Dance Legend Glitter Base Review

by Lisa Heath

Purchased by Me

A couple weeks ago I saw that Girly Bits Cosmetics was now carrying Dance Legend Glitter Base. You’ve probably seen this around, or at least products similar.

Dance Legend Glitter Base in Pink Bottle

The Dance Legend Glitter Bases are available in the Girly Bits Cosmetics shop in 9 options currently. There are 7 colored bases (shown above is the pink shade) and 2 different clear ones (which were out of stock, so I haven’t grabbed them yet)

My first order was for 6 of the colors – Pink, Mint, White, Black, Nude, and Light Blue. When I went back a few days ago to order Give Me One Good Raisin (which is a charity polish Pam is selling and 100% of the proceeds will be going to the Canadian Red Cross Alberta Fires Emergency Appeal, for the Alberta wildfire relief fund – so grab yours if you would like to, it’s a limited time sale) I spotted the Red Dance Legend Glitter Base and ordered that as well. Not sure how i missed it the first time around.

Why did I grab all the Dance Legend Glitter Base shades? Well, I’ve seen posts about them – mostly good – and I’m a glitter lover. More than that, I’m a full coverage glitter lover. What I’m not a lover of? Removal. The removal process is never that bad in your head until it comes time to do it. I’ve tried several methods, found ways to cut back on time – but it’s still a tedious process.

Let’s take a look, and then we’ll go into my overall thoughts.

Dance Legend Glitter Base in Pink

Here is Dance Legends Glitter Base in Pink all on it’s own. It actually looks like a demi matte finish. It does appear matte, but with a slight gloss. It’s actually quite pretty on its own. When my package first arrived I spent about 20 minutes painting a nail with it and peeling it off again. I’m easily amused and this gave me something to play with on my lunch break.

One thing I found that I hadn’t seen in reviews I read (I’m sure some covered it, but the particular ones I read, I didn’t see it mentioned) said to use 1 coat of the Glitter Base. When applying alone for my amusement, I found this to be fine. But when I applied just 1 coat, then polishes as usual, it wasn’t peeling off very well. I was getting small chunks and the tips of my nails wouldn’t really come off without force and I didn’t want my nails to break. When I tried 2 coats, it worked much better for me.

So shown is 2 coats of Dance Legend Glitter Base in Pink. No base coat under it either.

I found these dry about the same as a normal polish does. It takes a bit of time. My only complaint is the white base which seems to take WAY longer than any of the others. I applied it a few nights ago and 20 minutes later it still wasn’t completely dry. The other 5 I have take about 6 minutes to full dry.

Glam Polish Lanikai Dreaming Bottle

As I said, I love my full coverage glitters, so for this post I used Glam Polish Lanikai Dreaming. I matched up the Pink Glitter Base with it in case any did peek thought, it would still blend a bit with the polish itself (since I don’t have a clear Glitter Base… yet)

Glam Polish Lanikai Dreaming

2 coats of Glam Polish Lanikai Dreaming over 2 coats of Dance Legends Glitter Base in Pink.

Glam Polish Lanikai Dreaming Macro

Glam Polish Lanikai Dreaming Front

The base didn’t interfere with application and it didn’t alter the polish. Really, unless you look at the edges, it’s not noticeable that I have anything underneath.

Now the removal. I used the cuticle pusher tool shown below to remove (the smooth rounded end, not the pointed end) that I bought from KBShimmer last Summer

rainbow-finish-dual-ended-cuticle-pusher-0

Photo credit to KBShimmer

I started at my cuticle area and gently pushed up the nail. It was easy and painless.

Dance Legend Glitter Base in Pink Removal

Each piece came up really easily and I only hand very small bits at the tip tops of my nails and a very tiny bit on the sides. I swiped a remover soaked cotton ball over each and it quickly removed the remaining glitter and Glitter Base in one cotton ball.

Dance Legend Glitter Base in Pink removed

Dance Legend Glitter Base Review Overview

Dance Legend Glitter Base Review

Overall, am I happy with my purchase? Absolutely. It does take a little more time at the start of a manicure though because I use 2 coats of Dance Legend Glitter Base and wait 5-7 minutes for each coat to fully dry. Is it worth it? For me, yes. Mainly because I would rather spend those 10-14 minutes waiting for the base to dry than 10-14 minutes scrubbing glitter off my nails and then the surrounding skin. I’m also not finding glitter shoved up inside my cuticles. Those are fun to dig out (not really).

I like that there are colored bases available which cuts down a step in the process. Instead of a base coat, 2 coats of base color, 1-2 coats of glitter and top coat – I simply have 2 coats of base, 1-2 coats of glitter and top coat.

