Whats Up Nails - Dragon Powder

Hey there!

Press Sample

I am sure you have seen all the buzz about these new chrome powders for nails.  The have taken over Instagram and YouTube and nail blogs for the past few months.  I can understand why because they look amazing.  So reflective!  I have been reluctant to try them because you need to use a gel top coat to make it last and I don't use gel polish.  Actually...I am pretty darn terrible at gel polish.  I have only tried it once before and it was a complete fail.  I very much wanted to try out these chrome powders, so I figured I would give it another shot.  Be prepared to see some fails in this post.  Not because of the chrome powder...because of the top coats that I tried.  The chrome powder I tried was called Dragon Powder from Whats Up Nails.  It is a chrome finish with a green to gold to red multichrome effect.  It is part of the Magic Shifting Powders line.  The effect is stunning!

no top coat

The previous photo looks great!  I did take that photo with a single light source so the shift isn't super crazy.  It looks super duper shiny and reflective.  I did one coat of black polish then used an eye shadow applicator to rub on a small amount of powder.  Score!  It looked awesome.  But then I added top coat :(

Unt Peel Off Base as top coat

I knew from lots of YouTube videos that you can't use regular glossy or quick dry top coat with these powders.  It makes them all dull and janky looking.  But I did hear that you could use the Unt Peel Off Base Coat or another water based top coat and it wouldn't affect the shiny finish.  I just so happened to have a bottle of Unt Peel Off Base Coat so I gave it a whirl.  It did look great without any dulling of the shiny chrome effect.  Until I just lotion on my hands.  I use lotion before every swatch photo I take, so this was just habit for me.  But it seemed to really dull the Unt  and made it start to peel up.  If I would have read more clearing on the Whats Up Nails site about these powders, I would have applied a glossy top coat on top of the Unt Peel Off Base Coat.  I'm dumb...sorry.  But at least you can see how cool and shifty the color is!  For the photo above and below, I used two light sources at different angles to show that full color shift.

Gelish top coat

After the fail with the Unt Peel Off Base Coat as a top coat, I removed the entire mani and started from scratch.  Once I got the Dragon Powder back on over my black base again, I broke out the only gel top coat I have and the LED lamp.  I used Gelish Top It Off for my gel top coat.  I applied a thin layer over the chrome powder and made sure not to flood my cuticles.  After I cured it, I took rubbing alcohol to remove the sticky layer.  Fail!  It looked fine until I used the alcohol.  It made it so dull and wrinkled and pull away from the edges of the black.  So frustrating.  Again, If I would have actually read the how to on the Whats Up Nails site, I would have known to use a structure gel coat first before the top coat.  I am such a gel noob...I'm sorry.

Despite my failed attempts at making this manicure look super fly, the Dragon Powder is pretty cool.  The multichrome shift is intense, the shiny chrome finish is way cool and the application of the powder was very easy.  Just learn from my mistakes and follow the directions on the Whats Up Nails site.  They are listed in the 'How To' tab on each of the powders' listings.  They have several other colors that all look to have glorious shifting effect.  I am going to give this another try and get a no-wipe gel top coat.  But I figured showing you what not to do with these would be beneficial.  And if you have any gel polish tips and tricks...let me know! :)

Smooches!

*powder provided by the maker for honest review*

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