Nail Polish - recommendations please ---

[FiveShelties]

I would prefer something easy to apply which lasts for a few days and is not too expensive. Does such a thing exist? Also should I use Gel or do these not work well at home? Many thanks.

I have tried so many high end (Chanel, Estée Lauder, Clinique, MAC and more), the specialist brands like OPI, Essie, Creative, Orly and plenty of drugstore.

My absolute best is Sinful Colours. Very cheap and lasts so well. In the UK I think it is available at some Boots.

My best base is Orly rubberised base coat.

They sometimes have Sinful Colours at Poundland but random shades.

Don't throw Seche Vite away if it gets too thick - get a bottle of Seche Restore - a few drops in the Vite and it's back to normal (works on other 'too thick' polishes as well!). After asking here a few weeks back, I'm now a massive O.P.I. fan - a bit more expensive, but well worth it in quality, IMO.

I mostly use Essie. I recently discovered the Sally Hansen Complete Salon ones and really like them, although I use it with a base and top coat even though it says it doesn't need any.

Used to be a Rimmel fan but have just discovered L'oreal infallible gel effect range. It's amazing - even with the dark shades it lasts about a week. Unheard of for me as I have rubbish nails and usually they take quite a battering as I have small DC.
I even managed to chip shellac.

Liveinthepresent - you think the L'oreal one is better than gel or shellac?

I have problems that nail polish comes off the edges of my nails but on your rec, I wonder if I should try these. The colour confuses me though e.g. the Forever Mink looks like it's half black?!

www.boots.com/en/LOreal-Paris-Infallible-Nail-Polish_1505242/

PS liveinthepresent - how long would you say it lasted please?

Hi Lorelei9.
Yes those swatches on boots website were extremely confusing !
I am wearing shade 21 always a lady. It is very dark and unforgiving if it chips at all as with all dark shades but I am lasting 6/7 days without touching up.
I don't do shellac as it trashed my nails and I don't have the time (or money really) to have it done in a salon.
So what I love about this is that extra gel like shine that looks so much better than even my best top coats.

These are all the shades I have - forever mink is a pinky nude.

This is how my nails look on day three.

To be fair I haven't tried any other no light
Needed gel ranges so there may be others but I stockpiled on the 3 for 2 as was so impressed.

super colour choices :)

Thanks so much for this

I had a gel done recenty for a special event. If it last 2-3 weeks I was thinking to buy a DIY gel & lamp kit as there's no way I could pay to go to a salon even occasionally. I still have it on so not sure what it will have done to my nails underneath! Going to wait a couple of weeks and then choose. Ordinary polish - with base coat, top coat etc doesn't last with me and I don't like the faff of a frequent change.

Barry M Sunset daylight curing polish and topcoat. Did mine on Tuesday and they still look perfect, Nothing normally lasts more than 24 hours with me and that's with basecoat and Seche Vite.

I don't rate Barry M normally, find the narrow brushes faffy and the polishes streaky. Rimmel and Essie are my favourite normal brands.

are these "daylight curing" ones dry immediately, so to speak?

I've found that Sally Hansen's InstaGrip base coat and MegaShine topcoat make even the cheapest polish last a week.

The Sally Hansen miracle gel is surprisingly good - it doesn't dry immediately, it takes about the same time as normal polish, but it does last well. I'm on day 5, and have only a little bit of wear on the tips, and one scratch (but that would have scratched anything, it was a knife blade!) I mostly like it because it does give my nails the plumper gel look which smooths out all my ridges better than some normal polishes do.