China Glaze - Gelaze

Forgot to post this on here. Spontaneous and Coconut Kiss. Day 5 no tip wear or chips. I tried acrygel for the first time. I used Gelish Foundation, No lift Nails Acrylic Powder, Foundation Again then Gelaze colors and Top Coat. Can't wait to see how long it will take to soak off :amuse:
 

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Just an update- the tiny nick that I reported at day 4 became a full out large chip today at day 7 so I went ahead and did a removal. It was.... strange...

I used RCM Erase which works well for me. After 20 minutes, not much was happening so I let it go for another 10 minutes. Most of polish came off easily at that point, but there was quite a bit of staining on my nails and on my skin (I was wearing Purple Panic.) The only glitch is that the polish that came into contact with the Fingerpaints Bonder appeard to have mated for life. LOL! Bonding was an understatement.

I ended up putting my fingertips into a bowl of acetone and letting them sit there for a few minutes. That removed most of the remaining polish and removed the stains as well.

All in all, the removal was easy AND difficult. In any case, it did take quite a while.
You weren't kidding about the removal. I did my usual method and waited about 15 minutes instead of 10. I use the gel pocket things wrap with flexible bandage tape, then wrap with foil and put heat , which was from my heat pack thing I use for my shoulders . I put that in a towel first . I had on Spontaneous and it was very hard to get off. I will use the Fingerpaints bonder more sparingly with another base coat first before using this again. It required some scraping with an oranger stick to get off and this will not be my favorite polish if it is so hard to remove.
 
I apologize in advance, as all of these photos were taken on my cell phone.

TOP PHOTO:
Left - 3 coats of Coconut Kiss (Acrygel Mani). Beautiful purple with purple shimmer and a pearl/iridescent effect. Both the shimmer & iridescent effect is very light - almost not noticeable.
Right - Comparisons with Gelish - You Glare, I Glow. I love this color by Gelish, but the formula is horrendous (the color separates very quickly every time). The Gelaze formula is much easier to work with and will probably be my go-to when I am craving this shade of purple.

BOTTOM PHOTO:
I also purchased Re-Fresh Mint. This color was a light shade of green that I used for the base of my St. Patrick's Day mani. Such a disappointment! It was thick & goopy, but soooo runny. I ended up only doing 1-hand in this color, as this was probably my worst DIY mani experience in the last 10 months.
 

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tinaxbear, your acrygel mani is gorgeous! I think Coconut Kiss is my favorite color so far. I have You Glare I Glow also, but never got around to wearing it. Thanks for the comparison. Have you tried Gelaze Dorothy Who? reminds me of the color of your accent nail. I will be trying it when I get home tonight.
 
I have been using Gelish for the past 2 years. However, I decided to try China Glaze's Gelaze this month since Sally's was offering BOGO. I loved the idea that the Gelaze polish doesn't require a base coat. However, I experienced chipping with the Gelaze polish when using the Gelaze top coat. I then tried the Gelish top coat on the Gelaze polish and had more luck...thicker, shinier, and gives more wear time. Therefore, my daughter and I decided to switch to Gelaze (with Gelish top coat)!

On the color wheel from left to right:

Purple Panic (name is deceiving since the color is a shade of pink, has light sparkles)
Ahoy (very sparkly)
108 degrees (very sparkly)
Pink Voltage (light sparkles)
Diva Bride
Flip Flop
Re-Fresh Mint
For Audrey
Secret Periwinkle
Flying Dragon (purple with blue sparkles)
Spontaneous
Swing Baby
Re-Fresh Mint/Fairy Dust
Fairy Dust


Color wheel 2.jpg

View attachment 2560246

Gelaze purples and sparkles.jpg

Pinks 2.jpg
 

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Gelish I'm Brighter Than You and Gelaze Flip Flop Fantasy in a few different lights. IBTY is on the left and FFF is on the right in all the pictures. IBTY is a bit more orange and FFF is a bit more pink but they are very close.
 

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tinaxbear, your acrygel mani is gorgeous! I think Coconut Kiss is my favorite color so far. I have You Glare I Glow also, but never got around to wearing it. Thanks for the comparison. Have you tried Gelaze Dorothy Who? reminds me of the color of your accent nail. I will be trying it when I get home tonight.

Thank you! I think Dorothy Who is a little darker of a blue. The store near me was always out of it, but it looked pretty. I had dry brushed glitter on my accent nail in that photo.

Right now I am wearing Ahoy! which is a Dark Pink with a lot of shimmer. Top picture is in the sun and below is indoors (no flash). So far I'm on day 9 and I've only had 1 large chip on my thumb which occurred on Day 7.
 

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New mani. Gelaze Dorothy who? and Artic Freeze. With Kiss top and base. Also Artbeads Swarovski crystals (size ss5)
 

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New mani. Gelaze Dorothy who? and Artic Freeze. With Kiss top and base. Also Artbeads Swarovski crystals (size ss5)

Beautiful, kemp!

I finally used my first Gelaze polish, peachy keen (excuse the lint in the middle finger). The color is a bit more vibrant than its rnp counterpart, but still a nice color. The formula, on the other hand isn't so great. I have patchy coverage with 3 pretty generous coats. I also got pooling, probably because I did kinda liberal coats. I refused to do a 4th coat, so I'll have to live with it for the week. I don't mind sheer polishes, but only if the are not streaky. There was also quite a bit of shrink back with every coat. Usually, if I get shrink back, it's worst on the 1st coat, and then improves with subsequent coats. Not the case with this gel.

I won't be doing a wear test since I'll be covering it with a rnp color for week 2 (if it lasts that long). I used Fingerpaints bonder but only on the free edge after some feedback in this thread. I didn't use a base coat and scrubbed in the first coat of Gelaze.

Overall, I wasn't that impressed with the formula, and any time saved skipping the base coat was spent with all the flash-curing. :shrugs:
 

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Did my 2nd Gelaze mani with Secret Peri-wink-le yesterday and found it just as sheer as Purple Panic was. Took 4 coats for good coverage and there are still some "light" patches on a few nails.

Had some of the shrink-back that hoosieraussis described above, particularly at the free edge. I'll continue to use the 4 polishes I have, but I won't be rushing to purchase more unless a certain color really catches my eye. I agree that the number of coats needed for good coverage defeats the "no base coat" lure. The price with the BOGO offer was great, though.
 
Did my 2nd Gelaze mani with Secret Peri-wink-le yesterday and found it just as sheer as Purple Panic was. Took 4 coats for good coverage and there are still some "light" patches on a few nails.

Had some of the shrink-back that hoosieraussis described above, particularly at the free edge. I'll continue to use the 4 polishes I have, but I won't be rushing to purchase more unless a certain color really catches my eye. I agree that the number of coats needed for good coverage defeats the "no base coat" lure. The price with the BOGO offer was great, though.
I haven't tried my Perri-wink-le yet, but I guess I'll put some undies under so I don't have to do 4 coats. I've read in a couple of different places that cooling Gelaze will help reduce the shrinkage problem. Hopefully they get that figured out.
 
I haven't tried my Perri-wink-le yet, but I guess I'll put some undies under so I don't have to do 4 coats. I've read in a couple of different places that cooling Gelaze will help reduce the shrinkage problem. Hopefully they get that figured out.

Yes, I also have been told that refrigerating before applying helps with the shrinkback.