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!

Toppik Hair Building Fibers

I am forever on a quest for fuller, thicker hair. I do not suffer from any form of baldness, I just have crazy skinny hair. All women seem to want the opposite of the hair we have, so I dream of my fine straight locks magically transforming to a thick wavy mane.

I've tried every product I've seen that has the word "volumizing" on the label. I am convinced that one day my life will be changed by glam hair if I just find the right product. So I share the experiences of this journey, with apologies to my friends who lament their unruly curls and heavy hair.

Because I've tried so many sprays, gels and mousses without success, I get very excited at products that don't fall into one of those categories. Such was the case when I recently decided to try Toppik Hair Building Fibers. It is a sprinkle-on powder that is primarily marketed to people with hair loss issues. While I don't have hair loss, my hair is fine enough that I sometimes feel self-conscious about seeing too much scalp at my part line. The ad I saw in skymall was enough to convince me this product would give me that appearance of thick hair that I've pined for.

I spent time reading product reviews of my own before making this purchase. The product can be somewhat costly if used daily, and I really don't want to spend money on something that I don't have some degree of confidence in already. Reviews were largely positive. I spent approximately $24 for a smaller bottle, which I would guesstimate to be about a week's supply with regular use.

The product is available in fairly standard shades, and it is important to match as closely as you can. I purchased the blonde color, and it was a good match for my moderately light shade. There are accompanying products recommended to go with the powder that I did not choose to purchase. There is a small, comblike tool that is supposed to better distribute the powder, but I didn't really feel like that was an issue. All indications recommend the holding spray. Based on reading reviews, I opted not to get the spray and just used my own regular hairspray instead. This worked fine and saved me a few bucks.

Toppik is sprinkled onto clean dry hair, at the rootline. You then distribute it through your roots either using their tool or your fingers. I felt fine with the distribution I got from my fingers. I did not have any odd clumps or flaking. It didn't take much time at all, under two minutes total. I finished with spray and it stayed put throughout the day. However, it didn't do a whole lot for my hair.

Since their ads show bald people transformed with this product, I gullibly believed it would make my hair look incredibly full. In reality, there was not enough transformation to really discuss, perhaps an improvement in appearance by ten percent. I tried using more of the product with no noticeable change. And while the product did stay in place, it was somewhat itchy and I would have powdery residue under my fingernails when I scratched.

Before (left) and After (right) Toppik

In fairness to the product, I was not using it to cover baldness as it is intended. I thought that would make it all the more effective, as I was essentially asking it to do less work for me. I can only speak to my experience as a non-balding blonde (perhaps the change is more noticeable with darker colors). This product wasn't bad, it just also wasn't good. I will not be purchasing it again for myself, but I wouldn't discourage someone from trying it who had a different hair situation from mine. I also wouldn't rush to encourage it, either.

Overall Rating: 3.4 on a 10 point scale