Earlier this year Modelones reached out to me to see if I wanted to try their products. I had never heard of the brand before so I looked them up. They have gel nail polish, acrylic powders, dip powders, nail accessories, and more. I LOVE gel nail polish so I said yes. I received the Purple Lipstick Series Gel Polish Starter Kit ($49.99 US) to try out so let’s see how it went…
The kit comes with everything you need to do your gel manicure:
- 6 Colours of Gel Polish (10ml)
- Base Coat (10ml)
- Top Coat (10ml)
- 6W Mini LED Light
- 8PCS Manicure Tools (2 files/buffers, 1 cuticle tool, 1 nail brush, 1 cuticle oil, 3 nail art items)
- Portable Leather Bag
I thought the LED light was rechargeable (because I have one the same size that is), but it needs to be plugged into something to work. This is both good and bad: good because you don’t need to worry about the battery being charged, but bad because you need something else to make it work. That being said, it already came in handy. A few weeks ago I had a small chip on a nail, but I wasn’t ready to remove my entire manicure. So I just added a dab of gel nail polish on the chip and used this light (plugged into my laptop) to cure the spot instead of using my big LED light. I cured the fix while reading an email (I was working). Easy peasy, fix done!
I also used this light to cure my manicure when I tried these gel polishes. When using this type of light where the LED lights are only on the top I find that slowly rocking my hand from side to side helps cure the side of my nails, otherwise, the sides don’t get good exposure to the LEDs and they don’t cure completely. The light worked well to cure my nails; the one-minute setting was perfect.
This would also be a good light to take while travelling (if you plan on doing your nails while away). It’s very compact. Just make sure you bring something to plug it into like a USB wall adapter (if you have a phone then you should have one with you while travelling).
The colours that came in the kit are really pretty and the dark tones are definitely up my alley. The black bottles are the base coat and topcoat. The colours don’t have names though, I can’t find any on them.
The nail art accessories are rhinestones, silver foil, and gold foil. I wanted to use the rhinestones when I did my manicure, but I completely forgot because I was distracted by my daughter. #MomLife
Unfortunately, I can’t say anything about the cuticle oil because it doesn’t work. I cranked it A LOT and nothing came out. I didn’t mention it to the company so I can’t complain about it (that’s a fail on my part).
Alright, enough chatter about the contents of the kit, it’s time to talk about the nail polish. I used the two darkest colours for my manicure and this is what it looked like.
I applied one layer of base coat, three layers of colours then finished it off with a layer of topcoat. Each layer was cured for one minute. Look at that shine.
My manicure lasted for a week and a half before I got a serious chip on two fingers (on the same day) and I had to remove it. This is not as long as my gel manicures usually last, but there is one major difference: I usually use 3-in-1 formulas where the base coat and topcoat are mixed in with the colour. What I sometimes find happens with separate products is that when I apply the topcoat I don’t always fully cover the side of the nails with the topcoat and some of the colour is left exposed (without topcoat). It’s usually tiny strips, but that could be enough to make it chip faster. I don’t know if that’s what happened here though, I’m just speculating.
Now for the big question: is this kit worth buying? It depends.
If you’re just starting off on your gel nail polish journey and you don’t have any products and tools whatsoever, then definitely yes. This kit has everything you need to do your nails.
If you love using the three-step gel system (base coat + colour + topcoat), also yes. You get six colours in this kit, plus a base coat and a topcoat. It’s still a good deal at that price.
If you don’t fall into those two categories, then no. I personally prefer the 3-in-1 formulas because it saves me time and I don’t have to worry about applying the topcoat correctly over the colour.
Overall this Modelones Purple Starter Kit really is a good deal, and if purple is not your colour they have three other sets to choose from: Pink, Fierce, and Emboldened.
Had you heard of Modelones before? Do you use gel nail polish?
– Chantal 🙂
