Hi all! I came across this set of non-toxic water based nail polish during Prime Day and since they were only $11.75 for a set of 6, I decided to give them a try. The set comes with 5 colors and a 2-in-1 base and top coat. BONTIME makes many claims about the polish so we will see how these hold up. These polishes are peel-off so it will also be interesting to see the wear time for them.
Application
I waited 90 seconds between each coat, as per the directions.
2-in-1 Base/Top Nail Polish: This combo polish applied smoothly, although it was a bit thinner than I am used to. I kept flooding the cuticle on thumbs. The polish applies cloudy, but quickly dries into a clear finish.
Color Coats: I’m excited to say that all of the colors were one coaters! I was surprised at this because there are two pastel colors, Pastel Pink and Fog Grey, and pastel colors are normally, at minimum, two coaters. I will say, you cannot move the polish around much and you will definitely have to stick with the traditional 3 stroke polish application technique. The polish is peel off so it does dry quickly and you risk dragging the polish by doing too many strokes.
Dry Time: After I waited the 90 seconds from the top coat application, the polish was pretty dry to the touch although there was some tackiness on certain nails. After 10 minutes, the nails were definitely dry and no longer tacky.
Wear Time
The polish claims to last for 3-4 days.
Day 1: On this day I applied the polish. The directions advised to not take a bath or wash your hair within 4 hours of application so I followed those directives.
Day 2: Not much change if any. I did notice the polish I wrapped on my free edges wasn’t all there anymore, but no real visible tip wear or chips.
Day 3: Again, not much change and virtually the same as day 2. I did accidentally peel a bit of the polish off of my lower thumb, but this did not cause the rest of the polish to peel.
Final Thoughts
I wore the polish for only three days because as someone who normally paints there nails every 2 days , wear tests are torture lol. The polish held up really well and as mentioned above I only experienced very minimal tip wear. I’ve never tried any water-based or peel-off polishes before this so this was an exciting first try for me. I definitely want to get more water-based polishes, especially since they generally have less odors/chemicals than traditional polish.
Now here’s where everything went awry…… the removal process. I applied cuticle oil and began to peel from the corners, as per the directions. The polish really wasn’t peeling well so I used some acetone to see if that would help. It allowed me to peel, but it left my nails in bad shape. My nails had a white, shredded look to them. At first, I thought it was left over polish and tried to peel it off before realizing I was actually peeling off layers of my nails. After assessing my nails, I don’t believe too much damage was done, but I will be wearing O.P.I. nail strengthener for some time to allow my nails to recover.
Overall, I would NOT recommend this polish. The inexpensive price point is attractive, but the nail damage during the removal process, not so much. This was my first and last peel-off polish although as I mentioned above, I do want to try more water-based polishes.