Get ready for a blast from the past, ladies! If you grew up in the 90’s, you probably remember the huge “mood rings” trend. Everybody HAD to have one. Remember sitting with your friends pressing your fingers on the mood ring to see what “magical” color it would turn and then consulting the paper to see what it said about your mood? It was like a magic 8 ball, but more fun!
Well, get ready to do that with your nail polish. For reals.
Bio Seaweed Gel’s new Phases colour changing gel polish actually changes color in hot and cold temperatures making it the adult version of a mood ring. You know you want to have a little fun with this! It’s so cool!
Phases Gel Polish
The moment the Cosmos Collection of Phases gel polish became available, I’m pretty sure I was one of the first ones on their website buying it. I chose my favorite 4 colors (because at $20/bottle I couldn’t buy the whole collection even though I really wanted to!); Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Uranus.
These particular gel polishes require a base and top coat, so I purchased the Dual Pack (to save $5) that includes the No-Sanding Base and No-Wipe Top Gel Polish. (Side Note: Bio Seaweed’s UNITY gel polishes do not require a base or top coat so that’s why I didn’t already have those two products on hand.)
I had a hard time deciding which color to try first, but thankfully Bio Seaweed Gel hit me up on Instagram and suggested I do an accent nail so I could at least try 2 colors. Bingo! I settled on Jupiter for 8 nails and Mercury for my two accent nails.
The far left pic is what my nails looked like after base, 2 coats of the Phases colour changing gel polish and 1 top coat. They were fresh out of the LED light and nice and warm so you can see what the colors look like when they are warm. The middle picture was taken a few minutes later and the far right picture I took after going outside in the 25° weather to shut my chickens in for the night. As you can see, the Phases gel polish is quite phenomenal in the way it changes from light to dark in different temperatures.
The Colors
Honestly, I expected Jupiter to be darker when cold. It looks like it’s going to be black when you see the color swatch on the bottle and online, but it’s actually more of a dark eggplant purple on my nails. I’m only slightly disappointed by this since purple is my favorite color.
The Mercury is gorgeous, but I did expect to see more blue when it’s cold. However, in Mercury’s defense, I have one coat of Jupiter under it (because I almost forgot I was doing an accent nail!) and only one coat of Mercury. Perhaps with no Jupiter and two coats of Mercury it’s more blue, so the jury is still out on that one.
Overall Impression
Really, really fun! Who says you can’t have fun with nail polish? Life is too short to wear boring shoes nail polish.
It’s really entertaining to look down at my nails every so often to see what color they are. Sometimes just the tips are dark and closer to my cuticles is the warm color which looks really cool. I’m really impressed with the Bio Seaweed’s Phases gel polish and will definitely be looking forward to seeing if they come out with more collections.
Curing Gel Polishes
I’ve been asked a lot lately what lamp I use to cute my gel polish so I wanted to add this in…
Almost all of the gel polish I own is Bio Seaweed Gel which can cure in the sunlight. However, New England winters aren’t that great for direct sunlight, so in the winter I like to use an LED lamp.
Now, I don’t mean to throw Sally Hansen under the bus, but I have to tell you that their gel polish sucks. We’re talking 2-3 days and it’s curling up around the edges and peeling off in a sheet. (And no, I didn’t apply it improperly. I tried it 3 separate times to determine its utter failure at staying on my nails.) However, if you want an affordable LED lamp to use with your gel polishes, I recommend that you get the Sally Hansen Salon Pro Gel Starter Kit
