When it comes to nail polish, we all know how much I love it. I always have my nails painted and in the few times I don’t, someone always comments about it. It’s just a little fun I like to treat myself to, a late night mani after Ellie’s in bed. I try to paint my nails once a week and the last time I had them done at a salon was the day before my scheduled c-section with Ellie (wow, that was almost 2 years ago!). The girls at work told me that a customer came in with a gel mani that was from Sally Hansen and talked about how great it looked. We were all on the hunt to get our hands on it, but the top layer was always sold out! In the meantime, I kept seeing it in magazines with top reviews so I was super happy to find a polish and top coat together in a pack.
The starter pack I bought came with the Gel Top Coat and Shock Wave, a fun bright Barbie pink. I couldn’t wait to try it out and see if it lasted the full 14 days like promised. Sally Hansen is one of my favorites polish brands, they’re polishes are part of the 3 free formulas (meaning they do not contain formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl phthalate) and their polish lasts just as long or longer than higher end brands like OPI or Essie. Plus, I find a lot of dupes at a better price with Sally Hansen.
Here are some of my first impressions:
-The brush is the same as their other Salon Manicure polish, which I like. It’s a fat bristle that makes it easy to cover the nail quickly.
-The polish is a little thin, but is not streaky and looks great with two coats.
-The Gel Top Coat has a very strong scent, like open all the windows and maybe-you-shouldn’t-paint-around-young-children-or-expectant-mothers strong of a scent.
-The top coat dries quickly, but it’s also thin and not very shiny. I was expecting a better top coat from it, similar to professional gel treatments or at least the equivalent to my Holy Grail Seche Vite top coat.
3 Days Later
Have you tried a gel manicure at home? What brand and how did it go?
5 comments :
I love wasn't a fan of this one either, but I really like the Loreal gel sets. They last a lot longer! Only downside is that the polish is really pigmented so when you remove it, the polish gets everywhere!
Love that color! I have been doing my own gel manicures for about a year now...I bought an LED lamp and gelsih starter kit off Amazon. I recently discovered Gel II polish, and so far its the best I've found. Gelish, and Gelaze by China Glaze are good too.
I got so excited when I saw this at the store....I bought it with the intention of doing my nails for a vacation and not worrying about them....I tired it out first and the 2nd day my nails were chipping at the top like yours.
I do find however if you put the topcoat on other nail polishes (OPI, Essie) it actually helps
make the polish last longer than 3 days....it's weird.
Ah that's a bummer! The key for me is using a base coat (orly bonder) and then applying the polish while it's still wet. Then as thin coat(s) as possible. And I ditched seche vite because I was so tired of it getting goopy halfway through the bottle... I switched to out the door top coat and it is way better!!! Dries just a smidge slower but it's worth it because it never goops.
I use the gelous nail polish (purchased at Sally's) and any nail polish and do couple layers of those and then add a seche vite top coat. That lasts me about 7 days. Worth a try!
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