Madam Glam Gelementary Swatches & Review

I was recently sent some newer Madam Glam shades to share and review. If you're unfamiliar with Madam Glam, they're a New York based company that provides regular and gel polishes, chrome powders, loose glitters, and other nail supplies to an international audience. Even better, their products are 5-free, vegan, and cruelty free.

I received four shades from their Gelementary line of polishes, as well as the special Gelementary topcoat. The Gelementary collection consists of 18 different polishes, plus a base and topcoat. The polishes are a hybrid between regular and gel polishes, giving a shiny, long-lasting, gel-like manicure without needing to be cured under a UV or LED lamp, and the polishes can be removed easily with acetone. Each Gelementary polish can be purchased from Madam Glam's website for $11.95 apiece.

In all of the swatches below, I've applied each polish in addition to Zoya's Anchor base coat and Madam Glam's Gelementary Hybrid Topcoat. Each photo is edited to most accurately depict how I perceive the colors to look in real life.

First up, we have Souvenirs:

Souvenirs is a light grey creme. This one was incredibly opaque, and although I used two thin coats for these photos, you could get full coverage with one thick coat as well.

Madam Glam "Souvenirs," two coats plus topcoat 

Grey is one of my favorite colors, and I love using it as a base for my nail art. Since this one is so opaque, I think it'll become my new go-to when designs call for a grey.

Next up is Cheerleading Squad:

Cheerleading Squad is a neon highlighter yellow creme. For these photos, I used three thin coats, and while it's fairly opaque at three, my nail line was still a bit visible, so I'd recommend using a white or nude base coat if you're particularly concerned about VNL.

Madam Glam "Cheerleading Squad," three coats plus topcoat

I absolutely love wearing neons year-round, and I've noticed that it's hard to find a true neon yellow, but Cheerleading Squad has exactly what I look for in a neon. It's a super bright color and easily stands out even from a distance. While it is a bit on the thin side, I'd still consider it fairly opaque for a neon yellow, and the visibility of my nail line doesn't really bother me since the polish itself isn't streaky. I was a bit worried that this one might stain my nails, but I can happily report that that also wasn't the case.

The third polish is Haters Gonna Hate:

Haters Gonna Hate is a hot pink creme that was opaque in two thin coats.

Madam Glam "Haters Gonna Hate," two coats plus topcoat

I rarely wear pink polish, so this shade wasn't my favorite of the bunch. If you love pink or you're looking for a polish that looks like bubblegum, though, this one would be perfect, and it's quite opaque and easy to work with.

The last shade is Pop Quiz:

Pop Quiz is a light baby doll pink creme. Shown here is two thin coats.

Madam Glam "Pop Quiz," two coats plus topcoat

I actually like the shade of Pop Quiz much more than Haters Gonna Hate, because it's a softer, subtler pink tone. After working with several light pinks in the past, I was incredibly impressed with how opaque this one was, having full coverage in only two coats. Like Souvenirs, this one would be the perfect base for nail art.

Finally, I wanted to give my thoughts on the Gelementary Hybrid Topcoat itself. I've only been testing the topcoat over Souvenirs for two days, but so far I haven't experienced any chipping or tip wear, and the polish looks exactly the same as the day I applied it. I don't normally experience much chipping to begin with, especially with only two days of use, so I'm definitely going to have to test the topcoat on someone else to be able to tell how long-lasting it really is. I can confirm, however, that the topcoat does give a high-shine finish to the polishes, which can be seen in these photos. Here, I've applied two coats of Pop Quiz to my thumb with no topcoat, and my pointer finger also has two coats of Pop Quiz, but it is sealed with the hybrid topcoat.

Left: Two coats of Pop Quiz, no topcoat   Right: Two coats of Pop Quiz, plus Gelementary Hybrid Topcoat

While the Gelementary polishes are rather shiny on their own, the topcoat really adds extra gloss and smooths out the application. Additionally, I used the topcoat over some nail art that I did, and it didn't smear the design, which is always nice. The only downside to the topcoat is that it does have a slightly unpleasant smell, but this completely goes away after it dries. While the Gelementary polishes can be used with your regular topcoat, the hybrid topcoat will give the best results to give your manicure a gel-like finish.

Overall, I really love the idea of the Gelementary polishes. As someone who is unable to use traditional gel polishes due to a UV sensitivity, I think that these hybrid polishes are a great alternative. All four of the polishes I tried had an excellent formula, and they self-leveled well. Each coat, including the topcoat, took between 5-10 minutes to dry, which I think is a pretty average time for non-quick dry polishes. None of the polishes stained my nails, and they removed just like a regular creme polish. I especially loved Souvenirs, and I know that I'll be using it in lots of my upcoming nail art designs!

Which of these colors was your favorite? How do you feel about gel hybrid polishes like these? Leave me a comment below!

As a bonus, you can get 30% off the purchase of these and more Madam Glam polishes by using my code "Blitz30" on their website!

Want to support Breast Cancer Research? From October 16-22, Madam Glam will be donating 20% of the sales from their selection of "Think Pink" polishes to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation! You can find all of the participating polishes here, and I'll have more information and Breast Cancer Awareness nail art in my next blog post.

DISCLAIMER: All the Madam Glam products swatched here were provided to me by the company. All views expressed in this review are my honest opinions.