China Glaze Gelaze Flying Dragon

I think it's pretty obvious that I prefer regular nail polish over gel. Gel polish is fun to wear, but I rarely want or need to wear my nail polish for longer than a week. The few times I wear gel it's often as a clear or sheer nude base that I use as an overlay for more regular polish. I'll also often employ a peel off gel base so I don't have to soak off with acetone. That's because it lasts longer than UNT peel off under gel for me. UNT peels magnificently under gel, but I can never get it to last longer than a day on me. I prefer to wear my polish, gel or no, for at least two days after all.

China Glaze Gelaze Flying Dragon

This time, however, wearing the UNT would've been an improvement.

Flying Dragon is the gel version of China Glaze's polish of the same name. It's a berry color with tiny red and blue sparkles (glitters?) within. The actual color is much lighter than what the bottle color suggests.

China Glaze Gelaze Flying Dragon, bottle shot

Unfortunately, the formula stinks. My mani looks like crap, but trust me, I did what I could with this. The color's watery and sheer, thin coats flood your cuticles, it requires flash curing or it'll flood your cuticles again (hence the spots of flooding that were completely fine until I put my hand in the lamp)... Just about everything that can go wrong with applying a gel went wrong. Only good thing I can say is that it fully cured. It's so sheer that I required a minimum of four coats for opacity. On my pointer and middle fingers I actually needed five coats. Yes, five. Yet you can still see some visible nail line. 

China Glaze Gelaze Flying Dragon, brush shot

One of the beauties of regular polish is that if you find your polish looks like crap, you can just wipe it off and start anew. It may be messy if it's dark or not fully dry. But you can take it off with no prep and in no time. Even with the gel peel off I have to soak this mess off in a water dish first to prevent nail damage. Fun. At least with the UNT I could've just prodded it off and started another color.

China Glaze Gelaze Flying Dragon, shade

Here's the thing- I remember liking this polish. I've worn it before and don't remember the formula being this atrocious. Maybe it's because the bottle is old? I don't know. Most of my Gelaze shades are older and don't do this to me. But I can't recommend this particular shade. It's not worth the trouble.

China Glaze Gelaze can be found at beauty supply stores including Sally Beauty Supply.