Work It Wednesday: Solo One-Step Soak Off Gel Polish by The Rosy Snail

 

I love the idea of "Work it Wednesday" but let's face it, who's got the time!? As a young mother of two toddler boys, a beauty blogger AND a part-time Prestige Consultant with Ulta, my spare moments are scarce. I'd be lying if I said that ever stopped me! When I think of really working it, my nails come first! Where a man will notice another man's shoes, I believe a woman will notice another woman's nails. When I'm feeling down, I just love to work it with fierce finger nails.

There are a lot of steps to getting healthy, long finger nails. I won't get into all of that today, but I will say one of the most overlooked steps is moisturizer. That goes for most of my beauty routine! (Someone tell me I'm not alone!) Cuticle Oil isn't something us women always remember but I highly recommend you invest in a good one. My current favorite is by Pure Organics. Their current Organic Spa Cuticle Oil comes in 5 scents: Cucumber Melon, Citrus Orange, Green Tea & Acai, Hawaiian Orchard and Lavender Blossom. I chose Citrus Orange recently as Cosmoprof at the suggestion of Rose Valez who I had the honor of meeting. This cuticle oil not only smells amazing, a light, sweet orange smell that cuts through any nail polish scent lingering on your fingers. (think mandarin oranges over large oranges that have more of a bite to them.) This bottle has a great glass applicator, a great size bottle (30ml) and the results are long-lasting. For this manicure, I applied cuticle oil BEFORE, let it set for about 20 minutes, then washed my hands with cold water and soap.

By washing my hands, I get most of the oily off of my nails. I'm planning on doing a gel manicure. Traditionally, with gel nail polish, you want your nails to be completely dry and free of oils. That helps the polish adhere to the nail better. With Solo one-step, I found that it's not something you have to worry about as much, this polish will stay even on healthy, hydrated nails.

Solo one-step Soak off Gel Polish was one of the exciting new products I stumbled upon during my recently trip to Cosmoprof North America. This polish has not hit the shelves yet and I got some inside word that they might still be tweaking the packaging and formula (though I find everything about the polishes I received to be spot on!). No word yet on the entire release but I absolutely cannot wait! Solo one-step is different from traditional gel nail polish application in that is it literally only one step. There is no need for a base coat, top coat OR a cleanse.

I was given 5 colors of my choice while in Las Vegas for the convention and one I chose was this beautiful green-turquoise called "Coast to Coast". All the colors I received are true to the label on the outside with the exception of glitters or colors with shimmer. All the labels are printed in a solid color giving the appearance that the contents in a creme finish. In this case, "Coast to Coast" is a super opaque creme.

I opted to apply a VERY thin coat. With these polishes you can apply a thicker coat and cure for a few extra seconds to finish your manicure in just one coat! You can sure Solo one-step with either UV or LED. Once cured, there is no sticky residue to clean off or top coat to apply. The color is already super shiny! As a parent, I found gel nail manicure to be a step up from traditional polish because I no longer had to wait for my nail polish to dry BUT the sticky texture left on my nails in between coats was sometimes a pain. My finger nails became magnets for dust, dirt, hair and more. It made doing things between coats impossible. Now, my nails are glossy, hard as rocks and never sticky even in between coats.

After a second thin coat and an application of sweet-smelling cuticle oil, my nails are ready to tackle whatever! I'm a habitual nail painter so I change my colors (too) often, but I wore another color from the Solo one-step line for 4 days and literally had NO clips and absolutely NO tip wear. I've gotten great results from a few gel nail companies but nothing that good! This polish is meant to last for up to two weeks.

I cannot wait for the official launch of Solo one-step and for now, I'm keeping an eye out on their Instagram. Nothing gets me more excited that stunning nail results that are easy to come by! By eliminating the extra steps in a gel mani, Solo one-step is making the gel manicure practical and helping all women to Work it this Wednesday...and next Wednesday...and probably the Wednesday after that ;)

Thank you, The Rosy Snail!