Tip o’ the day for those of you who want to keep your nails looking lovely and who can’t stand the chipping polish thing:
Dearest Peacebang, your comment on your nail color prompts me to ask if you have discovered the magic of gel nails?? OPI has a bunch of colors now. They cure in about 3 minutes. You’re dry when you leave the salon. They last 2-3 weeks. No more chipped nails. It’s life-changing.
Thanks for your ministry! Zip-Zip!
And thank YOU, Kelli! I have tried gels and I prefer my fake nails as I am a biter and a nail polish peeler. But others may benefit from your advice, so thanks for writing.
I don’ like nail enhancements since they do so much damage to my nails which are otherwise healthy. Mostly I go naked. Sometimes I do clear but have to change it once or twice a week. For special occasions I’ll do a gel polish manicure, very long-lasting and doesn’t have to be ground off. But too many of those is also damaging. So I’m back to naked.
agreed – don’t know about gel, but it sounds like Shellac – which was fabulous given my nails will start to chip within a day – until I realized I had to go back to the nail place and get them to remove my manicure (that did last almost two weeks I’ll grant it) and then had residue still on my nails until they grew out despite the surface being filed to get the rest of it off. That is not cool when the reason polish won’t stay on your nails is they’re so soft and flimsy to begin with! so no polish for me!
I just discovered gel nails! They are magic. I love mine so much.
Shellac is great–not at all like gel nails. does no damage to existing nails, no filing them down, and it helps them grow. About ten dollars more than a regular manicure and it actually lasts two weeks. It is work paying a bit more to go to someone who actually knows how to do it (I had it done at the cheapy places a couple of times and it peeled due to being used improperly.
um Shellac was the ones I had that had to be taken off at the salon and the last of the residue (or not) taken off with the nail file, so I don’t see how that could not be damaging to one’s nails…
If the nail tech knows what he or she is doing with the stuff, it does not have to be filed off. Actually if they are really good it will come off at home with 100% acetone because they will have put it on very thin.
I also had the Shellac done and managed to get it off with 100% acetone but it was difficult. And my nails began to flake off in layers (the nails, not just the polish) before I ever attempted to remove the polish. My nails rarely do that normally so I will definitely stay away from that in the future. Also, the nail people just told me it would last two weeks, but didn’t bother to tell me what it would take to get it off. [Eek! Mine peeled right off when I started chawing at it. – PB]