Gel Polish Review: Madam Glam Honeydew

Press Sample

Good morning, readers! Today's post is a little different because I got to try out my very first gel polish that you have to cure with a UV/LED light. As a total newbie, I was nervous about screwing it up but it actually was easier than I expected! Madam Glam sells regular nail polish but recently expanded to gel polish as well. Let's take a look!

It's a three bottle process: you need the base coat, color, and top coat. You also need some rubbing alcohol and cotton squares. Lastly, you need a UV/LED light for curing the polish. Gel polish will never dry over time like regular polish. I already had a one-finger sized LED lamp from when I reviewed the Sally Hansen Insta-Gel strips and it worked perfectly for this. The only downside was that I had to cure one nail at a time, 4 times per nail with the different steps. 

The colored bottles aren't labeled, but they've painted the inside of the lid to show the color and I think that's such a great idea! If you had a drawer of these it would be easy to find which color you are looking for. The handles are nice to hold while painting as well!

Before you apply your gel polish, you need to push back your cuticles and have a nice manicured surface for the gel to adhere to. I pushed back my cuticles and used cuticle remover to get anything left off of the nail that didn't belong. I lightly buffed the surface as well but that isn't necessary. 

Step 1) Use rubbing alcohol to wipe the nail surface completely to remove any oils.

Step 2) Paint one coat of Soak-Off Base Gel. Be careful to only paint on the nail surface and not onto the cuticles or skin surrounding the nail. If you get any on the skin, use an orange stick to swipe it off. Next, place your nail under your lamp and cure. These work cured under LED for 30 seconds, or 2 minutes under a UV lamp. Don't touch the nail surface after curing.

Step 3) Paint one coat of the Honeydew Soak-Off Gel Polish. Again, avoid getting polish anywhere but on the nail, but wipe free with an orange stick if it happens. Do not use acetone on a cleanup brush because it will ruin the edges of the gel. Cure your first color coat under the lamp. For this color, I needed a second coat so I painted and cured once more. 

Step 4) Paint one coat of Soak-Off Top Gel and cure under the light.

Step 5) Once you cure the top coat, it leaves a tacky residue on the nail surface. You need to use rubbing alcohol and a cotton pad again to clean the surface. Then, you are done! 

Don't forget to moisturize those cuticles and hands after the rubbing alcohol dried them out. Below, you can see the finished product! I tried to get as close to the cuticle as possible without touching so the space is a little bigger than with regular polish. I love the shine and the fact that it was instantly hard to the touch after curing the top coat!

I wore these for a week straight and took the next photos for you. The only difference was the nail growth but they were still shiny and chip free! I'm someone who is lucky to get more than a couple of days out of a regular manicure without chips so I was so happy with these results!

For removal, I used the foil-method. First, I used a nail file to rough up the shiny top coat layer. Then, a cotton square soaked in pure acetone placed directly on the nail and wrapped my finger tips in a square of tin foil to prevent evaporation. After about 15 minutes, I took them off and was able to use an orange stick to push the flecks of gel polish off of my nail. If you do this and still have some polish left, you can use the foil method again or lightly buff your nails. 

I had no damage left on my nails so it was a big success! I would love to try some more colors and be able to use them for nail art. I would probably be happier leaving it on for a week or longer if it wasn't a solid color but this shade was so pretty I didn't mind it too much.

What do you think? Are you a gel-polish fan or a newbie like me? You can find these and more gel polish colors at the Madam Glam website below. The base and top coats are currently out of stock but should be back up on the site in the next few days.

Each polish(base coat, top coat, or color) retails for $19.95 each. There is a sitewide Black Friday 40% off sale right now if you use the code BLACK40.

If you visit the site in the future and that code is no longer valid, I have a 30% off coupon code for my readers! Use code YGEL30OFF.

Thanks so much for reading!

Madam Glam Links

Site: http://madamglam.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madamglam

*The polishes in this post were sent for me to review with my honest opinion.