After months of hearing rave reviews of the newest nail craze "shellac" I finally booked myself in for an appointment a few days ago!
For those who don't know, Shellac is the revolutionary hybrid gel/polish that recently hit the market. I was fascinated when a customer came into work almost a year ago with the most perfect looking manicure. I commented on how great her nails looked - as I do often when I see a great mani - and she was raving about this shellac polish that I had never heard of. I couldn't believe her when she said she had had it on for over 2 weeks!
The salon I went to had two different shellac polishes: CND (which I had already heard of) and Gelish. I'm pretty sure CND is the original producer of shellac so I chose one of their polishes for my manicure.
The process was the same as any normal manicure; base coat, 2 colour coats, then top coat. Between each coat you place your hand under the UV light to set the coat. All up it took about 20 minutes and afterwards there is no drying time - fantastic!
CND base and top coats
UV light
The colour I chose was Wildfire:
Here are some day 5 swatches..
CND Shellac gel polish
Wildfire. A rich, bright, cherry red with high gloss finish. It's lasted really well so far considering I've been busy cleaning out my room, working and washing dishes etc all week and there are no chips at all. I must say I was a bit disappointed with the job that the manicurist did. As you can see from the photos, it's quite messy around the cuticles which annoys me a lot when you are paying for them to do it for you. Especially considering I'm such a perfectionist so I feel like I could have done a neater job myself! Oh well! It was definitely worth trying out and I would really recommend for those who are busy and don't have the patience or time to do it yourself because it really lasts! This also means that it's important to choose a colour that you really love because you'll be wearing it for up to 3 weeks!
I'm already a bit sick of them...but that's coming from someone who changes her nails every couple of days so what else did I expect! Overall, I think it's a great product and if I could afford to I'd buy myself a UV lamp and some CNDs so I could have a play around myself! Perhaps one day...
But for now I must go to bed! :) Goodnight
