Nailed It!

It's been less than 48 hours, but I'm already obsessed.  After reading about it online, I decided to treat myself to The System - Formula X manicure kit as a little birthday present.  Over a month later I finally find time my schedule and remember to try it out... 

A little background - I used to bite my nails as a kid and still have the bad habit of peeling them and picking at my cuticles.  This does not make for strong or long nails.  And having weak nails, they bend easily so when I attempt to paint them with standard nail polish, my manicure will chip within hours and definitely can't stand up to any type of rigorous work.  Gel manicures were my ultimate savior.  Until you take into account that bad habit of peeling my nails.  Gel manicures peel beautifully and take with them the top layer of your nail, thereby making my nails even weaker.  So I can't get gel manicures too often (not to mention they're a bit pricy).  Ok, so we're back to me having mostly unpainted nails.

The supposed beauty of the Formula X system is that it can be removed like regular nail polish without destroying your nails, but it will last for a week!  I'm only a day and a half into my trial with the product, so I can't yet vouch for the week long claim.  But since I normally can't get a regular manicure to last 12 hours, let alone 36, I am already super impressed.  Plus, within those 36 hours I cleaned dishes and washed my hair, two tasks that will always destroy a standard manicure in my experience.  The secret is in the super sticky base coat and the fast drying formula (within 5 minutes of painting them my nails were completely dry to the touch). As an added perk, the system is also paraben, sulfate, and phthalate free.

The mauve-ish nude that I chose as my first Formula X color has a milky white base, which makes the fast drying coats somewhat uneven, necessitating 3 coats of color instead of the recommended 2 and making the overall application a bit thicker than I would have wanted.  But this was my first experience with this color and I think I can get it better next time.  I'm interested to try one of the non-white based colors next.  I have been able to find two super itsy bitsy, tiny chips on my nails, but they are barely noticeable and as I've already said, WAY better than I would have by this point with normal nail polish.  Overall: I'm super happy with my little birthday investment and can't wait to try out more of the colors (they have a huge selection at Sephora stores)!