Tell me about gel nails, shellac etc. What's good and bad about them?

[quimcunx]

I have about 6 weeks in the summer where my nails are kind of ok and the rest of the time they are fairly rubbish. They break easily etc. I only really like polish when nail tips are longer than my fingers but they hardly ever are. So what do the various nail treatments do and which is best and other related questions. Is there anything that doesn't harm the nail underneath?

 

[wtfftw]

I'm considering Sally Hansen gel stuff.

http://imabeautygeek.com/2014/07/04/sally-hansen-miracle-gel-review-swatches/

 

[Santino]

mrsfran

 

[Thora]

I've had gel nails done a couple of times recently. They have stayed perfect for two weeks each time and that's without looking after them particularly. And of course your nails grow really well under them.

 

[sleaterkinney]

The_Reverend_M

 

[quimcunx]

I've had gel nails done a couple of times recently. They have stayed perfect for two weeks each time and that's without looking after them particularly. And of course your nails grow really well under them.

So it is a special varnish or can you change the varnish if you want? How much does it cost compared to a normal manicure? Is it the stuff they need the blue lights for? Do you have to go back to have it taken off? And if you take it off you can just put normal varnish on your nails again until they grow crap again, rinse and repeat? I don't really want to be spending £30 every two weeks.

 

[Thora]

So it is a special varnish or can you change the varnish if you want? How much does it cost compared to a normal manicure? Is it the stuff they need the blue lights for? Do you have to go back to have it taken off? And if you take it off you can just put normal varnish on your nails again until they grow crap again, rinse and repeat? I don't really want to be spending £30 every two weeks.

It costs about £15. To remove it she soaks little cotton wipes in acetone, puts it on the nail, wraps your finger tip in tin foil and leaves it for 5 minutes, so no reason not to do it yourself. It's set with a UV light.

 

[ShiftyBagLady]

I saw a topcoat which claims to make any nail varnish as good as gel nails. Can't remember the brand though, sorry.
I use may willing 7day Polish and it does last well, maybe three or four days before it chips. I usually just add another coat or two when it does

 

[Thora]

I think these are into their third week now and do have a couple of chips on my thumb nails. The nail growth is also really visible.

 

[quimcunx]

I saw a topcoat which claims to make any nail varnish as good as gel nails. Can't remember the brand though, sorry.
I use may willing 7day Polish and it does last well, maybe three or four days before it chips. I usually just add another coat or two when it does

Sally hansen instadry maybe. Manter reocommended it on here and I got it and it does seem to work pretty well. Normally when I do varnish myself I've fucked it up within half an hour. the second or third time I used it I still managed to mess it up straight away.

 

[quimcunx]

I think these are into their third week now and do have a couple of chips on my thumb nails. The nail growth is also really visible.
View attachment 80519 View attachment 80520

Yeah, varnish on my toes can last up to 3-4 weeks but the nail growth becomes annoyingly visible in the 3rd week.

 

[quimcunx]

So, will no one speak up for shellac or other treatments?

 

[moonsi til]

Shellac & Gel nails are I believe the same thing. I usually pay about £18 for Shellac manicure which gives a full manicure & nails painted. They are great but recently I have & had 7-10 days wear beforen they started to chip etc. I had some last month and the varnish on my middle finger came off in one piece after a week which my beauty lady re-did for me. It costs me £5 to have removed but you can buy stuff to do this yourself. Usually after removal my nails feel quite dry but nothing that hand & nail cream doesn't sort.

I reckon if you want painted nails all the time it would be 2 manicures per month. I had it once as a pedicure and this lasted ages IIRC it was 6 + weeks.

 

[quimcunx]

I guess you can't lengthen the nail with either of them though? I suppose the hope is that they will have protected my nails from breaking and so I can keep them a bit longer along the line.

 

[moonsi til]

Yes IME they do mostly prevent from breaking as they become very hard. I say mostly as I had a break with one but generally my nails grow and stay when I have them. I'm very prone to breaking so bought somw No7 nail stuff with their voucher the other week. Then my nail split and was rather painful , I decided to take off and it was a bugger getting the now well as hard as nails off.

 

[spanglechick]

shellac is the same thing as gel colour/polish (there are other brand names too).

unhelpfully, "gel nails" are something different - an overlay / extension essentially made out of hard plastic which is formed and shaped onto your natural nail, and then painted with either regular or gel polish.

It's a moderately more expensive variant of acrylic nails, which I have.



The difference breaks dow thus:

regular nail varnish - cheap, easy to remove, chips easily
gel colour - done in a nail bar, needs soaking off/acetone wraps, should last about a fortnight - three weeks. Doesn't stop your nails breaking.
acrylic/gel nails - done in a nail bar, need serious soaking off, but can be 'infilled' instead, lasts three weeks (more if your nails grow slowly), nails pretty much cannot break or chip.

 

[quimcunx]

So do the gel nail extensions treat your nails better than acrylic ones? My impression (mostly garnered from one woman I worked with who used to do her own nail extensions many years ago and they were always a mess underneath) is that once you start with nail extensions your nails suffer (probably just from being covered up) so you end up 'addicted' to the extensions?

