight so LED lamps were my jam. Gel polish is much more viscous than regular polish and never actually dries until it is cured making nail art a bit easier as you can keep moving the polish around until you have what you want.
The Bio Seaweed Gel Unity All-In-One gel polishes contain a base, colour, top coat and nail strengthener all in one bottle so I started with one thin coat of Ottawa and cured in an LED lamp for about 40 seconds and did the same for my second coat. For the polka dots, I used a dotting tool dipped in Whitehorse and cured for 1 minute as some of the dots were a bit thicker and from my previous attempt had smudged when I applied top coat.
Finally, to give my manicure that characteristic gel manicure shine, I applied one coat of the No Wipe Top Coat* (15mL/$20.00 CDN) which I cured for 30-60 seconds. I still wiped a few nails that felt slightly tacky, but honestly I love this top coat! Most gel polish top coats are super sticky and you have to wipe down HARD to get rid of that tackiness, but this one was amazing!
Final verdict: I got a solid 8 days of wear before I started seeing chipping on my right hand. My left hand barely had any damage. The price may scare some some people, but 15mL is more than what’s usually given in gel polish and you usually pay about $12 for 9-10mL. The ease of use was amazing, the shine was non-stop for the entire 8 days and removal was so easy! 5 minutes of acetone and the polish popped right off! I wish I could have tried curing this polish in sunlight, but maybe there is still hope!
Use coupon code: COSMETICPROOF for $10 at http://bioseaweedgel.bigcartel.com/
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