Hey dolls,
I recently jumped on the gel nail polish bandwagon as I was intrigued by the idea of having perfectly polished nails for 2-3 weeks with a fantastic shine. The idea behind these gel nail polishes is that they are a hybrid between a gel and a nail polish and because there is no buffing involved to apply or remove the polish, they do not damage your natural nails, meaning that they are great for occasional use for special occasions, like holiday (as they don't need re-touching as they don't chip - meaning more time can be spent catching the sun rather than painting nails!) or even for everyday wear (as who doesn't want perfect nails?!) With many brands from shellac, gelish and jessica to orly gel fx and opi having the salon gel nail varnishes I was stuck with who to opt for but the decision was made for me when I spotted a local salon doing the jessica geleration nails for £10, whereas many other salons charge between £20 and £25.
As a post holiday treat, me and my mum visited the beauty salon and the entire process took around 45 minutes each and began by selecting the polish colour ( I chose a lovely coral-pink colour and also a subtle glitter over the top) and having my nails shaped. Then a foundation gel polish was applied (basically a base coat) and this was cured under the lamp for a minute prior to 3 coats of colour (which were each cured under the lamp for two minutes) and finally a top coat (which was also cured for two minutes). The process sounds quite lengthy but as one hand was under the UV lamp, the nails on the other were being painted and as we chatted away, the time soon flew and I was left with lovely shiny nails (the shine that is achieved by the gel polish is amazing and much shinier then any nail polish I have used before).
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| When they were first done |
The gel nail polish is meant to last for between 2-3 weeks, without chipping or loosing its shine and as you can see from the pictures below, the shine didn't change and my nails didn't chip - I was amazed! The only things that I noticed about the nails was that on some nails, particularly my thumb (in the picture below) the gel had begun to separate from my natural nail, which was a little annoying because apart from this my nails looked perfect and also I got a lot of growth away from the cuticle ( I think that it looks a lot more than normal as the lady in the salon left quite a gap when she first applied them).
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| After 2 weeks |
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| As you can see, the gel is just starting to come away from my natural nail |
To take the gel nail polish off, you can go back to the salon or you can easily remove it at home. I removed mine at home by lightly rubbing a nail file over the top of the nail to roughen the gel (this lets the acetone soak in more) then I placed a cotton wool ball with pure acetone on (which I bought from home bargains for £1) over the nail and wrapped this is tin foil and left it for 10-15 minutes. When I pulled the tin foil off, I placed a little pressure on the nail and twisted and then used a cuticle stick to push off the gel polish and my nails were perfect underneath.
