Okay. Right. Guys…
Remember in my previous post about Holo Taco I mentioned how I took Cristine’s advice on nail care with the nail oil and such? It actually made such a massive difference that I am now in love with the shape of my nails. Well, I mean, I like them a lot more than before. And my nails are actually able to grow out. For the first time ever, I have long nails and I like them.
I sent this before and after to my sister, and honestly I was shocked.
The ‘before’ image was cropped out of a photo where I’m cuddling my cat back in March. I literally don’t have many photos where my hands are really visible since I disliked the look of my nails. They were thin and grew out sideways or all sorts of weird directions. This was about as long as they could get before I had to cut them out of discomfort.
The ‘after’ photo was taken on 16th August, not too long after I received my first order of Holo Taco. Doesn’t it look… insanely different? My nail shape has changed, my cuticles are so much healthier and my nails are growing out in the right direction. Literally you wouldn’t believe it’s the same hand. I’m wearing a thin coat of Holo Taco’s Smoothing Base in that photo.
I’m not sure if using nail oil itself actually helped to change my entire nail shape – I first noticed it’d stopped growing sideways after I got my first ever gel manicure in early June. (That was a whole other story altogether – I have minor regrets about being upsold into it, but that’s beside the point.)
I wonder if sealing it with gel polish under the UV lights after the nail technician had aggressively filed them down was what caused it to remain in that shape? You can actually still see some of the remnants of the gel polish on my nails in the after pic.
Whatever it was, I know that using the nail oil plus changing to a glass nail file has helped a lot with my nail health after the gel started peeling off (ugh), and my nails have developed a stronger C-curve, which I feel is a highly desired outcome.
Anyways! All that is to say… I now adore my nails, and after using Holo Taco for a few weeks, I absolutely love it.
Firstly let’s address the nail chip situation: my initial mani (in my previous post) was done on Aug 6th. It started chipping badly within 4 days. By Aug 12th, they were so unbelievably chipped I had to remove all of the polish entirely. I also noticed the glossy top coat wasn’t really glossy after a day.
I re-did my manicure on Aug 12th in the evening. By the morning of Aug 15th, it had started peeling up from the sides and chipping like crazy again. It was at this point that, ironically, I received an email asking me to review my Glossy Taco. Of all the products I purchased, this was the one their automated mailing system prompted me to review, lol.
So I reviewed it and shared how my glossy taco wasn’t really glossy and was basically chipped beyond belief within a few days. Barely a day later, I received an email from their customer service team asking how they could make it right. They refunded me for the Glossy Taco since I had already purchased another one and it was about to arrive in the mail any day.
The new one I got received didn’t seem right either (lots of bubbles and started chipping within a day!) and they sent me another glossy taco immediately. I’ve heard about their customer service being stellar and my goodness they are fantastic.
But now that I’ve got a working glossy taco, I can confirm that it is, in fact, ridiculously quick-drying and very glossy. And I was even able to keep a Peely Base manicure on for 5 days before they all popped off! I now have in my collection, in addition to my previous polishes:
- Sonic Unicorn Skin
- The Unicorn Bundle
- The Multichrome Bundle
- The Matte Tea Party Bundle (for my mother-in-law and sister)
- Flakie Holo Taco, Sea Foam Home, One Melon Followers (for my sister)
- …and the Clean Up Brush, which, I kid you not, makes such a huge difference. Trying to use an angled make-up brush for clean up was awful. The clean up brush is where it’s at.
I love these polishes so much that I’ve purchased a bunch for my mother in law and my sister and will be buying some for my sister in law as well. All the ladies in my family are gonna have fabulous nails. My mum insisted she didn’t want any but she can always just share with my sister if she changes her mind.
I’m going to have to review all of those products separately at one point, but with that being said, let me just show off my latest manicure, okay? It’s so pretty I literally can’t stop staring.
The above shows my hands in indoor sunlight, indoor recessed lighting and outdoor direct sunlight. But YO look what I noticed today when I was getting distracted by my nails. Check out those colour shifts like woaaah:
You got magenta, purple, navy blue and royal blue from the multichrome, and bright blues, pinks and purples from the Aurora Unicorn Skin… but also fiery orange, yellows and even a hint of green in there! My goodness what a gorgeous polish.
I’m wearing some variation of Blue Ain’t Slick with Aurora Unicorn Skin and Smoothing Base with a Glossy Taco on both hands. Literally just one base coat, one base colour (that shifts a ton of different ways), one topper (that also doesn’t remain one colour) and a top coat. And you get so many different colours from it. Stunning.
Excuse the dry cuticles – I haven’t oiled them much lately. But that nail growth tho… I have touched them up with a little filing and reshaping multiple times in the past few weeks and they’re growing so well! I’m really not used to typing with long nails. My entire hand feels weird, but that’s something I’m willing to live with for now ;)
Muchos love,