I've been hearing about Gellish/Shellac nails for months now and when holiday time came it seemed the perfect opportunity to give it a go myself. I booked an appointment at my local salon where they have just started offering the treatment and are running a deal too good to miss. Mani/Pedi £20!! For that price I couldn't say no, unfortunately there were a few reasons that the deal was so good, 1. The Nail Tech is newly qualified and 2. The colours available were extremely limited. I think she had 5 all of which were a bit dated, frosty mauves and such, the red was really my only option. From the start I wasn't super impressed with the paint job.. no neater than I could have done myself but the whole process (hands) took about 40mins and I was impressed with the glossy finish and the promise of 3 weeks wear. I knew that I wouldn't get that long from it as my fingernails grow quickly and the re-growth would drive me mad but chip free for the duration of my trip was all I wanted.
The pictures above and below are both 1 week in and I am distinctly underwhelmed. After only one day I could see wear and 3 days in my thumb and forefinger had both chipped. Bare in mind that I was on holiday.. no housework, washing up etc.. I was expecting more.
In this instance it could well be a case of you get what you pay for but I wouldn't pay more after this experience. My regrowth was bad after a week and even the best nail tech couldn't avoid that so I won't be shelling out the big bucks for this kind of thing but my toes are lasting well and I would consider having this done again for a week away so as not to worry about repainting while on holiday. Having heard such wondrous things about gellish I thought I'd add my not so wondrous thoughts to the mix, I'm not saying don't try it I'm just saying manage your expectations.. it's not magic!
Miss BB
