Shellac Review

Well hello there! It feels wonderful to be reunited with the blessed internet again. I'm so looking forward to getting caught up on my blog writing as well as blog reading (I've missed you guys!)

Now that the never-ending shellac nails are behind me, I wanted to write a quick review/follow up on them. I know most of you have tried them, but for those that haven't, or who have and want some tips, here are a few from me!

So as seen above (and here), I decided to go with a dark gray color with a layer of sparkle over it and I was pretty happy with the color choice. It was neutral enough that it went with everything, but not totally boring or predictable. One recommendation I have for the day you get them done would be to make sure your nail technician paints as far down to the cuticle as possible. As you can see above, even on the first day there was already a slight gap in my nails. That's not going to work if you plan on having them for multiple weeks. See below...

This was on Day 10. I will say I was super impressed with how sturdy they were. I kept bracing myself for a chip, but they stayed glossy and looking like new! However, the grow out was pretty ridiculous. The trashy-ness of the grow out almost cancelled out the classy-ness of the no chipping.

But I had an idea. When I stayed at my friend Jenna's house in LA before wedding #2, I saw she had my highly coveted color of Boom Boom Pow by Deborah Lippmann and knew I just had to try it. I thought about painting one nail with it, but then thought I might regret it. So then I had the idea of filling in the grow out with the glitter polish and it worked perfectly! I honestly loved how it looked. So just an idea if dreaded grow-out happens to you.

I was mostly fearing the removal process. I did not like the idea of soaking my fingers in acetone to get the polish off. But after almost 3 weeks of them being on my nails, one of them just completely started to peel off and so I took it off easily. This happened with a couple other nails (maybe instead of glitter on one nail, I'll start the trend of leaving random nails unpainted??) and then I just slowly peeled them off over the next few days, mostly on my drive down to CA. Probably not the best for my nails, but it worked really well for me!

Then after 3 weeks of the same nails, this was the color I went with first (Rust by Forever 21). Pretty amazing. I feel like I'll need to paint my nails every day until Christmas with all the colors and ideas I have built up in my head.

Conclusion: I'm really glad I got shellac on my nails for the week and a half I was down in CA. It saved me a lot of trouble and I would probably use them again if I went on a vacation (especially one that involved water) but can't see myself getting shellac all the time. So great for professionals or perfectionists who have the money and don't have the time to keep re-painting their nails though!

What's your take on shellac? Have you done it? And if so, what did you think?

xoxo

Sara B