Review: Nubar Porcelain Base Coat

I purchased this base to try out, since I was running low on my essie first base coat (best ever btw), with high expectations. My first impression of the product and packaging were positive, but its performance as a "base coat" was quite dissapointing. I'd recommend purchasing this, as a treatment, i.e. if you plan to use it on its own, considering it has a sheer, glossy, milky white finish and nourishes your nails.

Now on to a more detailed review of this product's characteristics.

Pros:

• Sheer white color is enough to cover up nail discolorations.
• Makes an amazing treatment, perfect for "resting" your nails in between using extreme colors and glitters. Matched with a glossy top coat, this polish will give you the best natural finish, and durable nails.
• A perfect shade for french manis; one coat would be enough to give your nail a credible natural shade.

Cons:

• Given the fact that this product is marketed as a base, I'd say it definitely failed in this aspect. It took forever to dry and made color application streaky (even with opaque cream finish polishes, and believe me I tried using many on top of this base coat). This meant I had to apply more than one coat of polish, despite their opacity, adding up even more drying time to this process.
• Nail polish easily chipped on the second day. I blame this on the base coat, given the fact that I used trusted and tested long-lasting nail polishes and top coat.
• Like I said, it took a long time to dry, and even when I let it dry on its own for about an hour, when I applied my nail polish on top (which would normally take 15-20 mins to dry), an hour later my nails were still "sticky".

Final thoughts:

If you're looking for a base coat, then I wouldn't recommend this product at all. Could have been a bad batch... who knows? But given its price, I definitely would not risk purchasing this again.

Nevertheless, I now have a decent nail treatment for the days I like to leave my nails alone! ^^

5/10 (bad as a base coat, works as a "natural" nail treatment)

HAUL: Nail Polish

I was so happy to find my nail polish order in the mail this week and I wanted to share initial pics and a mini review of the ebay store I purchased them from, before I mess up the bottles and packaging! ;)

All six polishes came packaged in a box, within a box!

I purchased them from enchantedbeautyspot on ebay, best nail polish seller I can recommend really (fyi: I paid for everything with my own money).

US based seller, everything always comes extra safely packaged, ships extremely fast PLUS there's no hidden charges or fees incorporated in their shipping costs.

Sneak peak from the top.

A++++ on ebay terms!

Now on to the polishes.

I have a tendency to buy blue and purple tone nail polish with cooler undertones preferrably, as I find such tones are flattering to my yellowish skintone.

One thing I HAD to get was a new top coat as I can't live without my Poshe! <3

First time I give anything from NUBAR a go, I purchased the Porcelain base coat and a freakin' AMAZING purple glitter polish. Hope it performs better than my china glaze glitters, which I hate as they tend to chip within a day or two, even with the best top/base coats I've used.

Nubar Porcelain Base Coat

Nubar Violet Sparkle

And of course I had to get me some China Glaze polishes, as I have a "love and hate" relationship withi this brand, due to the numerous hit and misses I've had (we can't have it all can we?? lol).

I have to admit that nobody does interesting blue shades like China Glaze, so I got three blueish shades which I've never tried before, most interesting being Tempest, which looks like a duochrome shade from the bottle! *Hoo-rah* Pitty my camera didn't capture this color in its full glory, its far from looking like a plain blue shimmer.

Blue Island Iced Tea (my fave)

China Glaze Tempest.

China Glaze Sky High Top 

Swatches will soon appear in NOTD posts, and I'd like to take some time to review the NUBAR porcelain base coat, as the natural finish looks pretty promising. ;)