Non UV Gel Nail Polish - Next Review

Recently as I've been shopping I've been noticing that more and more shops are selling Gel nail polish, but not proper Gel polish as it air dries rather than sets with UV light as per usual. I've done some digging and these non uv gel polishes seem to be like normal nail polish but with longer staying power and quicker dry times.

To further my research I decided to try out a non uv gel manicure to see how it holds up to my other polishes and a gel manicure.

For my prom (3rd July) I had my nails done with gel polish, after a month they had not chipped or faded, looking as good as when I got them done only having the bottom of the manicure move up my nails as they have grown. So my question with non uv gel polishes is, are they just as good?

The polishes I bought to experiment with are these ones from the UK retailer Next, at the time I was shopping for them there was a deal to get 3 for £10 rather than £15 as they are all £5 each. 

When purchasing the polishes I was reminded of the Louboutin nail polishes because of how sharp the tops look. Although the Next polishes are much cheaper and seem to hold more than the high end brand.

 From my research I read that many people say that non UV gel polishes don't really work well without a top coat, so I bought the top coat that matched. I bought two colours to test performance and whether the polishes would tint my nails. The first colour I'm testing for performance is this duo chrome champagne and lilac polish called Barcelona. Due to it's lightness I'm testing to see if this colour fades after a few days of doing my daily activites like my normal polishes and nail lacquers do.

I wore this polish for 5 days and I can truthfully say that it does not hold up to gel. Within 24 hours one of the nails was chipped and the polsih was sort of peeling as if id put on a peel off base coat prior to painting my nails. A few more days later and almost all the polish had peeled off or faded. 

In conclusion, if you are looking for a gel look then you should splurge on gel polish but if you want a quick polish job then I would recommend this polish. I will keep trying new gel like polishes to see if this was just a single failure.

- Terry xx