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Hi everyone,

I got an offer recently to review MelodySusie LED lamp. As a blogger I'm always open to trying new products and this was to be my first LED lamp. I was very excited to try it because the 2 minutes wait with UV lamps seems like forever, especially when I'm painting my own nails and can't do anything else until the polish is cured. Today I will be reviewing new model of the lamp called Violetili in black colour.

What MelodySusie say:

The MelodySusie Violetili is the upgraded version of Violetilac, including 12W LED light to cure your LED gel nail polish, more efficient. It's especially designed to efficiently cure Gelish Soak-off Gel color and products from the Gelish MINI System for a beautiful manicure that lasts up to three weeks. Also, it can cure ANY LED GEL polish. With the preset timer function, you can choose the time as you wish. This Nail Dryer is very efficient and you can dry your most LED Gel nail polish in 45 seconds.

The lamp comes in a box with AC adapter and user manual. It has chic round design with four timer settings on top of the lamp for 30, 60, or 90 seconds and for 30 minutes. I find it to be comfortably big enough to cure all five fingers at once but it's not massive like some UV lamps so it can be a good lamp for travelling. It's quite lightweight and the AC adapter is detachable.

The lamp is 12W - without going into too much details and science I just want to point out that you shouldn't buy lamp based just on wattage because that is not an indication of how well it will cure the gel polish. There are many factors to consider like UV output and photo initiators in the product (read more here). The safest option is of course to buy the recommended lamp for the product you're using. But given the very often high prices that is not always an option. That's where MelodySusie lamp can come handy. It is very affordable and it claims to cure any LED compatible gel polish.

I have tested this lamp with three gel polish brands - OPI, Bio Seaweed Gel and Gelish.

I found it to cure all three brands with no problems, even multiple layers of nail art were fine. I've also done classic one-colour gel polish manicures and all were just fine. I always cured them for the recommended time on a bottle or a bit longer in case of dark colours. So far I can't fault the lamp in any way, it worked really well for me and the price is very good for LED lamp.

Availability:

US: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AXSQCGK/ currently on sale for $39.99

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00MVQR4FU/ for £56.99

I'd just like to say that if you order from Amazon US to save some money and you live in UK or other European country, you will probably receive an AC adaptor for US market so you would need additional converter for UK/Europe. That's all from me but if you would like to know anything else just leave a comment :)

Have a nice day! Lucie x

*PR sample

*PR samples

Hi everyone,

As you probably know I have an extensive nail polish collection. That's great but since I've entered (well more like had a peek into) the nail industry I got fascinated by gel polishes. Unfortunately having a big collection of gel polishes would come at a great cost so when I've learnt about Gelibility few months ago I knew I had to try it.

Gelibility is a gel polish system that allows you to mix ANY regular nail polish with it and transform it into gel polish! Just the idea of being able to transform any nail polish into gel colour and save a lot of money was very exciting for me. I got in touch with nail technician Brandi Hensley, the mastermind behind Gelibility and she was happy to send me a set to try. It was right before my two-week summer holiday so the timing was perfect.

I have decided to wear Gelibility and OPI Coca-Cola Red throughout my holiday and to test its application, longevity and shine. Here's how the nails looked straight after application:

Gelibility system consists of Gelibility Stick It!, soak off bonder and Gelibility Fix It! soak off gel. I also got a palette to mix the polish in but you can also use your regular .50p palette from a craft store or a piece of foil. Click here for a very nice step by step instructions and picture tutorial. I would just repeat it here ;)

I've picked OPI Coca-Cola Red because I knew it's well-pigmented. It got diluted quite a bit because I've used one drop of Gelibility and one drop of OPI. Now I know that I can use up to two drops of polish and one drop of Gelibility and it will improve the opacity of the mixture and it will still work fine.

I've applied two coats of the mixture over the Gelibility Stick It!, soak off bonder. It doesn't say the nails need to have shine taken off (lightly filed over with a nail file) which is obviously very good for the natural nails as you don't cause extra damage. The colour was not 100% opaque but it was enough so I left on just two coats.

I've worn the polish for 14 days in total and I've it put through a lot and rarely used cuticle oil. Let's have a look how my nails did...

Pretty good, huh? The cut on my index finger is from a razor blade when I was shaving so that is not fault of product. I've experienced a very minor tip wear towards the end of two-week period but otherwise nothing! Zilch! The nails were still glossy and smooth. Gelibility delivered better than I thought so I am very pleased with it. It was also easy to work with and I think you could easily do nail art with it as well. I still can't get over the fact that now I can turn any of my polishes into gel polishes! It's genius!

The removal is same as with other gel polishes so just use the foil method and acetone, soak the nails off for about 10 minutes and then gently remove the leftover product with orange wood stick (you can sill cause damage if you're not careful!). If it didn't soak off properly put the foil on again for further 5 minutes.

Gelibility system is available at their website, priced at $37.95 for the set of two but you can also purchase them separately.

*PR samples