My mother has ruined me.

I had successfully avoided jumping on the gel manicure bandwagon… up until recently.

My mother has been getting gel/shellac manicures for probably about a year now, and swears up and down about how nice they are and how they keep her nails long and beautiful. You see, we both have thin, brittle nails, and we’re not the nicest to them, so manicures (whether they were salon or home done) never lasted very long. Of course that didn’t stop us from going to get them. In my case, the only reason I looked forward to a trip to the nail salon was the girl time and getting my nails shaped/cuticles trimmed. I hardly kept my polish on more than a few days.

My mother goes in about every three weeks to get her nails redone, and sometimes she takes my sister and/or I along with her. Often it’s because we’re going on vacation, and getting mani/pedi’s beforehand has become somewhat of a tradition. Sometimes it’s just because. Now that I’m at college, living away from home, it’s often my sister that goes. But I have gone a few times in the past year, but like I said, I have never gotten gel polish because I told myself I didn’t want to go through the trouble of taking it off myself since I wouldn’t be home again next time they went in.

It’s not that I didn’t believe my mom or sister. It’s not that I didn’t want to try gel nail polish. I very much did since it seemed that no matter what I tried, I could not keep my polish looking good after going to work. And it’s a pain sometimes to have to be constantly redoing my nails so that I don’t break one while on the clock. What had me stopping was the fact that I have a huge nail polish collection that I’ve probably sunk more money than I should have into over the years. That, and the saddening fact that gel manicures are not the cheapest, and as a fairly broke college student, the last thing I wanted was to be hooked.

However, recently, I was broken down and convinced to get a gel manicure.

The girls went and got our nails done a few days before my parent’s 25th anniversary vow renewal ceremony. If I was careful, my manicure probably would have lasted until the ceremony, especially since I had just come home for the summer the day before and wasn’t on the schedule at work yet. However, the next morning marked the start of cupcake baking. My parents had a sweet treat reception and I had signed myself up to bake almost five hundred mini cupcakes. A day spent doing that was not ideal right after a manicure. Since I simply did not have the time to repaint them before the actual ceremony, and I just couldn’t be scene with chipped nail polish, I gave in and got gel.

My first gel manicure was a bit of a bad experience. The guy was young, and though he had his license and everything, I feel like he wasn’t the most experienced. Because I wanted a design on my nail, I was moved away from his station (and his curing LED light) to another nearer the paint. So my top coat ended up being cured under another person’s lamp which was a different model than his. After he rubbed my nails with the isopropyl alcohol (which is the stuff that’s supposed to take off the sticky residue and then you’re nails are hard and good to go), I sat there for a bit. When I finally had the courage to touch my nails, they were still a bit sticky. Having not had gel polish before, I had to consult my mother, but I was pretty sure they were not supposed to still feel like that.

Turns out he left the fan on while my nails were curing under the light, and that’s a no no. So they redid my top coat, cured it under his lamp, and sent me on my way. But I don’t think it was completely right since my manicure chipped two days later. Luckily it was only a bit at the tip, and since the polish was light, you couldn’t tell unless you looked real hard, so I was fine for the reception. But it chipped majorly when I returned to work a few days after that, and pretty soon I was breaking nails. I ended up scraping all the nail polish off later that week, which of course damaged my nails since I didn’t have 100% acetone to soak them in for easy renewal.

Needless to say, I was kind of ready to throw my hands up and moan “I don’t see what the big deal with gel polish is. I must just be too hard on my nails even for that to last.” But then about two weeks ago my mother randomly asked if I wanted to go get my nails done with her since she needed her gels redone and she had taken my sister with her so many times, it was my turn. And she told me to go ahead and try gels again. That I’d still be home to get the polish removed, or that we could just head up to Sally’s Beauty and get some acetone to do it ourselves. Apparently that’s what her friend does, and she has no trouble.

Like a fool, I said yes. And if the title of this post hadn’t already given away the ending… Having been done properly, this gel manicure is my favorite thing ever. The polish stays shiny and chip free for way longer than regular nail polish. Even better, my nails feel gloriously strong. It’s amazing. There’s one down fall though. Now I’m not sure how I’ll ever want to live without this. I know I definitely don’t want to. I need gel polish in my life.

However, there was no way I was going to afford being able to get a manicure every three weeks like my mother. She has that thing called a full time, nice paying, job. The next best, way cheaper in the long run, thing was to do some research on home gel polish kits. The salon we go to uses everything OPI, but in all the blogs and reviews I’ve read, I’ve heard the most positive things about the Gelish brand, and surprising a lot about Sally Hansen’s line as well. And while the soak-off gel polishes don’t seem too horribly expensive (especially when you factor in the fact that you’re not having to do your nails every other day like with regular polish), the start up kit is a bit on the pricey side. Especially if you want to get a nice, bigger LED lamp than the ones that come with the at home kits. Those are at least a hundred bucks there. The real deciding factor though that swayed me was knowing that I didn’t have to completely give up the nail polish collection that I already have. I read in some blogs that people used the base and top gel coat, while just using regular nail polish in between for color, and have had some positive results. Of course it didn’t last as long as the full gel manicure, but they say it about doubled the wear time of their normal polish.

So while I really really really want to just go out and buy a bunch of stuff to do an at home gel manicure, I shouldn’t drop that kind of money willy nilly. Not with my birthday in a few months. That’s the time to use the money that parents and relatives give you to buy frivolous things you want but don’t need. So if you’re interested in how the whole dyi gel manicure thing goes in my case, stick around until the end of August. I promise I’ll try my hardest to update this blog with my findings.