*Purchased
This post has been a long time coming, but I’m finally getting to it! I wanted to chat about my first experience with gel. If you checked out my IMATS post, you’ll know that I got my first gel manicure from Bio Seaweed Gel that had a little booth there. I put this manicure through the wringer, and I definitely have my opinions about gel now.
So first I’ll start off with the application. This might sounds really dumb to some people, but I had NO idea that a gel manicure application included UV lamps. I just couldn’t help like feeling that my hands were slowly dying under mini tanning beds. The procedure didn’t take long, and I was happy with the result. The top image is of the fresh manicure (you can spot my IMATS stamp in the picture too)!
My initial thoughts of the manicure were good. Since starting my new job, I had not had any time to do my nails at all. The colour was vibrant and shiny. One thing I did notice was that the gel felt thick. I have no other way to describe it other than I ‘felt’ the polish on my nails.
So let me start by saying I wore this manicure for WAY longer than I should of. I think when I took this polish off, it was over a month and a half old. There was significant growth from my nails and it looked kinda funny. But I feel like I’ve had no time and I knew you couldn’t remove gel with regular nail polish remover.
In the pictures above, they were taken at about the 3 week mark. I would say there was minimal chipping and colour fade. There is that little knick on my pointer finger and if you look closely at the first picture, the top gel layer was peeling off of my thumb.
So now let’s get to removal. I don’t think I can put this any other way other than it was a nightmare. I know you’re technically supposed to get it professionally removed so maybe that was my fault, but ain’t nobody got time (or money) for that. So I DIYed it (sort of) and got a Sally Hansen gel acetone remover from Shoppers.
The instructions on the remover were similar to remove glitter polish, soak a cotton pad and wrap with aluminum foil. So I did what the instructions said, but the removal was a very painful process. I left the cotton pad on for about 10 minutes and nothing. The remover packaging pretty much said just continue to soak if the polish doesn’t come off easily, but it was midnight and I had to wake up at 5am the next day so nah. For most of my nails I ended up having to scrape most of polish off with a cuticle pusher (eek!).
So all in all, I don’t think gel is for me. I’m not saying never because it did last a CRAZY long time, I just don’t think the removal process is something I can get behind. Of course I don’t blame the brands that I used (polish and remover) just because I honestly think it was mostly user error for the mistakes I encounters. ;P
Anyways, thanks for reading! Hope you have a great day!
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