Avon's Gel Finish Nailwear + Winner of Sephora giveaway

I know it's not Monday today but I just couldn't wait until next Manic.Monday to tell you about these Gel Finish Nailwear from Avon (£7) so let's just focus on the Manic.ure bit, rather than what day of the week it is. I've never had a salon gel manicure done, but I've been a mahoosive fan of gel finishes ever since Barry M launched their amazing Gelly Hi-Shine effect range last year and by now we've seen other brands catching up with their own versions at different price points. The Gel Finish Nailwear is the latest nail polish release from Avon available as of April and it promises to give a high gloss gel like shine which is also supposed to strengthen the nails by up to 42% without any need for using a UV lamp, it has built in base and top coat and intense pigmentation in one coat. Since Avon is famous for their value for money products I was very excited to take this formula for a test drive. For being a new launch, the range of colors is very impressive - there are 24 different shades available ranging from bright, vibrant, sunny colors that just POP, darker and more sophisticated chic shades to everybody's favorite this season - pretty creamy candy colors, in short there's something for everyone! Since I'm all about pastels this year I decided to try the formula in the shades Sheer Love which is a very pale white petal pink, and Lavender Sky which is a beautiful pale mauve shade.

The formula has a good consistency, not too runny and not too thick, and with the averagely sized brush it's easy to get a good amount of product to try and minimise the amounts of brush strokes used. I have previously been quite skeptical towards formulas that claim to have a built in base and top coat, but after having used the amazing Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Formula, I was much less reluctant to try these polishes without any base coat, and I'm very pleased to say that neither of these shades stained my nails and they also lasted and wore really well after I'd applied them with a natural glossy finish. Personally I quite like my Gel effects to be super shiny, so even though there was no impact on wear I think I'll still apply a high shine top coat for that brilliant shine. So far so good, however there were some differences between the shades in terms of pigmentation. You may remember that Avon claims that one coat should be enough with this formula - well, that's definitely not the case with the shade Sheer Love. Admittedly it is a delicate pink, in fact it's almost a nude color however for a good streak free and opaque coverage I had to apply 3 coats of it, which is not at all what I would expect from a gel effect (especially not one priced at £7), even if the color is sheer and it's probably because of the amount of coats needed that this only lasted about 3 days before starting to chip. With Lavender Sky on the other hand it's a completely different story and you'll get a gorgeous, creamy and opaque look using only one coat with minimum brush strokes and it lasted flawlessly for almost 5 days. Sheer Love is without a doubt  a very pretty shade, but for me it just doesn't live up to my expectations of a gel polish. If I'm underwhelmed about Sheer Love, I'm exactly the opposite regarding Lavender Sky - the color is pure and simple beauty, the coverage phenomenal and it lasted quite a long time.

 

Since I have only tried two different shades of the Avon Gel Polishes, I don't want to go as far as to say that the overall quality is inconsistent, however if you do go for a sheer shade you should be prepared that you might need to use more than one coat for a lovely opaque finish. The Avon Gel Polishes will be priced at £7, but if you order now you can get them at 50% discount.

Before we finish today's post I am very happy to announce the winner of the giveaway of Sephora makeup products to celebrate that I had reached more than 100 000 pageviews. Thank you so SO much for all the entries, but unfortunately there could be only one winner this time around, and the lucky girl is Hayley Todd - congratulations Hayley and I really hope you'll enjoy the products! Have a great day everyone!