Nails Inc Gel Effect Polishes Review and Swatches

These lovely polishes by Nails Inc claim to be Gel Effect with no UV needed. I tried out the colours West End (red) and Lexington Gardens (lilac). I even used their own base Superfood Kale Base Coat.

The Nails Inc website says this about the Gel Effect polishes:

The bestselling Gel effect polish range is formulated with revolutionary plasticiser technology for a flawless manicure at home. Gel effect polish glides on effortlessly and the extra wide brush ensures easy application. Highly pigmented to provide exceptional coverage and with a plumping agent to level out any imperfections on the nail.

Whilst the packaging is now changed and the new formulas contain coconut water, this extra ingredient only works to hydrate nails and shouldn’t have any baring on the use and effect of the polish technology itself.

Lexington Gardens

So I tried Lexington Gardens first. It took me about half an hour to apply as the coats take a while to dry, but it was very pigmented and two coats was more than enough. I used a top coat and let this fully set before waiting an hour before I got into bed.

You know when you go to bed having just done your nails and you can get an imprint of the bed sheets on the nail? Yeah, this happened to me despite the fact  that I did wait a good hour after they were dry before hopping into bed and even then I was super careful and did nothing but watch tele (Made in Chelsea if you were wondering) during this time.

This polish is very shiny and does have that gel look, the next day my colleague even commented and said my nails look like they’d been done at the salon! They lasted a day before chipping so it wasn’t immediate, but by day three they had to come off.

West End

So West End. This looks like an orange/red hybrid that would be nice for summer as it isn’t too red, but it’s more red than orange and does look a bit different to the colour in the bottle. Again this was very pigmented and two coats was plenty.

This took a while to dry too, but I took my time and just chilled out whilst each coat dried. This colour however, chipped the very next morning! And a lot as well not just a tiny bit, two big chunks came off one finger with another off my thumb. As it’s so bright it’s super noticeable too so it had to come off ASAP!

With both the polishes the brush was nice and it was easy to apply and both are pigmented. BUT and a big but is the fact that they do not last long. At all. Yes they are gel effect and they look nice but for £15 a bottle I would expect them to last longer than 1/2 days! Luckily I got these in a cheap set in a christmas sale so didn’t pay full price.

I really do hate having to write bad reviews, but I don’t think I am being unreasonable expecting such an expensive nail polish to last longer than a day! The Superfood base coat didn’t make a different either!

Such a shame as they do look nice, if you could really be bothered to wait for the drying time for them to look gelly on a night out/event I think this is all they’re good for!

Shop the range here.*

Have you tried any of the Gel Effect’s from Nails Inc? Let me know below!

Thanks for reading!

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