Monday, February 6, 2017

Madam Glam Gel Polish Review

Press  Sample

Hey there!  How is everyone's Monday treating them?  I started my week with a dead car battery this morning so it can only go up from here right (*knock on wood*)?  On the plus side, I get to share something that I've never shared before - a Madam Glam gel polish review!  As a full blown nail polish addict, I like changing my polish a lot so I don't use gel often but I have been using gel more and more often to use powders or alcohol inks or just to keep the same base color on and change what I put on top.  I've tried a few brands and had just accepted that gel polish wasn't very opaque but these Madam Glam polishes proved that theory wrong.  All of these applied easily and were fully opaque in just two coats.  Here I have two of the Cat Eye magnetic polishes and two cremes.  Keep reading to hear all about them and to get my code for 30% off anything you buy!




Madam Glam's polishes cure under LED light in 30 seconds or UV in 2 min.  Personally I only own an LED lamp so that is what I used.  As mentioned, these are all two coats and all were swatched with Red Carpet Manicure Brilliance gel top coat.

teal magnetic polish


Madam Glam has an entire line of Cat Eye magnetic gel polishes.  Please note that the magnet is sold separately even though I didn't use that magnet to test out Poetry.  I was sent the two colors that I'm most drawn to - teal and blue.  Poetry is the more green of the two.  After using the magnet the main color is teal but the line that is created is a much lighter aqua shade.  To apply it I applied the first coat as normal, cured and then applied the second coat and held the magnet over it for approximately 10 seconds.  I flash cured and then held the magnet over it again (I'm not sure if that's even remotely necessary - I was just being finicky) and then finished curing it.  I finished with top coat, cured and was good to go.  For Poetry, I used a Dance Legend magnet to get a narrow line effect but you can see how the Madam Glam magnet works for the swatch of Look Me In The Eye in a second.  


The Cat Eye polish instructions say to use it over a black base so I swatched my pink and middle finger over black in the photo below.  I decided to wear it over itself instead.  The black base is pretty cool but I like the depth of the colors over themselves even more.  

middle and pinky swatched over black
I did a wear test for Poetry.  I wore this one for an entire week without even the hint of any wear.  The tips are good, there were no chips and it stayed as shiny as it started.  But after a week I needed a change and I could see the regrowth so it had to go.  To remove it I filed through the top layers with a 180 grit file and then soaked a cotton pad with acetone and held it in place for 15-30 minutes with some nail clips I bought on AliExpress.  Some nails took longer than others hence the big range in soaking times.  I had to scrape the remnants off with an orange stick.  Be careful with this part.  I'm not used to removing gel polish and I scratched my nails a bit.  

7 day wear test

cobalt blue magnetic polish


To use Look Me In The Eye I applied as I did for Poetry but used the magnet that is sold by Madam Glam.  It gives it a broader magnetic effect.  I think I actually prefer this look.


Again, since it says to use a black base I swatched my middle finger and pinky over black in the photo below.  And again, I prefer it over itself though over black is also beautiful.  

middle and pinky nail swatched over black

high opacity black creme


Perfect Black is easily the most opaque black gel polish I've tried (though, to be fair, I've only tried two before this one).  This is two coats but I think it could be one coat for a more experienced gel user.  The formula was super creamy and easy to apply.  This is definitely going to be the black I use to swatch stamping polishes now.  I'm never going back!  


dusty pink creme


The last color I was sent is Vintage Pink - the perfect name for it.  Dusty Rose was always my Nana's favourite color (even when she was young) and this color made think of her.  It's a color I frequently wish I had in regular polish.  Again, this is two easy, creamy coats plus top coat.  My top coat had bubbles though so ignore that in the photo below.  The polish itself was fine.  


This color is so vintage that I couldn't resist doing some simple stamping over it.  For the mani below I stamped with MoYou London Tourist 07 with Mundo de Unas Old Pink (to stay with the vintage theme) and topped it with a matte top coat.  



Overall, though my gel experience is limited, I'm really happy I got to try these polishes.  They applied easily, wore amazingly and they're a great price.  The full sized bottle of gel polish that I've checked out are always over $20 but these are just $19.95 and Madam Glam frequently has sales.  Also, Madam Glam has provided my readers with a 30% off code.  Just use Claws30 at checkout to get 30% off your entire order.  

$19.99/15 mL bottle
use Claws30 coupon code to get 30% off 
Available at Madam Glam

'Til next time...



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