China Glaze “Optical Illusion” from their Prismatic collection.

This is one of those incredibly beautiful polishes, that I would normally use once and then stare at it longingly after that, because it is such a pain to remove!

It is ALL glitter!  And, I LOOOVE glitter – but, if I hadn’t started using a special base when I polish with glitters – this would just be another “one time use” polish… sparkling on my bathroom counter

So, I know that everyone and their mother’s, mother has heard of using a glue base prior to applying glitter polish – but for those who haven’t, or those who haven’t seen exactly how it works – I have included my removal routine

And in the words of Julie Chen (you US Big Brother fans know what I mean)  “But First….”   here are some pictures of the mani!

I couldn’t decide what base to use for “Optical Illusion”, so I tested 3 colors.  All by Finger Paints… Tiffany Imposter, Don’t Make a Scene and Be A Pal-ette.  The purple “Be A Pal-ette” was what I chose

My arsenal for this mani.  Left to right:  Seche Vite topcoat, Optical Illusion polish, Be A Pal-ette polish, glue base, Gelous nail gel coat (not used in that order )

Pardon the above pictures – I was trying my best to show the the various glitter colors, sizes and glitter’iness.

As it turns out – it didn’t need a base color at all!  Completely opaque in 2 coats.  It is B.E.A UUUtiful!! (what movie is that from?  Some Jim Carrey movie, I think)

And, after approximately a 24 hour wear, and one shower later – the polish still looked amazing!  But, I was ready for a new polish – so here comes the removal photos:

The basic idea is, take regular white school glue and fill up an empty polish bottle.  Prior to any glitter polish use, apply glue as the base, just as you would a regular base.

Starting the removal, I use a rubber cuticle pusher to nudge a corner of the polish until it starts to pull up.

Gently continue to push the polish that is coming off easily (if it is difficult, don’t force it – just use polish remover later)

Pardon my nasty yellow nails – I am doing an experiment on yellow removal that I will post the photos of later

Keep gently pushing off polish until it is falling off.

If you have applied enough glue, you should be able to remove just about all of the glitter polish – but you may have teeny bits and pieces left on.  A bristle nail scrubber usually takes the rest off.

All done!!

(again…please don`t be grossed out by my yellow nails!!  I promise, I am working on fixing this problem )