L'oreal Duo

Today's mani features two shades of L'oreal; one from their Extraordinaire Gel-Lacque line and one from their textured Gold Dust line. I actually haven't jumped on the gel nail polish trend because I hate having to actually work at taking off my polish. I saw Meant To Be and loved it! It's nothing like the colors I normally wear, but I still had to have it. I didn't want to pay $15 for the special base and top coats that go with the Gel-Lacque line, so I decided to get it anyways and just try my hand at some base/top coats I already have. I didn't have to try hard, I used Sinfulcolors basecoat and Sally Hansen Big Shiny Top Coat and it looks perfect.

This is 2 coats of Meant To Be and accent nails using Sexy in Sequins, a textured polish. 

Sexy in Sequins is a dusty grape purple textured polish with gold shimmer that flashes pink. The larger light purple hexagonal glitter adds an extra layer of texture. It's similar to Zoya PixieDusts with maybe just a little extra grit. 

Meant To Be is close to a raspberry wine color that can almost look pinkish under certain light while a richer burgundy color under other light. It's a quite complex color that is simply amazing.  The following picture was taken in my kitchen under normal household lighting, while the above pictures were using OttLites and my lightbox. Meant To Be is much more pink or raspberry red in this picture. (Also - this picture was taken 2 mornings after doing my nails....you can see some light scuffs in the top coat on my middle finger, but otherwise, very minimal tip wear)

Meant To Be has one coat of Sally Hansen Big Shiny Top Coat over it and it really does give an amazing gel like shine. I haven't used this top coat with any other polish yet, so I'm not sure if it's simply how amazing this new top coat is or if it's reacting perfectly with the Gel-Lacque polish. Either way, after two 10 hour days typing on a computer among the other daily stuff, it still looks shiny and there practically no tip wear!  

I'm curious to know - have you used any of the L'oreal Gel-Lacque polishes? What about the other brands of gels, do you think it's worth the money to buy the lamp and special polishes and the time to cure it and remove it? 

~Linda