Review: China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
I started using this base coat when my ORLY Bonder stopped working for me. I found out the hard way that it goes bad extremely fast. I had to throw a bottle out with a lot of product left in it. So I went to Sally Beauty Supply on the search for a new base coat. I had used China Glaze polishes in the past with great results so I decided to give their base coat a try.
I have been using this base coat now for several months, and just purchased my second bottle of this stuff. I absolutely love this product. My nails hate nail polish so anytime I get a base coat that helps keep my polish on for about 5 days with very little wear and tear it gets a huge thumbs up from me. This stuff works better than ORLY Bonder ever did. I have used Strong Adhesion Base Coat with China Glaze, OPI, Chanel, MAC, NYC Color, Wet N Wild, Sinful Colors and more, and all of the brands have lasted pretty well on my nails. After about 5 days, I get sick of a color and change up my polish. I highly recommend this base coat for anyone who has had problems with nail polish staying on the nails. Because I have a Sally Card, I get this base coat for $3.25, which is a nice change from the $5-6 for the ORLY Bonder.
Product: 5/5
Available: Sally Beauty Supply, Anywhere China Glaze is sold
Price: $3.25 / $5.99 at Sally Beauty Supply
Eureka! My Best Nail Routine
I have had my “Eureka” nail moment. My nails are are mortal enemies with any type of nail polish – no matter the base or the top coat. I have tried many base coats and many top coats, trying to get my nail polish to last on my nails for any length of time. I used to think that two days with little wear was a great accomplishment. I was able to achieve that when I first bought my bottle of ORLY Bonder. But after using it for a month or so, the base coat stopped working for me. I was getting serious chips with a day of painting my nails, and that is with using my Seche Vite top coat.
Well, I was in Sally’s Beauty Supply recently and I came across China Glaze’s Strong Adhesion Base Coat and decided, to try it out. Well, I must say that it is a wonderful base coat and I plan on doing a review on it, as I want to give a decent run before giving it a rating. I jumped the gun on my Bonder review, giving it a good one, before really giving it a try. Well, it has taken me a long time to come up with the right combo of base coat and top coat that works for my nails. And I think that I now have it down.
My new technique is something that I read about on the Makeup Alley Nail Board. It’s called the “sandwich” technique. This is where you apply your base coat, then the nail polish, and then you apply your base coat again over the nail polish and then you add your top coat on that. It sounds like a lot of steps, but I’m telling you right now, it works.
Pure and simple.
I tried this technique with a new bottle of China Glaze Wagon Trail from the Rodeo Diva collection. I applied one coat of China Glaze Strong Adhesion and then I applied three coats of Wagon Trail on top of that. I followed Wagon Trail with another coat of Strong Adhesion after I let the polish dry for a couple of minutes. After Strong Adhesion I finished my mani off with a coat of my go to top coat Seche Vite.
This was a long process that wasn’t exactly paint and go, but it was completely worth it. MY nail polish hels strong for about 5 days with ABSOLUTELY NO CHIPPING WHAT SO EVER. I didn’t even have tip wear and tear. I did my nails on Saturday night, and I took it off Wednesday and there was one TINY chip on my index finger, and that had happened earlier that day. I went 5 FULL DAYS with no chips. MY mind was completely blown. I couldn’t believe my eyes. My nails, have finally been beaten into submission and I couldn’t be happier. I love polish with all my heart and it nearly broke it to have so many problems with my nails. As of right now, that problem is over. I hope that this continues to work for me, but I still have to try this with other polishes, ones that I KNOW don’t like my nails. Those polishes include ones by MAC and NYC. China Glaze usually works well for my nails, so I can’t really trust this test of it.
But as of right now, it seems promising. I will continue to use this method, until it stops working or I find something better. So the next time you want to do your nails, take some extra time and give this a whirl. You may be pleasantly surprised.
Sally Beauty Supply
If you have a been to a Sally Beauty Supply store in recent months, you would see that they have really upped their game when it comes to their cosmetics section. I used to think that Sally’s just sold knock off name brand hair care for cheap salons that wouldn’t spend the cash on the real stuff. While Sally’s still carries knock off versions of Pureology, Biolage, and other top salon brands, they are also beginning to carry name brands as well.
Sally’s has recently introduced the mineral makeup brand called Femme Couture, which is exclusive to Sally’s and it is a full sized makeup brand, including the trendy gel eye liner. I personally have not purchased any thing from this brand yet, but so far I’ve heard good things. The brand itself is extremely reasonable in price, the full sized foundations, both loose and pressed go for $12.99 retail and $11.99 for Sally card members. That is the highest priced item, so you can test a wide variety of items from this brand without breaking the bank. Plus, Sally’s will let you return your products if you do not like them. So there is no loss if you do not like these products.
Sally’s has also re hauled their nail care options by bringing in Seche Vite, Nail Life, Poshe and most importantly and most impressively, China Glaze. I for one was SHOCKED when Sally’s introduced China Glaze into their stores earlier this summer, because I always saw China Glaze in the OPI and Essie price point and quality, to see it being sold in Sally’s at a lower price point was either extremely smart on China Glaze’s part or really stupid, only time will tell if they will be successful there. The reason I feel this way is that normally higher end nail polish brands such as OPI, Essie and China Glaze go for $8-9 retail in the stores and salons. China Glaze is $5.99 retail and $3.25 for Sally card holders. Not all of the China Glaze colors are available, but there is 80 different options, which would be sufficient for most people.
So the next time you guys head into Sally’s check out their new offerings, you won’t be disappointed.
As a Bonus, Sally’s has some coupons for China Glaze, buy 2 get 1 free, these expire on 9/30 so you have plenty of time to use them. 
They also have a Femme Couture coupon, you get the makeup remover for free when you purchase any of the makeup. This one also expires at the end of the month.
You can get them here
Enjoy!
Wish List: China Glaze OMG 2BKewl & 2BHOT Collections
I’ve been on a real nailpolish kick lately, ever since I got a fresh bottle of ORLY’s Bonder, which is like THE best base coat I’ve ever used, including Seche Vite’s base coat. Anyway, a few years ago Sally Hansen released Magicals, a Limted Edition collection of nail polish that was holographic, and I ended up buying several bottles of each color for backups.
So when The China Glaze collections came to my attention, I knew I must have these colors! Each collection, has 6 coordinating colors, 2BKewl has all cool colors, while 2BHot is a collection of warmed toned colors.
2BKewl
- OMG (Oh my gawd)- holographic grey with rainbow shimmer
- 2NITE (Tonight) - holographic blue
- IDK (I don’t know) - holographic violet
- BFF (Best friends forever) – holographic purple-blue
- LOL (Laugh out loud) – holographic dark purple
- DV8 (Deviate) – holographic teal
2BHot
- QT (Cutie) – holographic magenta-purple
- TMI (Too much information) – holographic rose red
- TTYL (Talk to you later) – holographic peachy-pink
- FYI (For your information) – holographic beige with silver, blue and green
- GR8 (Great) – holographic yellow
- L8R G8R (Later gator) - holographic light green
If you are lucky enough to live by a nail salon or nail supply that just happens to carry China Glaze, do yourself a favor and go and pick up a color or two, or twelve 
. If you can’t get these locally, check out Head2ToeBeauty or EBay for the collections.
Also, while searching for OMG, check out the separate top coat that came out with the two collections as well.
Wireless Holographic Top Coat
Makes any nail lacquer holographic. Once you experience it, there is no going back to basic service!
* Micro-Particle Holographic provides a smooth finish.
* Adds reflective dimension to lacquered or natural nails.
* Fast Drying!
Happy Shopping!!!
