Review: Jamberry Matte Topcoat

Hello!

I have been on a continuing quest for a matte topcoat that comes even close to China Glaze's Matte Magic, since the only form of this I've been able to find is the teeny little bottles, for not so teeny little prices. The only ones I've seen that seem to do as good of a job are from brands that are not cruelty-free, so they are a no-no for me.

So, I was very eager to try out Jamberry's matte topcoat when I was given the chance to review one of their topcoats, since this is a brand that I can feel good about buying from.

But of course, the question is...does it mattify the way I want it to? I have tested it out over a variety of polish types to see what it will do...Let's take a look:


First, let's take a look at it over Cult Nails Coveted:

Jamberry matte topcoat over Cult Nails Coveted

The index and middle fingers have Jamberry matte topcoat, while the ring and pinkie do not. The matted nails have that cloudy look that changes the finish but not the color perfectly. The matte creates that nice contrast with the flakies underneath that gives them a different dimension and light, and also allows the teeny glimmers of light to come through in the rest of the polish.


Next I tried it overPicture Polish Mallard:

Jamberry matte topcoat over Picture Polish Mallard

The matte also did a dramatic job here; it creates a wax finish without dimming the flakes. This is a very dark polish to start with, so there isn't as much light coming through as in Coveted, but notice that the different colors in the flakies are all still showing their gorgeousness.


Next, something a little brighter--Hare Polish Asteroid Turf:

Hare Polish Asteroid Turf

Jamberry matte topcoat over Hare Polish Asteroid Turf

This is my favorite way to wear matte topcoat, over a polish that has a high contrast between the base color and the glitter. And the Jamberry passed my test here--this is exactly what I want a matte topcoat to do, to give that flat finish without decreasing the beauty of the polish beneath. These glitters still sing out, and the base color looks smooth and deep. Dare I say it? I prefer this polish with the matte topcoat over the regular topcoat. It looks like a beautiful meadow filled with little purple wildflowers this way. :)

How about a similar glitter that doesn't have quite so much direct contrast? Here it is over InDecisive Lacquer Zea Mays

InDecisive Nail Lacquer Zea Mays

Jamberry Matte Topcoat over InDecisive Nail Lacquer Zea Mays

Just...just...yeah. Do I even need to say it? All of the skill that the maker put into designing the glitter blend and its relationship to the base color remains...but is enhanced. It feels lush, rich, lovely.


And finally, what about a plain old creme? Let's take a look at it over Jamberry's own Cardinal:

Jamberry Cardinal

Jamberry matte topcoat over Jamberry Cardinal

This show best how evenly the topcoat applies; I've tried other matte topcoats that were a bit patchy, but this goes on and dries perfectly.

Jamberry's matte topcoat exceeded all of my expectations, and I feel comfortable putting it into the same category as my personal standard-bearer, China Glaze Matte Magic. If you're looking for a good matte topcoat that is 5-free, cruelty-free, and works extremely well, you can check it out by clicking here. And check out their nail lacquers, they're excellent as well. :)

Hugs and loves!
M.

(Matte topcoat and Cardinal provided for review. All other polishes from my personal collection.)

Review + Before & After: Jamberry Cardinal

(Jamberry Cardinal was sent for my honest review.)

Hello!

Recently I was contacted by a representative from Jamberry, who told me that just a few weeks ago, Jamberry debuted a line of 12 polishes that coordinate with their nail wraps, along with topcoat in three finishes. This is really exciting for me, because when I play with nail wraps, I like the idea of being able to get an extra manicure or two out of them, and having the flexibility to combine them with coordinating nail polish is an incredibly fun idea with tons of possibilities. Plus, the rep's name is Michelle, so I couldn't have said not if I wanted to! Kidding of course. :)

Because of my obsession with red, I chose to review Cardinal, the red creme in their line. Her is the shiny beauty:

Jamberry Cardinal, 2 coats, artificial light

 

Cardinal is a stunning fire-engine red creme that glides on like a dream. The formula is gorgeous, and application was perfect. No pooling, not to thick, perfect in every way. You do want to be sure you wear a basecoat because when I did clean-up, I saw a little tendency toward staining, but that's the case with most reds like this, nothing strange here. I did let the first coat dry on its own before applying the second, and it dried quickly and with a very shiny finish--you don't need topcoat with this one if you don't want it, but I am wearing it here. So with respect to my review of this polish, I think this is definitely a viable equivalent for your better-than-average prestige polishes. If the other polishes in the line are like this, these will be an enormous success. You can find these, along with their impressive selection of nail wraps, by clicking here.

I wanted to keep wearing this and also wanted a bit of fall nail art, so I decided to use her as a base for a thankgiving-centerpiece sort of look I wanted to try out. For my second step, I taped off half of each nail and put on a layer of Nail'd It Fall flowers, a gold-based polish with yellow, orange, and green hex glitters. I stamped over the nail with China Glaze Passion and my Gals plates. Finally, I finished up with some dots of Kleancolor Metallic Orange to pull the look of the glitter in the polish up onto the gold stamping, to unite the two:

I wanted to throw something full of color and pattern at this base, to see if the pretty red could stand up to all of that competition. It didn't wash out or recede into the background--it absolutely held its own. So, I'm pretty darn sure that any sort of nail art combination you wanted to do with the nail wraps and anything else will come out looking good. :)

I will be back sometime in the next few days I'll also be reviewing the Jamberry matte finish topcoat...spoiler alert, I love it (that sounded a bit Gossip Girl, now didn't it...), so if you're looking for a good matte topcoat, check back for that. :)

Thanks for stopping by! Hugs and love,
M.

