NutraNail Gel Perfect UV-Free Gel-Color Swatches and Review

NutraNail Gel Perfect UV-Free Gel-Color is a new gel color system that gives you "rock solid" nails in 5 minutes. It comes in a variety of colors, mainly neutrals and light pinks, but they have a few dark and red colors in the bunch. I first saw it on Ulta and ordered it, but when I saw it at Walgreen's a few days later, I bought it because I'm impulsive and impatient.

NutraNail Gel Perfect UV-Free Gel-Color in Champagne

The set comes with a small Gel-color, an activator, and a brush cleaner. You basically start with clean, filed nails, brush on the activator on all nails of one hand - enough that your nails are shiny, then brush on gel color pressing slightly to mix the color with the activator. You have to try and get the same amount of each on your nail, and you can't let the activator dry before you place the color. Seems like it woudn't be too hard, especially if you paint your nails every day like some people. Hehe

NutraNail Gel Perfect UV-Free Gel-Color bottles, Activator, Cleaner (before use), Color (Champagne)

NutraNail Gel Perfect UV-Free Gel-Color bottles for size comparison

NutraNail Gel Perfect system retails for $11.99. That's pretty pricey for a nail polish, as the color itself is only 0.17oz (5mL). If you want to add in the activator, which is required to set the color, you can add in another 0.25oz, but for the amount of product you get, it's pretty ritzy. But if it does what it claims, then let me dig out my money.

Let me start at the beginning. I used to get those gel/shellac/whatever manicures at the local salons last year. I liked the way they felt the first day, my nails were much stronger, as I have really soft, thin nails. After a day or so they would have enough growth at the cuticle that they would start to snag and the polish would rip off. So after a few tries and different places, I gave up. I also didn't like the idea of putting my hands in under a UV light. It's like a tanning bed for your hands ... So when I saw NutraNail Gel Perfect UV-Free Gel-Color (whew, long name) I thought, perfect! Now I can control the application and not have to "tan" my hands. Which is why I bought two in the span on 5 days. Recently with all the nail art, my poor nails are going crazy with all the polish changing, so I did a couple designs one weekend since I was gearing up for an insane week at work, and thought I'd try this since I'd have 5+ days to see how it wore...

The process is simple enough, pushing the color into the activator was freaky, it seeped into the clear activator and spread on its own. It was pretty cool. They say you need two coats for coverage, but you can do as many coats as you need to get adequate nail strength. I did two for the first try.

NutraNail Gel Perfect UV-Free Gel-Color in Champagne

Everything was fine. My right hand likely had a worse application just because my left hand is useless. Everything is great, until the next day, I had this ...

My thumb, forefinger, and ring finger all had lies where the polish had cracked and bent my nail underneath it. Granted, if I had strong, thick nails I don't believe this would have happened, but isn't that the reason for this polish? A closer look at the chip and lines/cracks on the thumb...

Anyway, it was on my right hand, which like I said, I'm sure I applied wonky, so I decided to layer on two more coats. My left hand would stay with only two coats, and my right hand got two more coats, for a total of four (yay, I can add!).

This time it went on strange. It went on thicker and streakier. I cleaned my brush after every 5 nails like it said, but I'm sure I did something wrong, because the initial application was pretty easy. It DOES dry down in 5 minutes and I was off to live my life with stronger, streakier nails.

Then on Day 3 this happened ...

Aannnndddd this happened ....

At this point, I was thinking, screw this. Regular polish flakes in 24-48 hours, and I can have fun with the colors! So I took it off. I will admit, removal was easy. There is a special solution you can use to remove the nails, but the package also says you can use regular acetone, which is what I did, and it came off easily. Really easily, almost exactly like regular polish. The interesting thing was what I saw when I removed all the polish.

My NAILS have all the same cracks/lines in them! Gah! Are you serious?!?

My poor nails were already sad and now I've just about killed them. See that little piece sticking out on the right side of the picture. That's a little hunk of nail that is trying to jump off a sinking ship.

So, I'm sure you all know what I think of the product. It saddens me because the idea is so great. Especially if you can put on a neutral gel nail and then wear your polish over it to prolong your favorite manicure/colors. I just had an awful experience with it. I do have another box in Lilly Pink that I'm not sure what to do with it. I may try it again and see if it was user error, but for now, I need to go comfort my little nubbins...