 

[spanglechick]

So do the gel nail extensions treat your nails better than acrylic ones? My impression (mostly garnered from one woman I worked with who used to do her own nail extensions many years ago and they were always a mess underneath) is that once you start with nail extensions your nails suffer (probably just from being covered up) so you end up 'addicted' to the extensions?

gel and acrylic do the same harm to your nails, afaik. It's something you probably wouldn't do as a one off, tbh - they're pretty much designed for people who want them as an ongoing thing.

I've no idea what my nails are like underneath - except from seeing the underside of them as they grow up beyond the tip. From that perspective they seem fine. to make overlays/extensions (and gel colour, iirc) adhere to your nail, they file the surface to create a "key", which clearly is a kind of damage. The other potential damage is from them going fungal underneath - which wouldn't happen with gel colour, because you remove it every time, rather than have them infilled. Not everyone will get manky nails - to try and avoid it you want to get them done regularly, and avoid submerging your hands as far as possible (so, bad for swimmers or anyone who does a lot of washing up).

 

[quimcunx]

hmm. Maybe I'll start with the gel/shellac polish and see how I go. Thanks everyone.

 

[mango5]

I have very weak nails and find OPI nail envy is a decent treatment. Used as a base coat under regular (good quality) colour and with a decent top coat there's minimal chipping, peeling and breaking. Another layer of colour and top coat after 4 or 5 days helps too (though not best practice). Decades ago I had fibreglass nails that needed infill every three weeks or so. Great looking but the nails underneath were badly treated by the processes.

 

[spanglechick]

what i'd say is that my acrylics are clearly a cost (£20 for infills in sydenham) - and actually, getting round to going is also a cost... but that for someone who likes the idea of looking glam, but who doesn't have the kind of job or personality that sustains unbroken, unchipped, well-maintained nails - i'm very fond of them.



I used to have them done about 11 years ago, and the nail bar i went to then was really brutal to my natural nails - they are less so now, tho i don't know if that is standard.

 

[Shirl]

I've been having gel nails done for over a year now. The nail technician puts about 5 coats of clear and coloured polish (gel) on my own nails.
My nails have never broken or chipped while they have had gel on them and I think gel nails are the best thing ever.
£25 a time which isn't bad for good nails all year round. Also it takes an hour to take off the old gel and put on the new so the price seems reasonable to me.

 

[Ms T]

I have had shellac or gel nail polish, and gel tips (false). I hated the tips and had them removed after a few weeks. The shellac didn't last that long on me because I am rubbish with nail varnish. My experience is all of these things will eventually wreck your natural nails underneath.

 

[CharlyCoin]

I’ve never had gel nails, but my best friend… her nails are very weak and they break rather easily and she was desperate about them (because she loves polishing but due to the polish and the remover, her nail became worse) after several treatments, she decided to get gel nails. I don’t know exactly how much she paid, but it wasn’t that much. They looked pretty nice and she had to refresh them only once a month, but her real nails were still a mess (they got even worse due to the gel nails)

 

[Shirl]

My nails have definitely not suffered for having gel on. When the gel comes off my nails are quite soft underneath so I expect they would break easily but nails grow quite quickly and so there's always new healthy nail growing anyway.

 

[Shirl]

Christmas gaudy gels
Sorry about the size of the pic.

 

[quimcunx]

I think these are into their third week now and do have a couple of chips on my thumb nails. The nail growth is also really visible.
View attachment 80519 View attachment 80520

I seemed to have that much growth after one week.

 

[quimcunx]

Thanks for your advice people. I got a shellac manicure on the Sunday before Christmas. Firstly what I wasn't very happy with was the coverage which was patchy, although only noticeable to me. This, of course, isn't the fault of the polish but the person applying it. Other than that I was pleased with it. It made my nails feel thicker and stronger. After a week with plenty of challenging behaviour one did chip, luckily on the day I was coming home and intending on taking it off anyway. Taking it off did leave my nails a bit dry and feeling weaker, not unsurprisingly after feeling stronger than usual. However none had broken so they are all quite a nice, fairly uniform length and I put on some normal varnish with good results.

What I did find odd about them is if I pressed a nail to the varnish it kind of felt soft and 'giving' as if it hadn't quite dried and as if I could leave a nail mark in it but there never was a mark.

4 out of 5.

 

[quimcunx]

I have had shellac or gel nail polish, and gel tips (false). I hated the tips and had them removed after a few weeks. The shellac didn't last that long on me because I am rubbish with nail varnish. My experience is all of these things will eventually wreck your natural nails underneath.

I agree that they don't actually do your nails much good but on the other hand if your nails are rubbish anyway then there is not much to lose. That said I am hoping not to get it done very often, just once in a while to allow my nails to grow uniform underneath instead of always having a mish mash of lengths and broken off angles like I usually do, or having to cut them shorter than I like them for the sake of evenness and uniformity like I usually don't bother doing.

 

[muvva]

I received a Sensationail gel polish kit for Christmas so I can do it myself. It's great and has lasted 9 days so far with 1 small chip. I.hope to get another week from them before changing.