Born Pretty - Peel-Off Thermal Nail Polish Review
13:08Recently I was contacted by Born Pretty to review some more products for you guys. One of the items that I chose to review is a peel off thermal nail polish. I haven't really tried any thermal polishes or peel off polishes before, so I figured that I would kill two birds with one stone.
If you're not familiar with Born Pretty, they're an online nail polish and nail art supply store that offers inexpensive items and free worldwide shipping with no minimum purchase required. I love Born Pretty and have been buying their products for years. They're definitely worth checking out!
The collection that I chose from is the Champs Elysees series (item ID#42543). The Champs Elysees collection of thermal polishes has several different colours that are all thermally activated. Each polish is supposed to change into four different shades that are activated by temperature and sunlight.
The colour that I chose to review was The Smurfs, which is a glittery blue polish. In the bottle, the colour is a cerulean blue. However, after you've applied the polish it dries into a light, transparent blue. I've posted a picture of what the polish is 'supposed' to look like according to their website below. The product page shows the polish as a powder/pastel blue, but I found that in reality it dried much more transparent than this — even after using three coats of polish to try and make it opaque. I will note that the product page also says that results may vary depending on lighting and temperature, but not once did it ever look as opaque as it does in the pictures. Perhaps they used a white base? I may have to test that theory if I try one of the other colours from this collection in the future.
The polish also turns purple in the sunlight. Even though the product page stated that the polish could be activated by sunlight, I thought it just meant warm temperatures. It wasn't until I was outside walking my dog that I realized my nails turned purple! It took me by surprise because all day when I was at work, my nails looked like the picture above: light blue with darker blue tips. I will note though, not once did I see my nails look as dark of a blue as they do in the sample image. I'm curious if the polish can actually turn that colour, and what combination of temperature and lighting would create that shade.
When the polish is warm, it turns a transparent powder/pastel blue like in the image above. After three coats of polish, the product wasn't fully opaque which was disappointing. As you can see, you can still see my nail tips.
In the sun, the polish turns lilac purple. You can see that it's not fully opaque, but it's a little more opaque than how the polish looked as the powder blue from warm temperatures.
Lastly, I tried to get an picture of what the polish looked like in cold temperatures but failed miserably. The image above looks interesting but it was actually really irritating to take pictures of! I take pictures of my nails in front of the window in my living room where the lighting is best. I've never had to tae pictures of a UV activated polish before, and it presented some challenges. When the polish is cold, it becomes a dark opaque blue. Even though I kept a bowl of cold water next to me and kept dipping my nails into it to change the colour to dark blue, as soon as I'd lift my hand to the light to snap a picture it had already started turning purple because of the sun! I was unable to capture an image of what the nails look like when they're completely dark blue because of this. If you scroll to the bottom of this post though, I've attached a video of the colours changing in warm and cold water.
The polish is also supposed to be able to peel off, which I attempted to do and failed. I had issues peeling it off, and kept chipping away at it until I got fed up and used acetone to remove it. I have to say, it's a pretty durable polish for one that's peel off! It lasted a few days with only the odd chip of polish coming off (which I'd re-secure with some top coat). I think because I used a regular base coat, the polish was sticking too much to the base. If I used a peel off base coat or no base coat, I'm sure I would have been able to peel it off more easily.
Altogether, this polish was actually really fun to wear. Throughout the day I'd keep testing out what would change the colours. Ie, washing my hands, sitting on them, putting them in front of the window, dipping them into my tea (It was the only warm thing around and I wanted to show my coworkers that it would change colour. Don't judge me.), etc. I'd definitely want to try some of their other colours in the future because it was such an interesting and unique experience to change my nail colours without doing a whole new manicure. If you want to try out some of the Born Pretty colour changing polishes, be sure to check out their website!
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