Have you heard of Shellac?
It’s a (not really that new, anymore) kind of manicure that uses a UV-cured gel polish that allegedly lasts for two weeks with no chipping!
Could it be true???
Even for a girl like me who types away on a computer all day long and is otherwise super hard on her hands? I mean, my last regular manicure lasted about 36 hours before it was all chipped and looked like hell…so two weeks and no chipping sounds fabulous to me.
I just got my Shellac manicure on yesterday afternoon and I’m going to document it’s condition over the next couple of weeks so you too can see how it holds up!
As long as you don’t make fun of my almost-transparent-it’s-so-white Irish skin. And my ultra wrinkly knuckles. And my crooked fingers.
Okay. You’re right. I’ll stop now.
Here is the low-down on the manicure process!
It starts off as a regular manicure—minus soaking your fingers in water first. Apparently you can’t have wet nails or the polish won’t set properly, so my manicurist trimmed my cuticles and shaped my nails while they were dry. I was skeptical at first but it was fine.
Then a special base coat is applied…it’s thicker and more gel-like than a regular base coat or polish. After the base coat is applied, your nails go under a UV or LED lamp for about a minute or so to set the base coat.
After the base coat is set, the first coat of polish is applied and back under the UV lamp you go. Then a second coat of polish, and another round of UV.
Finally, a special top coat is applied. After one final round of curing under the UV lamp, you’re good to go! The absolute best thing about this manicure is that as soon as you take your hands out from under the UV light, your nails are dry and totally set. You can rub them together and they don’t budge. AWESOME!
After a little cuticle oil treatment and the standard lotion and hand massage, I paid, grabbed my keys out of my purse and was on my way! Throwing caution to the wind!
And how much do you love this color!? So fun. So “I’m not ready for summer to end yet.”
Here is something else that I’m going to try for the next few weeks:
OPI’s Avoplex cuticle oil in a super handy to-go tube.
It’s not that I need to oil my cuticles on the go…but I do tend to have dry, peely cuticles and nails and I get a lot of hang nails. I need to be better about using lotion on my hands and applying cuticle oil, and this handy tube has a brush tip that is easy to use and mess-free, which is great!
So that’s it…I’ll give you a Shellac update at the week one mark and we’ll see how it’s holding up.
How about you? Have you ever gotten a Shellac manicure? Did it live up to the two week, no-chip claims?
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