Review: L'Oreal Extraordinaire Gel Lacque Review

So this will be my first real post so please forgive me if it comes across a bit blunt and impersonal but I'm nervous.

I recently purchased the L'Oreal Extraordinaire Gel Lacque Primer and Glaze set along with the L'Oreal Extraordinaire Gel-Lacque Lacqueriste. I'm a bit behind because, this was released a few months ago but I had to wait for the stores here in Barbados to get the primer and glaze.

For any Bajan girls reading I purchased it last week from Imart Sheraton and Collins also recently brought in the primer and glaze set. I know for sure that Imart in Lanterns doesn't have the colours or primer set in stock, not sure about the other location. I purchased the primer and glaze for $38.95 BDS ($19.48 USD) and the colour was around $16.95 BDS, however Collins has them for about $4 less a piece so definitely check their first. I'll also check Cave Shepherd to see if they carry them. So...onto the review!

Here's how L'Oreal describes it:

New L’Oréal Paris Extraordinaire Gel-Lacque provides high-gloss, and resilient shine while protecting nail color from dings, dents and scratches. Get the high-shine of a UV-Gel and the perfect nail shape without harmful UV rays.

L'Oreal  released the primer and glaze along with 20 colours and they retail in the US for about $7.99. The brushes were good, mine had a few stray hairs but nothing to fuss about. The brush was just big enough that you could cover the nail in two strokes...did my pinky in one.

Step 1: The Primer
This applied easily. The formula was nice and thin and it dried quickly. It dries to a smooth finish like most base coats.

Step 2: Gel Lacque Colour
I purchased the colour Lacqueriste. Its a bright coral colour, leans more towards pink than orange. Its one of those "juicy" summer colours. It has a nice jelly formula which I assume is what L'Oreal was going for. The formula applied nicely, its a bit thicker than regular polish but again I think that's what they were going for and the package does say its supposed to give volumized nails. The first coat was almost opaque but there was a little VNL (visible nail line) peeking through. Two coats fixed that. The colour dried in about 3-4 minutes and with a nice glossy shine. Don't think you would ever need 3 coats. After I applied the second coat I did give it about 10 minutes just to make sure everything was completely dry.

Step 3: Gel Glaze
The glaze also applied well. I found that each time I put my brush back into the bottle there was some bubbles so beware of that. This also dried quickly. What I did notice was that as it dried, the tips of my nail dried matte while my nail bed dried glossy. It stayed that way for about an hour then went back to normal.

Results
Initially my manicure was really glossy, that kind of high shine you get with gel polish, but after a few days that shine wore off a bit. I started noticing some tip wear around day 3 which turned into a few chips around days 4 and 5. On day 3 I added some studs and polka dots on my middle finger and top coated with the gel glaze. I had some smearing and running of the colours so also be aware of this if you add designs to your manicures. I wore this for one week in total and it held up pretty good give or take the few chips.

Day 1. Excuse how dark and old my hands look. The eczema does that to you!!

See what I mean about the matte tips when it dried, It went away though.

Day 6.

Also, nowhere on the box does it promise that this will be long wearing. Just putting this out there because I've seen some reviews where people were disappointed that it didn't last as long as a gel mani.What it does promise is "perfectly shaped and volumized nails. Rich ultra glossy color", so I think they delivered what they promised. I'd repurchase again if a colour really catches my eye but the colours they're released so far I already have in regular polish.

Overall I'm not super excited about it but it was a nice product AND it does everything as promised.

If anyone ever reads this please give some feedback below.

Thanks!! xoxo