The New Generation of Gel Nails

Painting my own nails has always incurred the same routine.

1)      Apply a base coat.

2)      Apply the colour varnish.

3)      Spend hours sat absolutely still – any movement may chip the darn things.

4)      Find there is only so much admiring of your pretty nail colour that you can do, and only so many 'Friends' episodes, before you feel the urge to do something, or worse, need to go to the toilet.

5)      Do the inevitable – do something, and ruin one of your finger nails.

6)      Murmer, ‘oh fuck’. Try to remove the varnish from the ruined nail. Get cotton wool stuck to your still slightly wet nails that seemed dry, but were deceiving you.

7)      Take the nail varnish off of all of your nails because you just don’t have the patience or time to do this.

Having painted my nails for years and endured the above, or founded that they chipped after two days – regardless of brand! – I have gone over to the dark, more expensive side of the nail world. 

Paying to have shellac or gelish done – both of which are exactly the same, just different brands - has ranged in my experience from £10 - £35.

£35 may sound a lot. But to have your nails filed, buffed, soaked, and moisturised with a cheeky hand massage thrown in, is actually quite a good deal.

Not to mention, your nail colour survives for up to two weeks – so basically, my nail prayers have been answered. Who knew that sealing a gel compound with a UV light could be so beautiful!

Half of my collection... :-/

As you can imagine, since this revelation, my own nail varnish collection has sat dormant on a shelf in my room, gathering dust. Will regular nail varnish become ‘extinct’, so to speak, now that gel nails are gathering loyal customers? 

Perhaps not, as for those of you that have so cleverly trained yourself to sleep absolutely still with your wet nail’s hanging over the covers, homemade nails are generally successful.

But for the modern woman, with no time for leisure as 'time is money'; shellac really is a God-send.