Review of French Tip Dip

I'm going to start this review by stating that this item was purchased by me and everything I'm saying is my honest opinion only.  And well, we know what opinions are like :D  Anyway, this review is basically my first impression so to speak and as with stamping, there is a learning curve with this product.  I also want to apologize in advance if this post seems like I'm scatterbrained because I am. 

You can find this HERE, and this is the KIT that I got. 

French Tip Dip's (FTD) customer service was wonderful.  I ordered this and called for tracking info, they emailed it to me right away.  The only issue I had with shipping was USPS being slow and so not helpful.  It took 13 days to get to me in GA from Las Vegas, NV.  It shipped on 5/11 and arrived on 5/24, which I was unfortunately out of town for the arrival.  I had the other half open it when he got home as it was in the mailbox and I wanted to make sure the heat didn't make anything explode.  He said there were no issues, except that the remover bottle seemed bloated, so he opened it to remove and pressure.

I decided to play with this a few night ago and show my results.  A friend of mine suggested getting a small funnel, which I don't have yet, to help pour the polish from the dip jar back into the polish. I did kind of expect the tool (the pink square with the curved portions) to be a little more flexible, but I didn't have too much trouble. 

You may see a few spots on the sides that I missed where I couldn't get the tool to curve properly to the nail, and on the pinky nail I'm seeing a small bare area.

I was going to use the sheer polish that comes with, but my son saw my CG Rainbow on the table and wanted me to use that over the white instead. 

you can see the pooling of Rainbow around my cuticles that I didn't clean up for sake of getting the pictures done.  The 2nd picture above is with the 3 minute top coat that's included in the kit.


Overall, it's not a bad concept.  I just experienced a few issues with my first use.  Like I stated in the beginning, there is a learning curve and I'm sure I'll get better with practice.  I do wish the tool was a bit more flexible, but it is still useable.  The 3 minute top coat didn't work for me.......even after 10 minutes, I was still able to touch my nails and it felt wet and left an imprint.  I forgot to take a picture of that.  The biggest issue I had with the entire kit was the file.

click to enlarge to see the texture

It looks like a stucco wall.  It felt like it was shredding my nails.  After I used it, I took some remover to clean my nail bed and had cotton stick to my nails ALL over the place.  I had to go back with a different file to clean it up and make my nails not feel so ragged.

This was definitely quicker than using the scotch tape method!  It only took a few minutes even though I was a first time user.  The remover smells AMAZING.  Better than anything else that I own.  This kit is worth that alone.

To sum this review up, I will definitely be playing with this again to try to get the hang of it.  Maybe even experimenting with other polishes.  I am, by no means telling you to or not to get this product.  I am just stating that if you do, you may not have a perfect result with the first use.  If you do, please come do mine :D.  Though I would definitely recommend this as a gift for someone who likes to do their nails at home and save some money instead of going to the salon.

If you have any questions, especially if I left anything out, please ask.

TOODLES Y'ALL!!!

Zoya Phoebe & Lolly Fun (pic spam)

I had fun playing with the two of these.  When I got these during the BOGO, I also ordered Remove+ to try it.  Lets just say I <3 that. 

I wanted to play with both of these & decided to use them at the same time.  I noticed that Lolly seemed to be a little bit harder to work with than Phoebe, but for my first time with matte's it wasn't a bad experience.  This was the fastest mani EVER. 

I used these and alternated fingers with the colors.  I used probably about 3 coats each, but didn't pay much attention to using it carefully as I was just trying to get it on the nail.  I think each coat was dry about 5 seconds after I put the brush back in the bottle & I did each nail separately.

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Then I taped the tips off for a french.

I only did the french on my left hand, and just alternate colors on my right hand.

LoL, I was watching movies on Netflix while I did this mani, so I just grabbed something to hold to make sure I could show all the nails.

Then I got bored with it & put a top coat on to see how long it would last.  Everyone's said that the matte alone doesn't last long & chips easily.  I used Sally Hansen Double Duty as a top coat, no base coat at all, & this mani has been on for more than 24 hours with no chipping. 

I looked over at my cabinet & noticed I had a frosted pinkish blue shotglass, wish I'd realized it sooner.  So, I took pics holding it and a pink cup from a cruise with the top coat on.

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I absolutely LOVE Phoebe.  I wish they had this in a shade that looked just like it does with the topcoat.  A-MA-ZING!  Lolly is cute too and I really don't have many pink's in my collection, so this is a great universal one to add. 

I'm still working on my clean-up skills.  All of the pics were taken before I attempted to clean-up the mess in case I jacked them up.  Fortunately, I didn't.  However, I did get less polish on my skin than I used to.  So at least that's getting better.

TOODLES Y'ALL!!!