I'm going to be honest - I am not a nail salon kind of girl. With a passion for polish like mine you'd think that I would love those havens of hand massages and racks of color, but alas, no. Instead of being a treat, I tend to associate those places with strangely shaped nails and gooey polish and I rely on my own at-home manicures which I think are very nice, thankyouverymuch. Also, I like to humor myself and think that I am saving myself money by staying out of the salon, which then means I can buy more polish. It's a viscous cycle.
So anyway, enter the CND Shellac. I couldn't do it myself, so I found myself in a shwanky salon with incredibly comfortable chairs and lovely workers that kept offering me water. You know how it works, so I'll just show you the fairly awful photo that I took a few days after my manicure. Here's my CND Fedora manicure -
I know, bad photo, right? Right after I received my manicure, I left for an artist residency and proceeded to beat the hell out of it for a week and only stopped to take a photo after several days of work, so I apologize for the crapola image. Here are my thoughts on the Shellac in no particular order:
- I got a hell of an awesome manicure, I have to admit. I don't know if it was because the manicurist had to be trained to a certain degree in order to be able to do my mani or what, but it was killer. Nice job, Mandy!
- The color selection was totally limited - I know, old news. Here's the thing, though - CND is all about claiming that you can layer colors to make bold and bright versions, right? Yeah, not so much. When I popped this idea on Mandy, she made me a little sample of the colors I wanted (Fedora with a coat of Tutti Frutti in order to get a shocking blue) and what came out was a color that looked like brown with a coat of pink on it. I ended up just opting for Fedora.
- The wear was pretty darn good, because I was not being coy when I said I beat the hell out of it. We're talking hands-in-water-for-hours followed by lots of picking at stickers and occasional power tools. HELL.
- shiny, shiny shiny! This polish retained its shiny quality until the moment I took it off.
Speaking of taking it off, I'll be honest - I peeled it off. And I enjoyed it. My nails may not have enjoyed it, but I did.
In conclusion - good manicure, shiny, expensive, didn't wear as long as I would have liked it to. I'll pass on the Shellac for now and opt for stickers until I desperately need a manicure AND they come out with more colors. The end.
Happy day, all!
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16 comments:
I love this color, great manicure!
I thought those were supposed to wear better than that too. You even have a chip on your middle finger in the photo, and this was only a few days later? I think I'll stick to polishing my own nails.
I wonder how it would hold up to toddler car seats?
Honestly, just yesterday I was looking up CND online; thanks for the timely post. And thanks for calming my thoughts of trying it in a salon. I'll pass for now. A salon does too neat of a job anyway - I always spend the day after a fresh mani picking away my sloppiness. Most days it's a much needed diversion from work. ;)
im the same with avoiding salons haha.
but i do get my toes done because i absolutely despise feet LOL. not that i'm much happier having someone else touch mine.
- kathy ♥
awesome, i have a beauty that is working with that near my house, thx for this post, ill go there and ask about it
Thanks for all of the great comments, ladies!
@Donna - yes, it was only a few days later, but I really did give a beating to those nails. When CND comes out with new colors I think I might give it a go again and see how it holds up to normal wear.
Beautiful manicure. So darn shiny! I've only had about 3 professional manicures in my life. I'd rather do it myself. It is nice to have the massage.
I went to a salon for the same reason, for the first time in years. I "tried" it out for a week long Thanksgiving vacation & it wore pretty well. That was a test run for moving last month. We moved from Delaware to California & I didn't want to have to pain my nails the entire time. My shellacking lasted 2 weeks with massive grow-out at the bottoms of my nails. Drove me batty by the end when I had to soak it off like they say. Maybe another tech would prep your nails better & it would last longer? love your color choice, though.
CND are bringing out a whole new range of colours shortly I think: http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2011/02/new-cnd-shellac-colors-choose.html
I so want to get my nails done with Shellac but I keep snapping them!
Dear me in for Rock Royalty, Lucy! From the image I saw at the salon, it looked way more blue than that, but either way, she's my color. Hellllloooooo, sassy shellac.
You know what, after closer inspection, I'm a little disappointed with those colors! Come on, CND, give us some flash!
it does look SHINY! its beautiful :)
I can't believe how shiny it looks!! I've really been wanting to try Shellac, but no one in my area does it! :(
I've been wanting to try it too, just because I'm curious.... think I'll pass for now. Thanks for the review.
I love it when people will admit to the joy of peeling off nail polish in big ol' strips. Something very satisfying about that!
I get the Gelish brand of shellac....they have a ton of colors. I got my first set done at the salon, and being industrious, I invested in the stuff to do it at home. If you can paint your nails, you can do this! It cost me $70 to get started, but that's less than 2 salon visits here in Mississippi. I got all my stuff on Amazon, and I even opted to try the UV light that is only $26 (Uspicy brand)..so far, so good! I just watched some youtube tutorial videos, and it's not hard at all!
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