Top Coat.. To Spend or Not To Spend?

Hi Guys thanks for coming back. Just let me start by saying sorry it’s been so long between posts.  As you already know, if you follow my blog, we are between homes and staying with my grandmother.  She is having some trouble with a pinched nerve in her back and I have been spending some time helping her out.  She doesn't need a lot but I have been driving her to work and so on so she will not have to walk as far.  And yes my 86 year old grandmother still works 2 to 3 days a week, God bless her.

The house hunt is getting the best of me.  I swear I never thought it would be this hard to find a house to rent.  Chattanooga is in the midst of a financial boom.  With the fastest, cheapest internet in the whole country, Chattanooga is now known as the Gig city, internet startups that really can take advantage of the speed and cost of the speed offered as well as new jobs from Volkswagen and Amazon who have large facilities in the area and are still growing, well lets just say housing is snatched up as soon as it is posted.  The rent is pretty high as well once you cross the Georgia/Tennessee line.  We are looking at paying around $1000 per month for a 2 bedroom in a decent area.  There are a lot of areas that have had revitalization programs and are coming back better than ever.  When I was growing up downtown Chattanooga was a ghost town after 5:00 p.m. and now that’s when things really start to pick up.  The city has done a wonderful job and it shows in not only the industry that has come but in the tourists that now flock to the city to see the Tennessee Aquarium, The Incline, Rock City and Ruby Falls.  If you have never been to Chattanooga check it out, it’s not just about a train anymore.


So I have been bitten by the nail polish bug lately.  Of course you can spend anywhere from $2.00 for Wet and Wild polish to $27.00 for a bottle of Chanel polish.  There are subscription boxes dedicated to nail polish and accessories as well as hundreds of thousands of Pintrest boards dedicated to beautiful nail art.  I have started buying more polish than I used to.  Up until I was in my late 20’s I was a nail bitter.  The last cruise I took with my mother was the event that really made me decide to stop.  We weren’t even on the boat yet when one of my acrylic nails broke off.  That of course ruined the whole look and it just pissed me off.  Back then we didn’t have a nail salon on every corner and it was $40 at least for a full set.  So when I had to get on that boat one nail short I decided I would have my own nails the next time I sailed.  Of course my nails are brittle and break easily, but I haven’t had acrylic nails on since.  That was about 15 years ago and I love to paint my nails but it wasn’t until recently that I was so adamant about them looking perfect.
I believe I know the best way to paint my nails.  I know to use a base coat, I know to use the center stroke then 1 down each side, I know to run the polish across the end of the nail to create a seal to prevent chipping and use a top coat to bring it all together and seal it up.  I try to keep layers from being to thick so that the polish dries faster and it doesn't dent when you press in on the nail.  That being said my polish was chipping within a day or 2.

So back when I wrote the review about Wet and Wild Megalast polish I wasn’t having this problem, I even packed up a house and moved 350 miles then unpacked into a storage unit.  So I had been using Sally Hansen Dries Instantly 30 Second Top Coat up until I got to the bottom of the bottle and it became pretty goopy and I threw it out.  So instead of buying another Sally Hansen top coat I got one of the cheaper ones, Nutra Nail Speed Dry Top Coat.  About the same time I ordered a Julip Maven monthly subscription box with a coupon for my first box free.  I believe the coupon code is FREEBOX, I will update this post if I find out it’s different.  From what I could see on the internet about Julip and from the cost of a single bottle I believed I had a pretty high quality polish.  I know it’s not Chanel but I believed it to be up there with OPI for example.  I used a bottom coat, 2 thin coats of polish and the Nutra Nail top coat.  It had chipped by noon the next day, not even 24 hours after I polished them.  I had let them dry for an hour and babied them for the rest of the night after I polished them, they shouldn’t have chipped so quickly.

A couple of days ago having the same results with any and all polish I decided that it wasn’t due to my polish but my top coat.  I found a bottle of the Nicole by OPI on sale and purchased it.  Now before you say, hey that’s not a high quality top coat, it’s better than the Nutra Nail, that’s of course if you judge quality by the price….  Back to the chipping problem, they wore another day or 2 longer but still chipped.  So I’m not real sure if this is the problem or the answer.  I need more research and I need a better top coat.  Up until recently I had been skipping the base coat step and I am paying for that with discolored nails.  So maybe it’s the base coat, maybe it was better when I wasn’t using one.  I had found a bottle of Wet and Wild strengthening nail polish in the bathroom at my grandmothers house.  This bottle of polish might be considered antique.  So I am off to buy a better top coat and maybe even a base coat that isn’t as old as I am.  I did find the Sinfulcolors top coat on clearance for $0.99.  I really do like the quality of their polish and at under $2.00 you can afford to change colors everyday.  If you have any suggestions about what I might need to do differently or what brand top coat might work better I am open to suggestion.


I really wanted to get a post up so you guys wouldn’t think I had moved on to something else.  I know, like I said in my opening paragraph, that I am lacking in my frequency of blogs.  I still have a head full of ideas for my program to help women who have been incarcerated.  I think I am at the point where I just do not know what to do next.  I’ve been using mind mapping to pull my ideas into a cohesive plan.  I have untreated adult attention deficit disorder and it is hard to pull ideas into something tangible sometimes.  Just know it is my passion and so is this blog.  Beauty products and everything that goes with it is the one thing I have stuck with longer than a typical commercial break.  Thank you all for reading and I appreciate the continued prayers and support.  When I solve my nail top coat/base coat problem I will get back to you.

Much Love and God Bless,

KelleyJo

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