Of Life and Lacquer

I’ve had a really sucky June so far so excuse me for not being around much. Instead of posting sad and depressing stuff, I just decided to lay low and come back when things were looking better. I’m glad that things are getting back to normal so I figured that I should get back to a more regular posting schedule. I really do miss posting all my nail shenanigans and interacting with all of you, so I hope that I can commit to a consistent schedule. For today’s post, I have my initial review of the OPI Infinite Shine system. I can tell you that I am not the target demographic when it comes to long-lasting nail polish because I change my polish 3-4 times a week sometimes. I am extremely hard on my nails so every time I try “long-lasting” polish, I’m like..

Well, how do you think this lived up to the claim of 10-day wear? Let’s find out!

To start with, the OPI Infinite Shine system includes a primer/base coat, the polish and the gloss top coat. So basically this is just like regular polish except that this system is supposed to give you gel-like results and wear without having to cure the polish in a lamp. To be honest, I did not have any issues with these products but I have heard of people reporting bubbling. I applied one coat of the primer, 2 thin coats of the polish and 1 coat of the gloss. I remember reading Karen’s review about this line and how she suggested that you get some sun/uv rays on your fresh mani to make it harden quicker so I ended up following her tip. The polish felt sticky even 5 hours application which seemed weird, but it was dry because I did not get any smudges. Let me show you what my fresh mani looked like.The shade I decided to try out first is called Grapely Admired; and you know I love it. It’s such a gorgeous purple/pink–totally up my alley. Are you noticing the weird crinkled/wrinkled look of my manicure? Yeah–I’m not happy about that. I don’t know why it looked like that. Maybe I should have loaded up my brush a little more with the gloss so I could glide it over the polish. Maybe my application sucked…I can’t be sure what’s going on here. Next I’m going to show you what my manicure looked like 6 days later.

Ugh, that growth drives me insane! My nails tend to grow really quickly so I don’t normally wear nail polish this long to avoid that huge gap. After 6 days, I think my manicure is a little less glossy and is showing some tip wear but no major chips. I am actually really surprised by how well this wore because, as I mentioned earlier, I am very hard on my nails. When I took this off, I used my regular acetone and it came off just like regular polish–sweet!

So what do I think overall? This is a pretty nice system, and I was definitely pleased with the performance. By day 6, normal polish is barely hanging onto my nails so I think that this would work out great for me in situations where I would need a week out of my manicure. OPI Infinite Shine Gel Effects Lacquer System is available at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, beautybrands.com, Chatters, Dillard’s, Regis, ULTA and ulta.com for $12.50 suggested retail for each nail lacquer. Now it’s up to you to decide if you want to give this a shot. Let me know if you’ve used this system before and how it worked out for you–I’m very curious to hear what others thought of this line. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!