Gelish Nails

For Christmas, my wise sister perused my Amazon wishlist and found that I had asked for a Gelish Mini Basix Kit and light. I had heard a lot about shellac manicures and researched what I would need to replicate the effort at home. Sally Beauty Supply seemed to have the answer, and Sis made my Christmas wish come true.

The beauty of the shellac manicure is that they are supposed to last significantly longer than regular manicures. Because I work with my hands a lot, doing everything from typing and opening Coke cans to grouting my tile floors, I was skeptical that it would last any longer than any other nail products I tried. Still, a girl has to hold out hope that she can have both great floors AND great nails.

I did a basic clearcoat polish for the first go round. It took several steps, including cleaning, priming and coating, followed by drying under the light after several of the layers. In total, it still only took about thirty minutes. Not bad, but the real bonus was that my nails were TRULY DRY afterwards. I didn't have to walk around like my hands didn't work or worry about waking up to bed sheet nails. The clearcoat also produced a really nice shine, better than most.

The picture above shows my nails after that initial polish. This is a typical length for my nails. I mention this because the added bonus was that the kit made my nails super hard, which enabled them to grow for the first time in years. Below is the same hand approximately three weeks later.

Not freakishly long (which I wouldn't want anyway), but longer than they've been in a long time. I found that the polish lasts a solid week without chipping, but when it does chip, nearly all the polish on that nail comes off at once. It's like it's so tightly bonded that it either all stays or all goes. Still, a week is about six and a half days longer than polish usually makes it on me. During that time, it survived working two busy catering events, handwashing dishes, and playing in the sand at the beach.

Because there are several products required to make this work, the initial purchase is rather pricey. Individual products within the kit are used at differing amounts, so you won't run out of everything at once. Most of the individual products are around $6 each and seem like they will last for many polishes (I'm guessing I can do weekly manicures for about six months on my 'mini' supply). The light is a one-time purchase (plus batteries). Colored polishes can be purchased for around $16 each (but watch for sales at Sally's, I got one for $12). The polishes come in a fairly plain white bottle, with a stripe across the top to show the color. The one color I've tried (called "Exhale") seemed notably lighter after two coats on my nails than was pictured on the bottle. I wore it to a family gathering and received several compliments on the color. It's a fairly neutral shade, and it also lasted almost a week.

This is one of my new favorite products, and is already on my must-have list. I am hopeful that pricing will go down and color selection will go up.

Thanks, Sis!