Sponsored: ASK Base&Top Coat + Revival Nail Polish Remover

Sorry for the lack of posts for recently.  I've been testing the ASK base coat trying to find a good top coat to go with it, but have been unsuccessful.  Every time I did my nails by morning parts of my nails would be chipped or after showering the entire nail would peel off.

Here's what the base and top coats look like again.

I've been using the base coat for almost a month now and I haven't found any top coat to go with it to prevent chipping or peeling.  I've tried Seche Vite, China Glaze Fast Forward, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, Etude House Jelly Pop, Duri Brush&Go, Duri Miracote and of course the ASK top coat.  The ask top coat seems to work best with the base coat.  Still chips, but you can almost get a full day or wear out of them if you don't mind small chips here and there through out the day.  After using the base coat it kind of reminds water based polishes like Sula Paint and Peel polishes because chunks of polish would just come off after showering or doing dishes.  I didn't like the Sula polishes when I tried them and I don't like the ASK base coat either.  It didn't really do much to help keep polish on my nails.

As for the ASK top coat, it's slightly better than the base coat.  Dries fairly quickly which I like, shiny with two coats, but doesn't prevent chipping as well as other top coats.  Still chips the next day though not in huge pieces, just little bits here and there.  I probably wouldn't use this as a final top coat.  Maybe as a layer between polish and stamped polish.

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As for the ASK Revival Nail Polish Remover, here's a picture of the product once again.

I really like this polish remover.  I loved even more after reading a comment from jaded_imp to add more acetone so that it doesn't feel as greasy. 

When I first used the polish remover it removed polish very quickly and I didn't have use much product to get rid of polish on all 10 fingers.  It was very conditioning and didn't make my nails look dry with a whitish cast to them, but I found it to be slightly greasy for me.  I felt like I couldn't touch anything without leaving a greasy stain/mark on it.  However after following jaded_imp's suggestion I added more acetone and it works great without the greasy feeling.  And even though I added more acetone to the mix the remover was still very conditioning.  My nails and cuticles never looked dry after using the polishing remover.

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Quick conclusions about the three products - I would pass on the base coat, maybe give a try for the top coat and definitely give the polish remover a try.

Valentine's Day Nails

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  And happy belated Gal-entine's Day (Feb. 13), completely forgot about it until I watched the Parks and Rec Valentine's episode again.

I did three coats of Borghese Rapido in Capriccio Blue then proceeded to use acrylic paint for the polka dots and hearts.  Then I stamped using the Charming Nails Q1 plate and Kleancolor Black.  Filled in the bird with the same red and and white acrylic paint and then tried to restamp over top.  Thankfully the best restamp happened on my left ring finger.  The others were full of fail.  But I still left them instead of redoing them. 

New Stuff

Bought some new polishes recently from Winners and I won a stamping plate from solongkitty.ca.

 

The Borghese Rapido polishes were in a pack of five and were on clearance so I picked it up since I had a gift card from Winners to use up.  Colours from left to right are Romanzo Pink, Felice Tangerine, Capriccio Blue, Incantato Purple and Fantastico Lime.  The polishes are alright, they don't dry much faster than others.  Plus three coats are needed for them to be opaque.

Here's a closer look at the stamping plate.

It is the Charming Nails Q1 plate.  Super awesome plate and first time I won a giveaway.

I did a Valentine's mani using the birds on the plate, didn't turn out so great, but I'll post it up tomorrow after I take some pics.

ASK Rich Sapphire + RA-106

Here is the is the mani I did on Sunday to test out the longevity of the ASK polishes on the nails.  Pictures are from two different cameras so that's why the colouring is different.  I painted on one coat of the ASK base coat, then three coats of Rich Sapphire and topped it with two coats of ASK top coat.  For the ring finger accent nail I stamped on an image from Red Angel plate RA-106 using Konad white special polish before the two layers of top coat.

I don't think the base and top coats helped to keep the mani from lasting a long time.  When I home Tuesday night I noticed that there were a few chips on my nails with one peeling away.

These are pictures of my left hand, I couldn't get focused pictures of my right hand.  My index finger had the peel while my ring finger had the corner chip.

Not very long lasting.  Two days, maybe 2.5 days of chip-free-ness.  I didn't even do anything like crafting or sewing, I just went out to have some wings and gelato.

I'm not sure if it's the polish itself or the base and top coats being crappy.  I think it might possibly just be the top and base coats not being that great.  I did my nails earlier after cutting down my nails and I've already got small chips on three nails.  And I didn't even take pictures yet.

I'll test the longevity of the polish again, but with my regular Seche Base and Seche Vite.  If it's no good again then the polishes are probably not gonna provide long lasting wear.

One last thing to add, my bottle of ASK Romantic Sunset has already started to separate.

No biggie, just shake to mix it back up, but odd as I've only had the polish for a week.  This hasn't occurred in any of the other ASK polishes.  So just weirdness with this one.

KimsKie's Nails: 160 followers Giveaway!

 

KimsKie's Nails is having a giveaway and you can win your choice of 4 essence polishes.

Giveaway is open internationally and closes February 28th, 2012.

Sponsored: Ask NailWear

Recently I was contacted by Lisa from Ask Cosmetics to review their new polishes and their polish remover.  I've never done anything like this, but thought why not.

Ask Cosmetics is a Canadian company and I've seen their products shown on The Shopping Channel since I was in my teens*, mostly their T.I.P.S. nail conditioner and also their Contour file.  I've only known about their nail care products, but they also have skin and hair care products.

Here are the products that I was sent for review:

A bottle of their Revival nail polish remover, base and top coat, four of their new polish colours in Rich Sapphire, Classic Peacock, Oh So Aubergine and Romantic Sunset.

First time doing a jump cut to read more 'cause this is gonna be a long post.

Disco Ball

This was two coats of American Apparel Imperial Purple, forgot to take a picture of it.  You can click here if you want to see a bottle shot, it was a gift from my friend Judy.  My camera makes purples look bluer than they actually are, so colour is inaccurate.  It's a really deep rich purple, kind of like those dark chubby oval-ish eggplants.

I place these mirrored circles on my ring finger in a random pattern.  These didn't photograph well either.  They're so shiny in real life, but in pictures they look kind of dull. But you can see the reflections of the mirrors on the sides of my middle and pinky fingers.  The circles laid pretty flat on the nail and two coats of Seche Vite made a pretty smooth and even surface.

Pink Tips + Lace Stickers

When I bought the gold metal stickers/decals I also bought some lace stickers.  The stickers are alright, but they all have some greenish glitter on them.  It's most noticeable on the black parts of the lace.  I would rather have them be a flat black and white, no glitter.  Oh well.

Two coats of Quo by Orly in True Love on the tips, stickers and then non fast drying top coat.  The stickers weren't too fond of Seche Vite.  It made them scrunch up and lift from the nail.