nubar Fall 2012 & Gelicure

Photo Courtesy of nubar Facebook Page

I finally found my missing camera pictures from Cosmoprof North America, which included my visit with nubar nails.  nubar is a cruelty free, vegan, big 3 free brand that is available only through their website for $8 a bottle.  They also have treatments (I tried the cucumber cuticle oil!), nail art tools & accessories and their own line of gels called Gelicure.

I also took a few pictures of some of their collections.

Then I got to see the new fall collection, Simplicity Meets Elegance.  It's a great collection of cremes that are available now.  I reviewed Romance earlier this month.

Now Gelicure soak off gel polish.  This line launched at IBS 2010 Long Beach, can be cured in a UV or LED lamp, lasts for 3 weeks with no chipping or peeling and soaks off in just 15 minutes.  Because I knew I'd have a lot of nail polish to wear, I opted to just have one nail done.

First my nail was cleaned and prepped.  Then the base coat was applied and placed in the LED light for 20 seconds (would be 1 minute for UV light).  Next we went with 2 coats of Purple Aster NPG037, a lavender creme.  Each coat was cured for 30 seconds in the LED light (120 seconds for UV).  Then we added a coat of Purple Pyrotechnics NPG046, a very glitter purple.  Finally the top coat was added and that was only 20 seconds as well.  We finished off with the cucumber cuticle oil.

24 July 2012: Freshly done

Nine days later on 2 August 2012...

The thickness compared to my natural nail

As you can see, I've had very little lifting (only on my side where a bit of gel got on my skin), no chipping and no tip wear.

On 7 August, I decided it was time to remove, only because my nail had grown so much - you can see the gel is still fine.  The main issue was that I was getting my hair caught under the gel where it had grown out.

First I used the nubar VIP file to remove the Gelicure Top Coat Sealer from the nail surface to expose the color and assist in the soaking procedure.

Now, honestly, I don't think I removed enough of the top coat but this was my first time and all.  Next I took a cotton ball soaked in Zoya Remove+, placed it on my finger and wrapped my finger in foil.  I waited 10 minutes and got this.

So as you can see, that didn't really work.  It took another application in foil with pure acetone, and quite a bit of scraping off before I got all the Gelicure off my nail.  Even then, I didn't get it all off and my nail has a weird texture right now (27 August) - kind of like the nail was roughed up, even when it wasn't.  Please note that I am not a nail tech, I have not been to cosmetology school, and you should have your gels removed by a professional if you don't know what you're doing (like me).  Regardless, I would get Gelicure again - my nail was super strong while the gel was on and they offer a lot of different colors.

nubar [Website | Facebook | Twitter] can be purchased on their website for $8.00 a bottle in the US.  They do have international retailers in Russia, Sweden and the UK.  

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.