I love the impact of all that glitter in a polish, but the removal is what typically makes me wary of wearing it!
— Christine
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I love how it looks, obviously. What I don’t like is that it can be hard to see nail art on top of it. And removing it is a huge pain (especially with dry skin and eczema!) but using a peel-off base coat solves that problem.
Mind that it has been 5yrs or so till the last time I wore a glitter topper, so maybe the formulations has improved by time. I used to wear glitter toppers alone, because you know it was a little more fun that a traditional topcoat but, unlike other nail polishes i hadn’t to reapply it every two days. However, removing it was an authentic nightmare. Now, I don’t think this kind of stuff suits my style now that I am not a student anymore.
It’s so pretty to look at while I’m wearing it, but a serious pain in the @$$ to remove! It also tears my nails up when removing it, so I hardly ever use it. Then again, it’s been an entire year and a half since I’ve even worn any nail polish of any type. One of my BFF’s has been shocked at my lack of doing my nails, because she remembers that I literally ALWAYS did up my nails, took care of my root growth, and never left the house without a full beat of makeup on my face. Well, I have begun to do my face again, but nails and hair… 😔
I can’t even remember the last time I put on a proper glitter nail polish! Lately I’ve been using this one that has a teenie bit of glitter but I wouldn’t describe it as full-on glitter, it’s just a bit of sparkle. Tbh glitter doesn’t really make my heart skip a beat. It’s one of those subjective things I guess, it’s not that I don’t like it per se, I sort of just unwillingly avoid it for my everyday normal life.
One thing that glitter polish has going for it, is that it’s usually very forgiving when you put it on your nails and it’s great for touch-ups. Your nails don’t have to be perfectly filed and if you mess one up during the week you can paint over it (without bothering to remove it all) and it still looks good – very handy for travelling or when you’re super busy or just feeling plain lazy!
And if we’re talking parties… well, nothing quite screams “I’m here for the fun!” like glitter, right?
Generally, I tend to wear more shimmer than glitter polishes. However, I do have a few I use on occasion. (all but one is from LoudLacquer, funny enough). I prefer to use ILNP metallic polish because it looks like glitter polish, but is smoother, and super easy to remove. Glitter is often most often used on my toes, stays on forever, easier to put on nail polisher clips, and my toes can take the abuse better than my hands.
If I’m in the mood for sparkle, I love the look of glitter polish. But I’m not always in the mood. I don’t like that often the base is translucent so it has to be layered over another polish. (Looking at you, OPI!) I also don’t like that sometimes the larger glitter particles are hard to pick up with the brush and have to be fished out of the bottle and placed on the nail. They tend to glop on one spot I’ve noticed and then have to be placed “manually.”
I do like that, because glitter polish is hard to take off, it’s also long lasting. So it’s good for travel. It’s usually easy to touch up compared with matte polish – the glitter finish hides imperfections. And here is how I take it off: I rip up a cotton ball into 5 pieces, soak each in remover, and put one piece over each nail. Wait about a minute, and then the polish will come off much more easily. It’s even easier if you use the remover designed for glitter polish.
I love the ILNP glitter formulas. You don’t need a hundred coats to get coverage, and because of the formula and fewer coats, they aren’t the nightmare to take off that they used to be (although I do use an acetone based NP remover). I used to hate taking them off too. I like that for the lighter colour ones, a couple of little chips aren’t noticeable when I’m waving my hands around while I talk on zoom calls!
It looks garish. I love to look at it in the bottle. Sometimes I buy it but I prefer cream nail polish. Weird as I love shiny things.
I like glittery nails, but like everyone else have said, it’s a PITA to remove. I also don’t like if the surface of the nails are uneven. I start scraping the surface to get it to become even, ruining the polish and the nail I use to scrape with.
I mostly use shimmery polish, but for special occasions, glitter is fun.
ILNP actually removes fairly easily with OPI Expert Touch Remover. It’s one of the best.
I use little finger pods to remove my glitter polish. It’s the same way that you would remove a gel manicure. These work great and allow me to enjoy glitter polish without the hassle of removal.
I love how dimensional and pretty they are. They can be messy to apply and ate a royal pain to remove.
I love the look of them, and how they make my manicure last all week… but they do take forever to remove.