There is nothing like flawlessly painted nails and if you're like me I am not keen on acrylics and prefer to keep my natural nails as I don't like the damage acrylics do to your real nails. I use to get gel nail polish done monthly at this really nice spa but it got to a point where I wanted to save for other things and stopped going. I've spent a fair amount of money trying to find nice nail polishes and ones that don't chip so they claim and have a decent colour.
I've seen the gel kits around and from going to the spa I used to buy the gels themselves but didn't have the UV light to actually do anything with them. I'd been hearing about the Sally Hanson gel polish starter kit and thought it might be worth looking into as the OPI one is limited to salons and Sally Hansen is a pretty decent brand. You can buy the kit for $100, it comes with 10 alcohol cleansing wipes, a file, cuticle stick, acetone polish remover, a base/top coat and a main colour. With the kit there are three different colours you can choose from and I chose there colour "Wine Not" it is basically a deeper red rather then your classic bright red.
A picture of the kit with everything that comes in it :)
The instructions advise you wipe your nails with the alcohol cleansing wipes then apply the base coat, two colour coats and a top coat for 30 seconds each. I found this confusing when first using because after applying the colour and drying under the light I would test to see if the colour rubbed of on my hand to see if it had fully dried. I had it under the light for more or less two minutes and still the colour rubbed off so I was confused as to how it couldn't have dried by this point. So I gave up and applied the next coat anyway. After putting all the coats on once you apply the alcohol cleansing wipe again the colour will no longer rub off onto your hand if you test it. This will happen no matter how long you dry your nails for as it is sticky residue which the cleansing wipe will fix in the end. I thought I would mention this as I found it to be really confusing but once I did this it was a lot quicker to apply and less frustrating.
A picture of my nails! this was taken on day 2 after the I applied the polish
For these pictures I used the Sally Hansen base/top coat but the OPI big apple red nail polish colour, I wanted to see if the OPI gels would work even though I wasn't using the OPI lamp and they did. This is great for me as I already have a fair few of there colours although the Sally Hansen gel's work just as well. As for the two week no chip claim which the gel colours promise I didn't find it terribly accurate in my experience. The gel tends to peel off in a whole lump rather then chip like regular polish but I find you only get a week's use out of it which is still pretty good for a nail polish.
The nail gels that come in the kit
I did debate whether or not too return this product as it is a lot of money and I wasn't sure whether it really lived up to my expectations. However the gel looks amazing on and is really easy to apply in comparison to the endless waiting for regular polishes to dry and I found my nails would still always have marks.
Because the acetone nail polish remover can be pretty harsh I would definitely give your nails a break every now and again but I am really glad I bought this and would highly recommend it.
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