Nutra Nail - Raspberry

I found some Nutra Nail gel polishes on clearance for $2, so I figured I would give one a shot. The color I picked up is Raspberry.

Since I don't have much time to do my nails while I am working during the week, I wanted something I could put on at the beginning of the week, that would last three or four days and endure all the stress my job puts my hands and nails through, until I had time to change my manicure. So what better than a gel polish.... right?

This is one of the gels that doesn't require a light. It comes with brush-on activator instead. 

I had a lot of likes and dislikes with this polish. It did only need three coats for full coverage, and looked gorgeous and shiny, with a super solid finish.... at first!

Even with decent opacity, the polish was very thick and therefore left the finished manicure pretty thick. Plus, the activator had a pretty atrocious smell. I can handle polish. I am around it so much, that I really can't even smell it anymore; but the activator reminded me of super glue, only ten times stronger.

I could live with the odor, though. It is the fact that this started chipping off in layers less than 24 hours after I put it on that annoyed me!

What's odd is that it only chipped on my right (dominant) hand, and left thumb. Once a small chip would appear, it was like a run in pantyhose and my right hand was basically naked by the end of the day. I buffed my nails and dehydrated them before applying this, and the base layer seemed to stick the best, with mostly the last two chipping off.

I'm not sure why I had so much trouble with this. I wonder if it has anything to do with my cuticle balms, oils, etc. because I moisturize them and use hand lotion a dozen times a day. So I'm curious if maybe my nails became oily from all the moisture and the polish lost it's grip or something? I do more with my right hand, but I always wear gloves at work to help avoid breaks, chips, and everything anyway. So I just don't really know. I'm at a loss with this one. I'm confused as to why four nails remained perfectly fine.

Overall, if you can find it on clearance, I'd say it's worth a shot just to try out, but don't pay full price for this stuff (which I think was around $9 but I am not sure), and don't expect it to last two weeks like light-cure gel unless you do next to nothing with your hands for those two weeks.

Have any of you tried the Nutra Nail gel polishes? Did you have better luck than me and could give me suggestions on what to do next time I test this polish? Or what are some of your favorite gels that I need to give a shot?