Shellac Nails

Several girls at work have been sporting some nice looking nails lately. Upon further inquiry, I found out they were using a fairly new product called Shellac. This product is especially nice for nurses since it is just a polish on your real nails. We are not allowed to have artificial nails at work due to the fact that it harbors bacteria or something. Anyway, I decided to give it a try. Since my nails were fairly short at the time, I had them do a french tip manicure. I loved it and I was hooked. Then I had a second manicure.



This is not a very impressive picture, but I had such a hard time getting my nails in focus. They looked much better in person. This is just to illustrate a point. This manicure is two weeks old! Do you see any chips? NO. And the most impressive thing was that I had to cut the one nail because it had cracked, and there still were no chips on that nail! What you notice after two weeks is the nail by the cuticle where it has grown out and the messy cuticle itself. But since my nails are looking better these days, I have started concentrating on the cuticles and they are improving.

I checked into the cost of purchasing the items since Ed wasn't so sure he wanted to pay for a manicure every two weeks. He is a big fan of polished fingernails though!! I purchased all the supplies and they arrived yesterday.



Courtney was home last night and game to be my guinea pig, so I practiced on her, and then did my own nails.



Again, not the greatest picture, but you get the idea. (looks like I need to trim a cuticle here) So a few things to note:

1. It is a pain to get the old shellac off! I need to work on that process.
2. This color is "Hollywood" and the lighter color is "Beau." I should have looked closer at the color selections at the salon because it's hard to find good examples of the color online. I am happy with this color though. It looks like the color "Beau" will be very light, so you'll see just a hint of color and shine.
3. You have to "cure" between each coat with the UV light.
4. When you are all done with the manicure, you are ready to go. Your nails are completely dry and they do not smudge!! Totally amazing!
5. It seems to make your nails stronger and the removal of the polish is not near as damaging to the nail as the removal of artificial nails.
5. If Courtney and I had gone to the salon, we would have spent about half of what it cost to purchase these supplies. After the girls move out of the house in a few weeks, I'm hoping this will be a draw to get them home every two weeks.

If you come to visit, I'll be happy to do your nails!