Product Review: Parado Glossy Gel Nail Top Coat

I first learned of this product from Yumeko of A Dream of Tokyo. It sounded so interesting that I needed to try it for myself and couldn't wait until December when my son would be coming home from Japan for a visit. Yumeko had mentioned that we could order this through her friend, which is what I ended up doing.

This is basically a top coat which creates the look of gel nails without using UV lights. Use a base coat, your nail polish color of your choice and finish with Parado as your top coat. I tried this out on my naked nail and like Seche Vite, it needs a base coat/color to be able to grab onto. It eventually peel off in one layer.

I think that this works out really nicely. It finishes my manicure with a nice glossy look and it dries quite quickly. The longevity of this is average...on par with other top coats that I have used. I am really hard on my hands and nails so anything that doesn't chip in two days, is really good for me. The brush is thicker than other nail polishes that I use and I like that. I have really small nails so I can actually use one swipe on my baby finger and it gets covered. I like it a lot and have already asked my son to bring back more of this for me.

At the same time that I tried this out, I happened to try out Seche Vite for the first time. I like Seche Vite as it finishes your manicure nicely and dries quickly. I would dare say that the these two top coats are very, very similar. For you Japan girls who are wanting to try Seche Vite but don't want to pay the exhorbitant price that it is in Japan, buy Parado because I think that it is a good dupe for Seche Vite. This is found only in 7-11 stores in Japan.

For those outside of Japan who may be interested in trying this, I bought my Parado from Fumiko Kitagawa at her blog. Scroll down to the bottom as this is the last product listed. I believe that she is traveling or will be traveling very soon so if she doesn't respond right away, please be patient.

*Kat*

NOTD: Pink Gradient Nails

Another post for today! I was actually supposed to post the previous one last night but wasn't feeling well so I posted it early this morning.

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When I saw this entry by Jenn of From Head To Toe of a purple gradient nail art tutorial, I just knew that I had to try it. She makes it looks so simple and fast. She has a great blog and is just so cute.

Since I had already decided that for the month of October I'd wear pink nail polish in support of Breast Cancer Awareness, I went for a pink gradient look.

Products used:

Lippman Hard Rock
Konad R11 Light Pink Regular Polish
Color Club 875 Hot Couture (Pink Glitter Polish)
Orly Sterling Silver Rose
NYX NGP167 (Glitter Polish)
Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

I had originally wanted to shop my stash and use what I already have but I really don't have that great a collection of nail polishes. I think that I mostly have konad polishes. I had also recently purchased the Orly polish and the NYX polish. The only reason why I picked up the NYX polish last week was because it was on sale for only 99 cents. For that price, I was willing to give it a try. Knowing that I wanted to try this technique, I had to find a pink glitter polish, and I found it by Color Club in the same color tone as the Orly. I also bought Seche Vite at the same time, which was on Saturday.

Following Jenn's technique, I did a base coat using Lippman Hard Rock (sorry I forgot to put it into the picture). It dries pretty quickly so I was able to do a single coat with Konad Light Pink pretty much right away. This color is quite sheer so it appears like my own nail color. It also dried quite quickly. I then used Color Club Hot Couture and was actually a bit disappointed that it is so sheer. Even after layering it, the pink color barely comes through. I decided to deviate a bit from Jenn's technique and and started over again. This time though I did my first layer of Hot Couture, then I applied Orly Sterling Silver Rose at the mid point between the end of the layer of Hot Couture all the way to the tip of my nail. After it dried, I then went over Orly with Konad Light Pink to lighten the tone of Sterling Silver Rose. I then applied Hot Couture starting from the mid point between the first layer of Hot Couture and the beginning of the layered Sterling Silver Rose. The next layer with Hot Couture started at just above Sterling Silver Rose. After it dried a bit, I applied Sterling Silver Rose again. Finished off the entire nail with NYX glitter polish and then Seche Vite.

Now I know why many of the bloggers who do NOTD use Seche Vite. That thing is amazing! I couldn't believe how quickly it helped my manicure to kind of set and dry. Of course with all of the layers, the underneath isn't fully dried. I forgot about that since the top was nice and dry and ended up ruining a nail so I had to redo it. I will be using Seche Vite  whenever I do my nails now. The NYX glitter polish is really nice since the gliltters are iridescent. There are some larger pieces of glitter in there that is star shaped, which is cute too. The only one that I'm a little disappointed in is the Color Club Hot Couture. It is way sheerer than I thought it would be. The bottle of polish also became very goopy and thick in just this one use. I don't know if there is a way to thin it out a bit. Any suggestions?

All in all, I am super happy with the way it turned out. It doesn't look as nicely gradient as Jenn's nails do but it works for me. I'm not good at doing manicures anyway. (Still have to master konad. No, not even master, at least make it work decently.)

*Kat*