Review: Shellac Nails

So i had a few events going on this past week and next week (graduation and early Christmas parties)  and my nails had been looking fairly ragged lately; for whatever reason my nails don't like to bend when they have nail polish on them so they tend to snap underneath the polish.  I really did not want to deal with it, so when mum suggested we go get our nails done i figured why not. I'd really never had an proper manicure done or anything else like that so it seemed like a fun thin to try, and maybe give me a break from my nails for a bit.

So i ended up getting a manicure and shellac nails; Shellac is for the most part a acrylic gel polish that is painted straight onto the nail and dries hard like a fake nail under UV lamps. Proper Shellac nails can only be done at a Salon as CMD only licenses the products to Salon and not for individual sale.

It was quite a fun experience; it took about 30-45 minutes (including the manicure) and consisted of two oats of polish, top coat and cuticle oil at the end. Between each set you put your hand under the UV lamps for about 5-8 minutes. There wasn't a huge color choice (about 30 colors) but i went with a shimmery blue called Midnight Swim.

Midnight Swim

As you can see the finish is very shiny, and the texture feels like gel nails but can feel a little wavy on some of my nails, not sure if this is the skill of the nail tech or simply a side effect of the product. It's pretty damn durable and is supposed to last two weeks without issues and i know some people even stretch it out to a month or so before regrowth shows up to ruin it too badly.

I don't think i would do this every month but it's quite good if you need a break from your nails or are having a hectic schedule. The best part is definitely the fact that the moment you leave the salon your nails are rock hard and you don't have to have any worries about smudges or touching anything.

To remove it you either go back to the salon or use acetone based remover like you would on glitter nails; acetone soaked cotton balls wrapped in foil and leave for 5 -10 minutes.

Overall I'm pretty happy but i think i like changing nail polishes too much to stick with a single color for two weeks unless i have a lot of other stuff on my mind. Have you tried it? What did you think?