Zoya Color Lock System Lives Up To The Hype

A well manicured hand is very telling. Someone who has a clean, groomed hand (man or woman) reads to me as someone who cares for their appearance. This can mean short, bare nails or long painted nails. But nothing is worse than chipped polish. It drives me crazy.

In the past, I would combat this peeve by getting a gel manicure. I clearly remember sitting at dinner with a girlfriend after having my first gel and raving about this new service that allowed your polish to stay on for two weeks. I should have known it was too good to be true, but I was not nearly as educated on products then as I am now. Fast forward a few years and I began hearing about not only the really toxic ingredients in gel polish (hello formaldehyde & toluene, to name only two) but you do realize that you are putting your hands in a tiny little UV tanning bed, right? Even if your nails are gorgeous, they won’t look so hot on wrinkly, sun damaged skin. If you absolutely must do a gel, put sunscreen on your hands prior to the light.

Once the reality of gel manicures became clear to me, I knew I could no longer keep this in my beauty routine. And while on a rare occasion (and I mean rare) I will still get a gel polish, I always use sunscreen on my hands both before I arrive at my appointment and right before the polish. While the nail tech usually thinks it is not necessary, it is.

Looking for an alternative…

I’ve been looking for an alternative for a while. I have tried a lot of things all while trying to be mindful of my clean beauty standards. This is especially challenging with nail products. The reality of it is, nothing had worked. I don’t mind doing my own nails but despite my use of base coats, top coats, and various specialty products, my nails would still be chipped and a mess within 2 days…and you know how I feel about chipped nails. Then I found the Zoya Color Lock System.

I’ve known about Zoya for years. They were the first beauty company to remove the toxic ingredients such as toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin and DBP (dibutyl phthalate) from their formulations. Zoya is now BIG 10 free meaning their formula is now also free of harmful toxins like, dibutyl phthalate, tphp, parabens, xylene, ethyl tosylamide AND lead. They are also a Cleveland based company and I love a good local story.

In my search I stumbled upon the Color Lock System and after reading great reviews, I ordered the mini kit and chose Rue as my nail color. It was a gorgeous nude color with a little more depth and dimension than a typical neutral. To be perfectly honest, I was skeptical. Really skeptical. As I mentioned I have never had luck with any natural nail products despite what they claim.

The process…

The Color Lock System is a five step system beginning with cleaning the nails with the Zoya nail polish remover. Then you apply the Anchor Base Coat just as you would any other base coat. I applied two coats of Rue (and loved the color!), and followed with Armor Top Coat. Next, I let the nails sit for about a minute before applying a drop of Fast Drops Polish Drying Accelerator to each nail. I was worried the drops would be really strong smelling or sticky, since they do get on your cuticles, and they were neither. I then sat still for about 5-7 minutes and checked my nails expecting them to be tacky or soft. They were dry and I was shocked. Legit shocked.

I went about my usual business for the next few days. I did dishes, washed my hands tens of times each day, played with the kids, worked out and did everything else you do in your daily life that wreaks havoc on hands and nails. No joke, I was floored that my nails held up through it all. This picture shows my nails on DAY 8! Seriously, Day 8. I ended up getting 10 days out of that first manicure before the tips began to chip. You can even see how my nails are beginning to grow out.

The aftermath…

Now for the final test: removal. Another awful aspect of a traditional gel manicure is taking it off. The way I see it, there are two ways to get gel off. First, it can begin to peel off on its own which usually results in you picking off the polish. This not only looks awful, it damages the nail. Or you soak it off in acetone. Probably don’t need any explanation here, but soaking your hands in acetone (even if it is nails, nails are porous and the acetone does get on skin also) is just a no-no. While the Zoya remover does contain Acetone, it also contains glycerin which makes the acetone much less irritating. Additionally, you are swiping it over the nail, not soaking, and I always wash my hands immediately after.

I was happy to find the remover took the polish off quickly and effortlessly. I didn’t have to soak or “scrub” it off. It came right off. My nails were in decent condition and didn’t seem damaged. I like to give my nails some time to breathe between polishes, but they were in good enough condition to polish again right away if I had wanted to.

Final thoughts….

All in all I feel like I found a real solution that allows me to have pretty, polished nails and still maintain my standards for reducing toxins in my products. The Zoya Color Lock System is my new go-to for polish that lasts. It is available on Amazon or the Zoya site and with over 400 colors available, I don’t think I’ll run out of options anytime soon.

Next up, I tried an organic lash lift. Check it out…