Thursday 10 January 2013

Gel Nails

I'm a huge fan of doing my nails and if you know me in person you would know this for sure! Recently, my best friend gave me a UV lamp for gel nails for my birthday! You can't even imagine how happy I was, it was by far one of the best presents I have ever received! So far I've only painted my nails with it a couple of times, here in 'Chestnuts Roasting' from Quo by Orly and in my previous post you can see that my nails are painted in 'Shine On' from the same brand. For this post I'd like to list all of the pros and cons for gel nails, and I ask that you remember that this is my personal opinion from my own experience and naturally yours may be different.
 
Pros:
1. Durability- the most obvious benefit of all; gel nails last up to 2 weeks, unlike regular nail polishes which chip after a few days

2. Thickness- I find it very nice that my normally thin nails become thicker, and such thick polish covers up any defects on the nails that you may have, leaving them perfect.

3. Scentless- this seems a bit strange, but some regular nail polishes don't smell very nice, but these ones don't have any scents.

4. Texture- I find it that once the polish is cured the nails look salon-perfect!

5. Hassle- this goes back to the durability topic in a way, but once you finish your mani, there's absolutely nothing else to do (such as having to sit still for 1/2h in fear of smudging the almost dry nails) and you can go about with your daily businesses straight away!
 
Cons:
1. Difficulty- the first time is the hardest, and you must do you nails with a lot more care than with regular nail polish because it's harder to go back and fix something.
 
2. A certain chemicle, butylated hydroxyanisol (BHA), that is found in some gel polishes, is considered potentially harmful.
 
 
As you can probably tell, for me gel nails are the winner! I love them so much! I hope I'll learn to do gel French manis soon!
Some of my current favorites by OPI: "Golden Eye", "Deutsch You Want Me Baby" and "Cajun Shrimp"
What are your thoughts on gel nails? I'd love to hear your opinions in the comments!