Biggest downside is waiting for the Glitter Base to dry, gently touching it around the 5 minute mark and denting the base which can affect your future polish and make you start over. Yes I did do this. Twice.

Ok maybe more than that.

You can actually see when it starts to dry, the dry area sinks down and ‘hugs’ your nail and the wet area is puffed up a bit. It’s very slight, but it is visible and you don’t want to touch it to find out like I did.

My big question though – where is the purple or lavender base?

Edited to add: SCENT! Someone brought to my attention I had not mentioned the scent of the Dance Legend Glitter Base (which I appreciate) and I hadn’t mentioned it because there wasn’t much of one. It’s lighter than most polishes I use and nothing overpowering or “ugh, what is that?” type scent. I’m over here sniffing this stuff to try to describe it and looking like a crazy person (my boyfriend probably thinks I might have lost it, and after almost 7 years together, he should know I lost it a long time ago) but it’s a very light odor. If you have used the latex barrier products for nail art – it’s WAY less than that scent. Hope that helps.

Would I purchase more? Absolutely. I am waiting for the 2 clear options to be in stock at Girly Bits Cosmetics. Should more base colors come out like yellow, purple or orange – I would snap them up as well.

I think it’s an amazing idea and for those not wanting to use remover or have skin sensitivities, this is a good way to go about it. Of course, it’s for more short term. If you wear manicures for a week – this won’t last that long. My wear test earlier this week gave me a day and a half before it started popping off.

I also played with the black base last night. I cannot show the polish I used yet – so here’s the macro. This is 1 coat of Dance Legend Glitter Base in black (need 2 next time) and a gorgeous glittery shade over it.

Sample 1176 Over Black Macro

I love it.

Price: $10.46 USD

Where I Bought: The Girly Bits Website

Girly Bits Social Media: FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | TWITTER | BLOGGER | BLOGLOVIN | GOOGLE+

Last night I also posted Girly Bits upcoming Spring 2016 collection, so make sure to pop over and take a look. Maybe you’ll grab one of these Dance Legend Glitter Bases along with your order.

So what are your thoughts? Have you tried the Dance Legend Glitter Base out yet? Do you think this would be a good product for you?

*All products in this post were purchased by me, except the glitter polish shown over the black base. That was a press sample that will be shown in a future post.

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11 comments

Chelsea May 8, 2016 - 8:57 am

AH the black base with the glitter polish over it looks amazing. I may just need to buy a couple of these! I loooove full coverage glitter polishes (especially the ones with chunkier glitter), but they can be such a pain to remove.. this is such a lifesaver product!

Reply
Lisa Heath May 9, 2016 - 3:07 pm

These really are a lifesaver (or nail saver?) and make it so much easier to wear full coverage glitters and not worry about the pain of removing them!

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Lothwen May 9, 2016 - 12:04 am

Colour me intrigued ;)

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Lisa Heath May 9, 2016 - 3:08 pm

lol

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Cat Ray May 9, 2016 - 1:28 pm

Peel off base coats are seriously the best invention in the last year (well, I think they were around beforehand, but not marketed or sold as I think most people made their own). I hate removing glitter, even with the foil method, and the peel off bases actually make me excited to wear glitter polishes, which I otherwise avoid. It’s cool they are releasing them in different colors now so you can even forgo a base color if you want! Very cool!

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Lisa Heath May 9, 2016 - 3:09 pm

I think I got my first peel off base 3 years ago from OPI (or maybe 2 years ago) with their peel off base, but it smelled almost identical to Elmer’s Glue and I wasn’t that impressed with it. It was ok – but just as much work in the end as removing the glitter after.

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Laura May 10, 2016 - 7:19 pm

Have you tested the glitter base to see how long it wears? Sometimes they end up “popping” off in a day or so. I’d love to see one that lasted longer than that.

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Lisa Heath May 10, 2016 - 9:10 pm

I actually have and mentioned it in the post. It only lasted a day and a half before one popped off. I have heard some can wear it for a week, but I didn’t have those results!

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Mina May 10, 2016 - 11:12 pm

Glad to see these reviewed, since I love DL peel-off base coats. In my experience, the clear base coats peel away more cleanly (which means shorter mani-life too!); I usually use a thin coat under a normal base coat to prolong mani-life. I agree that the coloured ones take a while longer to dry, but 2 thin coats of the white has become my go-to base for nail art, since removal is so easy if you goof up.

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Viktoria May 12, 2016 - 12:24 am

I agree with Mina, Dance Legend clear peel-off bases last less on the nails.
That’s why I love these colored ones: I can be sure my glitter manicure will not leave me when I don’t want it to )))

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Ashlee (PaintesNubbs) May 16, 2016 - 6:51 pm

I haven’t heard of these before but they are kinda genius lol.

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