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Gel Artist gel polish review and colour swatches!

When I received these gel polishes I was somewhat reluctant. As a professional nail tech I have had it 'drilled' into me that I should only ever use pro products. But in an ever changing industry the line between pro and non-pro products and brands is certainly becoming blurred. Less and less companies was to see your pro qualifications before you purchase their products and there are so many brands of gel polish out their now that clients rarely ask for a specific product service. I know in my salon my clients are more interested in the colour they are having than the brand I am using, so why not use non-pro products? Well for one thing for fear of using products that might damage or cause an allergic reaction, and for me I like to know that the products I use give an outstanding finish. A thin gel layer, completely solid and even coverage and excellent wear and removal are all top of my list when it comes to the products I use.

For this review I have done the 'swatch test', specifically looking at the finish and coverage that Gel Artist gives.

I received:

Gel Artist foundation (basecoat)

Gel Artist Matte top-it-off

Gel artist Mirror Ball 554

Gel artist Sea Foam 1341

To start with I tried out 'Mirror ball' and topped with a standard gel topcoat:

The gel polish is quite thick in consistency and this is probably to ensure that the silver holographic multi-sized glitters stay suspended and apply evenly. It gave a good amount of coverage after 2 coats and left a really lovely sparkly finish. I think this would look really nice over another colour to add glitz and sparkle. The chunkiness of the glitter did leave the finished result feeling slightly more lumpy than usual, and this is worth keeping in mind when offering this colour.

Next I tried out 'Seafoam' and topped with standard gel polish topcoat.

This picture shows how the colour applied after the first, second and third coat. As you can see it needed 3 coats to get the colour solid and completely even. Whilst this did give a nice coverage after 3 coats it didn't really have enough pigment in it for me. I find that 1 coat of basecoat, 3 of colour and 1 of topcoat tends to be a few too many layers and can lead to service breakdown so based on this colour I probably wouldn't use Gel Artist colours within my salon.

Finally I tried the Gel Artist matte top-coat. This was a complete shocker for me as I wasn't expecting much, how wrong I was!

This is without a doubt the 'matte-est' matte topcoat I have ever used! It is a nice medium thickness consistency and comes out the lamp completely dry so no need to wipe. I absolutely love it. It also gives even coverage over both dark and light colours without dulling the brightness of the colours. I loved this so much I wore the matte topcoat myself this week. So far they haven't discoloured, chipped, scuffed or gone shiny.

A BIG thumbs up from me for this product!

Here are the finished colour swatches.

I would certainly buy the matte top coat again, and I love the sparkle of 'mirror ball' however the 'seafoam' colour coat just didn't give a good enough coverage for me.

I hope this review and colour swatch has been useful! All the products used can be found at the link below. Big thanks to www.ukgels.co.uk for giving me the change to try these products!