Nail Radar | Shellac

Like magnetic polish, gel or nail art new trends often hit the market with a boom and then pop up in your neighborhood all over the place. Like all new fashion/beauty trends we crave the information that comes with it naturally, so I'll do my best to inform you all I know about Shellac. 

My many shellac'ed nails before I learnt to use a damn camera

I honestly don't remember where I first saw shellac, but I do remember a horrible manicure and polish job at a big chain nail salon in my city that started to chip off within the next day. Upset to put it mildly, I didn't often fork my money out back then to have my nails done and was quite appalled with the job they had done so I went to a different salon and explained the problem. I was asked if chipping was my main concern with nail polish and while my mouth simply sad yes in my head I was like "are you kidding?! isn't the main problem we all face with nail polish?!". My manicurist suggested shellac. No chipping for over 2 weeks.....umm HELL YES. I'd seen all the posters and thought what the hell lets give this trend a whirl. Two weeks later I was completely sold. 



Typically traditional nail polish dries by evaporation, meaning your manicure isn't cured for 2-3 hours after application. Hell, most of your manicure time is spent waiting for the damn polish to dry. Shellac is cured by UV light, and within minutes, your nails are completely dry by the time your manicure is over, and strong enough to withstand shoving your hand into your handbag to fish out a wallet or mobile or keys. It acts like a plasticized coating, suitable as a long lasting polish. Shellac itself is a hybrid of gel polish but the product is thin and strong enough to be applied similarly to nail polish, but it is cured in a way that gives it great flexibility and durability. It also has the incredible shine associated only with gel nails. The whole process isn't damaging on the nails either. It's simply removed by having the nail wrapped in an acetone soaked cotton ball and foil (it's like special defensive alien head wear for you fingers, that's what that process looks like to me anyway) and the rest of the polish is gently for lack of a better word scraped off. 

So whats say you? Ever had Shellac? Will you? 



Gidget xx