Who’s ready to see some holographic gel polishes??? I purchased a few of the new Color Club Halo Hues gel polishes to try out, as well as the Simple Soak Non-Acetone remover. First, I’ll say that the Color Club gels are priced high. Most of the gel colors come in sets with matching lacquers and retail for $19.95/set. The base and top coats are $19.95 EACH, and the Halo Hues shades are $29.95/set. Ouch! I picked up three of the colors during a 20% off sale. Normally I’d buy all of them, but the prices are just too high for me to justify it this time.
The gel polishes applied really nicely and were opaque in 2-3 coats. The holographic effect is good for gels, though the linear effect is slightly duller than the regular lacquers. I found that most of the day while I’m indoors the polish just looks shimmery… it’s when I get outside in the sunlight that the holo effects really show. I can’t tell you how many times I was distracted while driving when the sun hit my nails. LOL
Eternal Beauty is a purple holographic gel polish. You can see a bit of the linear rainbow effect in my photos, though I admit I didn’t do the best job of capturing the full effect.
Here’s another shot of Eternal Beauty. You can see more of the linear effect on the index finger with the angle of the nail.
Blue Heaven is a blue-toned silver holographic polish. You can see a bit more of the rainbow effect with this picture. The third color that I picked up is called Harp On It and it’s a pure silver holo, but I opted not to swatch it since the color is so similar to Blue Heaven. If I had realized how similar they were I probably would’ve selected a different shade to try.
Here’s another shot of Blue Heaven.
This photo shows all three colors in the RNP and gel versions. From left to right the colors are Harp On It, Blue Heaven, and Eternal Beauty. You can see that the gels do have a linear holo effect, though it’s not quite as vibrant as the RNP versions of each color.
This is a closer shot of Eternal Beauty RNP, next to the gel version.
As I mentioned, I also picked up a bottle of the Color Club Simple Soak which is a non-acetone remover. Color Club said this remover would soak off gel polish in 5-8 minutes so I had to put that to the test. The ingredients on the bottle say: Ethyl Acetate, Fragrance (parfum). Pretty straight forward. The solution has a very sweet citrus scent to it that I found pleasant.
I only had my polish on for about 5 days when I used the remover and I didn’t use the Color Club base & top coats (to be honest I don’t remember what brand I used). With that in mind, this isn’t a formal review but I thought I’d share my experience regardless.
I broke the seal on my top coat with a file and used Simple Soak with my NailMates. The Simple Soak seemed to foam a little when I pumped it onto the foam pads. I placed them on my nails and waited about 6 minutes before checking them. The polish was visibly peeling off and I was able to push all of it off with an orangewood stick with ease. In less than 8 minutes the polish was completely removed! That may have been the easiest removal I’ve had in a long time.
Here’s what my nails looked like after the removal. I didn’t touch this up or do anything to my nails other than push off the polish and wipe them with a cleanser.
I’m curious to see how this remover works with different brands of gel polish, so I’ll be taking it to the studio to try on clients. Unfortunately, at $12.95 for only 6 ounces it’s not really practical for salon use.
So what do you think of the new Color Club Halo Hues and Simple Soak? Will you splurge to buy them, or are they simply priced too high?