Hey there! Today I have something a bit different than usual...a look at Hit The Bottle's Bottoms Up and Keepin' It Peel, sent to me by Beautometry to try out. Bottoms Up in a 2-in-1 base and top coat while Keepin' It Peel is, as you'd guess, Hit The Bottle's water-based peel off base coat. I've put both of these into regular rotation, for different reasons, over the last couple months. I have a positive opinion of both though I did learn that I do my nails too late at night and/or I'm too impatient to use non-quick dry top coats now like Bottoms Up. But I've been using it for other purposes instead of only as top coat so it definitely has a place in my life.
$7 USD/12 mL
Bottoms Up is formulated to work as both base coat and top coat. That's pretty handy if you want one less bottle to clutter up your space or take on vacation. But since I've got a pretty good handful of various bottle left out all the time anyway, that's not something I particularly require.
I'll apologize now for the photos of my almost naked nails. I hate to look at them, hence I keep them covered at all times. Here I used one coat of Bottoms Up as a base coat. It applied nicely and took about 5 minutes to dry without tackiness.
As a top coat, I used one coat over 2 coats of Flight Of The Hummingbird. It, again, went on nicely but after 30 minutes it was still tacky (not surprising since it isn't a quick dry top coat) and a few bubbles popped up on a couple of nails. I don't know if that's from the top coat or because maybe I should've let the polish dry more before I put the top coat on.
I finished my mani at 9:14 pm and went to bed around 2 am that night which I feel like should've given it enough time to be dry but when I woke up I found lots of sheet marks in my nails. Because of that, I likely won't be using this as a top coat very often. But it's certainly as good base coat. The photo below is after 3 days of wear (yes, I wore this sheet-y, bubbly mess for 3 days straight) and it hadn't chipped. There was a bit of tip wear but that was it so if you don't require quick dry, this product seems great. BUT I've still been using it a lot precisely because it doesn't dry quickly. Since I received it, any reverse stamping or decals I've done have been applied with it. Honestly, I haven't put it away in months so that's saying something!
$9.99 USD/12 mL
As I mentioned, Keepin' It Peel is a water-based peel off base coat. I wear gloves at work for hours on end (an instant peel-off killer), I like baths and I don't have a dishwasher. In other words, my hands are wet a lot which often means my manis pop off really quickly, at least with UNT. But Keepin' It Peel held up better than I'm used to so I'm happy I have two bottles of it to keep me going (I also bought a bottle when it was made available).
The formula is nice. I found the dry time to be between 5-10 minutes which is easy to handle. The first time I tested it, I tried it with a regular polish (Hit The Bottle Dazzling Display) which isn't thick like a glitter or gel mani. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos. But it held up for 3 full days of helping my sister move and doing a lot of heavy cleaning. On Day 3 I had my hands submerged in water a lot and then 3 of them popped off. So I had a nice hot bath (to get my hands warm and wet) and the others peeled off with ease.
Next I tried it with a glitter-y, shimmer-y polish...the stuff I hate to try to remove without a peel off. This was two thick coats of A England She Walks In Beauty. Two of them popped off at work the next day (which is standard for me and peel offs) so I repainted those two to get another day out of it. The next day, one came off after a shower and four more came off after wearing gloves at work for about an hour.
I also wanted to try it with gel polish so I did one coat of Keepin' It Peel and then 2 coats of Madam Glam Vintage Pink with a chrome powder from Born Pretty, stamped with Creative Shop 35 and Hit The Bottle Shadows Of Darkness. I wanted to see if Keepin' It Peel could work to retain the shine of the chrome powder but those nails went cloudy and the color changed (you can see those two on the peelies below). This mani lasted a full 48 hours before one came off. To remove the others I wet my hands and oiled them up. They were still quite adhered so, if that one didn't come off, I think they would've lasted a couple more days.
In conclusion, I'm fond of both of these products but they're not game changers. Bottoms Up seems to be a great base coat and is handy for nail art purposes but, if you need a quick dry top coat like I do, this won't work as a top coat for you. And if you're looking for a peel off, Keepin' It Peel is a good choice. Don't expect miracles from it but it did hold up better than I usually get from UNT's peel off base coat.
$7 USD/Bottoms Up
$9.99 USD/Keepin' It Peel
Available at Beautometry
'Til next time...
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