£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

On_a_Shoestring

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Not really MS related (although sort of).... I used a gift voucher on Friday for a manicure (got it for Christmas, haven't had a moment to go), and went for gel nails rather than normal polish. Well, I am really impressed. OK, it's only been 3 days, but they still look like new, whereas with normal polish, even with careful base coat/colour/top coat/quick dry coat they would be well chipped by now and need removing. I am contemplating splashing out £50 or so on a gel nail kit to do it myself, as I could never afford to keep getting them done at the salon (£20 a pop), but I waste an inordinate amount of time painting my nails for work. It might be another good place to channel some of the 'money for looking professional' fund as it grows.

Try looking on ebay! Once you have a lamp you can basically use any of the nail polishes on ebay. I don't recommend the Sensationail set. The lamp is too small to do your whole hand at once and the polishes are bad quality and peel off after a few days. It does also take quite a white to do gel nails since you have to do multiple coats and let them cure which takes aaaaaaaaaaaages, way longer than usual nail polish in my experience.

Treadingonplaymobil

On_a_Shoestring wrote: »

Try looking on ebay! Once you have a lamp you can basically use any of the nail polishes on ebay. I don't recommend the Sensationail set. The lamp is too small to do your whole hand at once and the polishes are bad quality and peel off after a few days. It does also take quite a white to do gel nails since you have to do multiple coats and let them cure which takes aaaaaaaaaaaages, way longer than usual nail polish in my experience.

Good to know about the sensationail kit, thanks! I was looking at that one, but will hunt around for a better option. It was slower having the gels done, but for periods when i have a dozen clients over the space of a fortnight, it could save me a lot of repainting!

GeorgianaCavendish

I got addicted to gels when I first discovered them but after about 6 months my nails were wrecked and flaking off (v attractive). I've found an amazing top coat : Seche Vite Professional Top Coat , it creates that gel-like glossy, hard finish but can be used over your regular nail polishes and removed way easier than gels. Usually, if I get a "normal" manicure without this topcoat, I am guaranteed to chip my nails within 24 hours, the last time I used it I managed to get a whole week's worth of wear from it.

Treadingonplaymobil

GeorgianaCavendish wrote: »

I got addicted to gels when I first discovered them but after about 6 months my nails were wrecked and flaking off (v attractive). I've found an amazing top coat : Seche Vite Professional Top Coat , it creates that gel-like glossy, hard finish but can be used over your regular nail polishes and removed way easier than gels. Usually, if I get a "normal" manicure without this topcoat, I am guaranteed to chip my nails within 24 hours, the last time I used it I managed to get a whole week's worth of wear from it.

I use seche vite. It ups my manicure survival from 24 to 48 hours! :eek:

GeorgianaCavendish

And I though I was hard on my nails

Sea_Shell

Try the Clavuz starter kit from Amazon, about £25 and comes with everything you need inc 5 colours. Ive had it since christmas, and saved myself a fortune!

my current gel manicure is at 20 days and counting...still shiny and no chips! Just growing out!!

Also, it depends how ambidextrous you are!

Treadingonplaymobil

Sea_Shell wrote: »

Try the Clavuz starter kit from Amazon, about £25 and comes with everything you need inc 5 colours. Ive had it since christmas, and saved myself a fortune!

my current gel manicure is at 20 days and counting...still shiny and no chips! Just growing out!!

Also, it depends how ambidextrous you are!

I'll take a look, thank you! There is sooooo much info online, I'm feeling more confused than when I started.

Lumanous

Interested to see what experience others have had with lamps. I bought my own, NailStar lamp from Amazon, as recommended to me but it broke after about 6/7 uses (whilst leaving me with half my toes painted!) Company was useless did not help so stuck with a broken lamp, 8 bulbs and a bunch of gels I can't use

Will hopefully get a new lamp at some point but I don't want to end up with a quickly broken one again be interested to hear how you get on! It was great for the time I had it...& so much time saved for work nails

Sea_Shell

I've had no problems with the lamp that came with the Clavuz kit. It takes 2 mins per coat (so not the quickest), but you can fit your whole hand in. (it is quite a bulky lamp though)

I've pretty much done my nails every 2-3 weeks since i got it.

Got a bargain this week on some sparkly Purple polish too, Just £2.50 inc free delivery. Oooh, can't wait to try that next.

ChicaBonita

I'm a lurker lol

But to add to this convo, I got a sensationail kit for Christmas. I really like my lamp and the polishes, they lasted 2 weeks on me, no chipping and stayed shiny. I don't mind it only fitting 4 fingers in at once, as the thumb doesn't cure properly if you try to stick it in with the rest of the fingers (only one side is exposed to the light for example). I've had my lamp for 5 months now, use it at least once every two weeks (for mine and my mum's fingernails and toenails) and it's still going strong. Also as it's LED it cures the colours a lot quicker than a UV light (30 seconds for each coat). It takes me about 15/20 mins to do a full manicure using gel. As long as you remove them correctly you should not have any issues with weakening nails, although I do give my nails a break and use a traditional nail polish once a month.

The majority of polishes I use are Bluesky, which I buy through eb@y (I can send a link if anyone wants to try). They copy the colours from the major gel polish companies, but they are only £6.50 a bottle and the shop I use does deals also. They have thousands of colours, and there are plenty of swatches online so you can get a good idea of what they will look like (unlike sensationail, whoes colour swatches on the site and bottles are notorious for being a poor representation)

Just my two cents