I Tried Peel-Off Nail Polish — & It’s So Much Fun To Wear

The other day when I was scrolling on Instagram, I found out that Elsa Hosk makes nail polish. The Swedish supermodel recently entered into a brand partnership with Beaubble [byoo-buhl] — a new, community-driven beauty platform — to design a capsule line of watercolor nail polishes.

The colors are a vibe: There's an iced-matcha-latte green, a 'Matisse Blue,' and a sheer pink inspired by Hosk's favorite Grace Kelly outfit. The best part, though, is this formula, which is water-based and peel-able. Give yourself a manicure, wear it for a few days, and to remove the polish, just soak your nails in warm water, and peel it off like a sticker.

The Beaubble x Elsa Hosk Peelable Nail Polish comes in adorable gift sets, with three mini polishes in each, and there are two different color ways. The Sorbet Palette: Grace-Kelly pink, coral, and clementine; and the Garden Palette: matcha green, periwinkle, and Matisse blue. For my at-home test run, I use the pink polish out of the Sorbet Palette. As with any water-based polish (this one is a 60% water-based formula), the pigment is pretty sheer out of the bottle, but three coats takes it from translucent watercolor to a kind of a saturated jellybean pink.

I wore the polish for a day, but got anxious-excited about the removal. (Also, with frequent hand-washing the polish is quick to lift.) With the peel-off design, I don't feel that familiar guilt that usually comes with ripping my gels off. Unlike a gel or Shellac polish, this water-based formula doesn't adhere to your natural nail, which means that peeling it off doesn't do any damage. Also, I'm saved from dousing cotton pads in nail-polish remover and then throwing them in the trash.

Hosk tells me that the sustainability factor is one of the reasons why she partnered with Beaubble to create Peelable Polish, but she didn't anticipate how much she'd come to love playing with the colors. "It’s really fun," she says, adding that she changes the color almost as often as she changes outfits. "I mix and match them all the time." I asked her her favorite one, she's quick to the jump: "The green! I'm just feeling green at the moment. Also, it feels holiday-ish." I thought I preferred the pink, and now I'm torn.