Acqua-scuze me???

I fully intended on writing a blog this morning on a wonderful product I have discovered. I was so excited to share it with you. I woke up happy, had my coffee, then jumped in the shower before sitting down to write. That is when huge devastation and disappointment set in. Let me start from the beginning.

I have blogged before about this cool site called Beauty Army at www.beautyarmy.com. When you join, you get 6 great beauty samples sent to you based on the results from a beauty quiz you take while signing up. My most recent shipment was a full sized nail conditioning treatment system from a brand called Acquarella.

It contained a nail file, buffer, cuticle stick, nail polish remover and the conditioning polish.  I loved the idea of getting my nails into shape, so I followed the directions, and did the treatment for three days.  My nails did look better.  I was pretty pleased. So naturally, I went to the Acquarella website to learn more about this product. The site looked promising and educated me about all of their polishes. They promised to do the following:

 1. Dry fast (LOVED this idea). 

2. Not need base or top coat (even faster, love it).

 3. Be a safe- water based and non-toxic polish with no odor (I have worried about the toxins in nail polishes, and my husband can't stand the odor... seems to be getting better and better).

The only draw back I could find is that they cost $16 a bottle. YIKES!  But I had to try it. I love the look of healthy nails, and I was excited about being able to paint my nails and have them dry quickly. Manicures, and gel nail polish would cost a lot more, after all. So I bought a color called Vixen. That's right, this Cougar is a Vixen.

Last night, I followed the directions exactly. Clean and buff bare nails. Swab nails with Acquarella remover only. Rinse using clean water, dry throughly. Apply two thin coats of the nail polish. OH MY GOSH... it was gorgeous. It dried super fast. I thought I was in love. I woke up this morning... no smudges. I was thrilled. This was the answer to all of my manicure dreams. I lovingly gazed at my nails over coffee.

BUT THEN... I jumped into my morning shower. Horror and devastation set in (if I'm not being dramatic, I'm not being me).

Apparently, the only thing wrong with using a water based nail polish, is that water removes it.  This is what my nails looked like after my shower, less than 12 hours after I painted them. And yes, I did retouch this picture of my hand to remove some wrinkles... don't judge.

I am so glad I didn't order any other shades. I just threw out $16... ok actually more than $16 because I got excited and upgraded to 2 day shipping (I want it... and I want it now Daddy!).

Ladies, if you should come across this product... look the other way. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is, and in this case, it definitely was.