(Jamberry Cardinal was sent for my honest review.)

Before & After: Leaf skeletons

Hey there!

So, Halloween is gone, and I need to find a way to make that transition less painful. So today I am doing a mani with non-Halloween skeletons...leaf skeletons.

When I was a little girl, I used to love to pick up leaves that had fallen off of the trees and pull them apart to carefully leave only their 'skeletons'. I thought the leaves were beautiful, and their structure even more beautiful. Anybody else do that when they were kids?

This week's theme in Adventures In Stamping is to pick a plate that ends in '1'. It seems like whenever we have themes like this, my plates that end in the right number never coincide with what I want to do. But this week, miraculously, my new MASH plates came--the ones that go from 50 to 75--and Mash-61 had just the image I wanted. :)

[Hey, by the way...do you want me to do a video/review about those plates?]

Anyway, I started with the lovely Cult Nails Coveted, an ah-maze-ing green flakie filled green jelly that is a nightmare to photograph for some reason; I've tried at least three times to swatch it well, but I think I done good by it this time:

 

 

Next I matted the polish; I'm not sure why but matte finishes just feel very 'fall' to me--maybe it's because of the flatter light levels in the fall. Then I stamped the image over each nail in Sally Hansen Red-io Active, Style Steel, and Barry M Gold foil. It's hard to tell the difference between those last two, but the middle finger is the Style Steel:

Which matte topcoat did I use? It's a new one I was just sent for review and I adore it!! I'll be reviewing it shortly, but if you want to know in the meantime...lean in and I'll whisper it...it's Jamberry....:)

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope your November is off to a wonderful start. :)
M.

Jamberry Shield Review

I have an unfortunate review to give to you today. I'll say right off the bat, I'm not happy with this product, and I wouldn't buy it again. There are several factors that brought me to this decision, which you should read on to learn about.

I'm showing you some Jamberry Nail Shields today. Similar to the Sally Hansen Salon Strips, these are decals that adhere to your nails. You then shape and file them to match your nail shape.

What's great about them is the huge array of designs, colors and finishes you can buy. I can see anyone interested in fantastic nail art, without the time or practice to create their own, really go nuts with these. You can get the true mirror finish of a chrome with these, as well as glitter, without the mess.

When finished, they look great. They're creative without as much effort.

 Getting to this point was not and easy task though.

Maybe I'm more bothered by the shields because I thought it would be an easy, slap-on before running out the door technique that anyone could do. In the end, it took me about an hour to get it to the point it's at in these pictures. It's unfortunate, because I was really rooting for these.

The first major pain point is the way they adhere.

Heat.

The instructions tell you to use a blow dryer to warm up the adhesive backing, making the shield pliable and more sticky. You are instructed to warm up each shield for 15-20 seconds before applying to your nail. My consultant for Jamberry, Jamie (her website can be found here), offered some great tips to make this easier, including holding the adhesive against a table with tweezers to get even heat coverage. I'm glad she mentioned the tweezer part, because holding your fingers near a blow dryer for 20 seconds is almost unbearable. Even on a lower heat setting, it get's unbearable hot. Later, after applying the shield to my nail and noticing corners peeling up, I needed to use more heat to get the stickers firmly onto my nail. That was just too much, and really burned. I felt like a cat with tape on their paws, flicking my hand around to cool it down.

The creasing and buckling of the shields also proved to be terribly annoying. There are plenty of suggestions for getting rid of the creases and ensuring they adhere properly, but the techniques I tried didn't seem to work. This is my first time using anything like this, so maybe it takes practice, but it's a steep learning curve...or I just have a case of the Fridays already. You can see in the two pictures below that there's a strong crease on my thumb I can't get out, as well as lifting at my nail's edge. I'll take part of the blame for that though. I misread the instructions and filed the shield side to side instead of down. Oops.

On that note though, these come with a lot of instructions. Call me old fashioned, but isn't a manicure supposed to be relatively easy? Of course these have to be more complex because there's more to them than pigment and polish, but that's not something I personally like. I'd rather pay $30 (after tip) to go to a salon, get a massage and a warm feeling, not a burning lava hot feeling on my fingers and hands. These shields are $15/sheet, and one sheet is advertised as being able to do 2-3 sets of fingers or toes.

So there you have it. Take it or leave it, that's my experience with Jamberry Shields.

I personally do not like these. But that's also coming from someone who thinks about the challenge of a design all day at work, and gets excited when she lays out all her tools to start a manicure. I prefer to relish over my own nail designs that took work to perfect, but it would be crazy to assume that most people feel the same way. Sometimes you just want cute nails for a special event, in which case these might be for you. They still require a lot of work though, just not the same amount of detail as a homemade nail art manicure might.

If you are interested in trying them out, I can highly recommend a consultant to visit. Jamie was very responsive and professional when she contacted me, and offered some alternatives to the blow dryer when I mentioned I didn't have one. Looking back, I wish I'd listened, because the experience may have been more enjoyable. You can visit her site here, or email her at hollywoodglam.jamberry@gmail.com.

I hope that my review will help you make an informed decision about buying these. Weigh your options and my personal experience, and have fun with them if you decide to purchase.

This product was sent to me by Jamie Holt, an Independent Consultant for Jamberry Nail Shields. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.