What is gel polish? Gel polish is a soak off polish that applies like a polish, and acts like gel. The gel polishes can be cured using either an LED light or a UV light. (Read the label on your polishes to check which light it can cure under. Not all gel polishes can cure under both).
I first heard of gel polishes late into 2012. At this time, gel polishes weren't a big hit in drugstores yet. The main place you could purchase gel polishes was Sally's Beauty Supply.
The thought of it being a "gel" polish was pretty cool to me, as it claimed that each manicure would last between 14-20 days, (21 days according to gelish.com). The polish was claimed to not peel, chip, or fade.
Now, before I jump into my review, let me give you a bit of background on my nail experience. My nails are naturally very thin and brittle and they only grow to a certain length before they start to chip and break. I hated wearing regular nail polish because it faded very quickly. Even with a base and a top coat, the polish didn't last very long on my nails. I didn't really start getting into nails until I actually went and got my nails done at a nail salon. After my first time getting a manicure done professionally, I thought to myself, "I can do this myself at home!"
I proceeded to start experiencing with acrylic nails and soon found out that I hated it. Not only did I hate filing, but the chemical smell from the acrylic just made me sick. After that was done and over with, I started to do my nails using hard gel. Let me tell you, hard gel was much easier and better to work with than acrylic. Although hard gel doesn't have a chemical smell like acrylic does, I still didn't like the filing part.
The moment I finally decided to purchase and try out the Gelish polishes was after I watched a video tutorial from DearMrsBeautyShopper on Youtube > video here < Throughout all of her gel polish videos, she did a great job on explaining what the product was and how she used it.
As stated above, Sally's Beauty Supply had some gel polishes, including the Gelish brand. I decided not to purchase my first set of polishes from there because the mini sizes they had in the store costed as much as the full size bottles on Amazon. Unfortunately, Sally's did not have the full size, so I went to Amazon. The selection of colors were insane! I didn't realize how many colors they had. I purchased 10 polishes, including the base coat (Foundation Gel) and the top coat (Top it Off). As stated above, I did also need a nail curing light in order to cure/dry my polish. I decided to purchase a UV lamp because it was cheaper than getting an LED lamp. The total for everything came to about $150.00. Each bottle of gel polish ranged between $10-12 and the lamp was about $50. Yes, it was a bit pricey since I purchased everything all at once.
So, with that being said, was my initial $150 purchase worth the buy? Yes it was! It took me a while to get used to and to be patient with the process because there were many steps I had to take to get to the end of my polish application.
1.) Apply base coat - Foundation Gel
2.) Cure under lamp for 1 min
3.) Apply polish color
4.) Cure under lamp for 1 min (light color) or 2 min (darker colors)
5.) Repeat steps 3 & 4 until satisfied with the color/opacity
6.) Apply top coat - Top it Off
7.) Cure under lamp for 2 min
8.) Wipe off nails with rubbing alcohol
Phew! It doesn't seem like a lot to do right? LOL WRONG! It takes me, on a good day, at least 1 hour to finish a full set of nails, just 1 solid color. If I do any nail art or do a French Manicure, it takes much longer. So yes, it IS time consuming and you must be patient, BUT, it really is worth the money if you don't mind taking the time to do your nails yourself. And, as the website states, each manicure does last me about 20 days, if I don't pick at them :) .
It's been over 1 year already since I've had my Gelish polishes, and I haven't had to repurchase any of the polishes yet. Not even one bottle. Think about it, you spend at least $30-50, maybe more, to get a full set of nails done at a salon. If you go back to the salon let's say twice a month to get a filling done, that's about maybe $30 each time with tip? So we'll just calculate it at $30 every 2 weeks. That's $60 a month x 12 months = $720 a year! The average gel polish manicure price is around $30 where I live, so spending $150 which lasts me over a year, probably even longer, is way better in my opinion than spending $720.
I'm very pleased, not only with the money I save by doing my own manicures at home, but I am also very happy at the fact that the gel polish does not ruin my nails like acrylic and hard gel does after taking it off. After each application, my nails are left very nice and sturdy to where I don't have to worry about them breaking. Of course, they're not going to be as hard as acrylic or hard gel, but the Gelish polish does add strength to my nails. And most importantly, the polish lasts a lot longer than regular polish. I highly recommend Gelish and I definitely will keep this brand as my #1 gel polish.
No comments:
Post a Comment