Happy Friday! I hope everyone is doing well.  I was not feeling really great yesterday and spent the bulk of the day in bed.  Maybe I’m coming down with something but I really hope that I am not.

Gel nail polishes like Shellac have been around for about 2 years now.  I remember the first time I heard of Shellac was when I went to Disneyworld in Aug 2010 with Loren and Kate. Loren got a mani and pedi right before we went away in a really bright pink colour.  However it was a disastrous manicure that didn’t last even one week.  When I went on my honeymoon last year I got Axxium done on my hands and I think it lasted for about 8 or 9 days before I got my first chip.  And while I like to change my nail polish often I wanted to see if getting an at home soak-off gel system was right for me.

So about 1 month ago I decided to purchased a CND Shellac light from a local beauty supply store.  I purchased the light with the UV base and top coat along with one colour,  Hotski to Tchotchke.  I have experimented with using other non-UV polishes to see how they work but I wanted to share how it looked by using an actual Shellac colour.  Please note that I am not a trained nail tech.  I have not had any formal training on how to apply this and I am only going based on what I have seen in videos.

I’m not the familiar with CND as a polish brand so I was not sure what colours I should look to.  There are also not a lot of swatches online so it makes it hard to do any pre-shopping research.  So I’m helping the cause.

2 coats of CND Shellac – Hotski to Tchotchke

I liked the colour but even with 2 coats there was a VNL.  I think I should have gone with 3 coats to get a more solid colour.  I took it off before the 2 weeks were up but it stayed on really well and it felt dry right after I finished applying it.

Have you ever had a manicure with soak off gels? What did you think?

Lauren