I spotted the Sally Hansen Gel Starter Kit at the drugstore while running errands, and since I’d been curious about DIY gel nails for awhile, I decided to give it a try! The kit includes the UV lamp, basecoat, topcoat, gel polish, nail cleaning wipes, and polish remover. My kit came with the color “Shell We Dance”.
I also found this gorgeous set of 6 neutral gel polishes on Amazon for only $25 with the coupon, which is such a steal! These are beautiful quality (better than the Sally Hansen gel IMO). The colors are true to the photos on Amazon, and the polish goes on perfectly smooth and opaque.
I love how my nails turned out! They’re super shiny and you don’t have to worry about bubbles, smudges, or dents. Plus, once they’re done curing you can just go on with your life and not be overly careful with your nails! I always find it so hard to let regular polish dry since I’m constantly using my hands. I will say that my nails don’t last the promised 1-2 weeks; more like 5 or 6 days for me. But, I do use my hands a lot and it’s still a vast improvement over regular polish, which usually chips after 2 days for me.
The light pink color that came with my kit is quite pretty, but too sheer for my taste. I ended up needing 4 coats to get it mostly opaque. The Meet Across set from Amazon however is beautifully creamy and opaque in 2 coats, although I still do 3 because my nails are so thin.
Removal was super easy. While all these polishes are soak-off, I was able to just peel mine off after they started lifting at the edge. I actually find it so satisfying haha!
Another happy result was that my nails grew so much! I’ve got very thin nails that are always breaking, so the gel polish actually protected them. My nails have never stayed this long or even!
Make sure your nails are completely clean and free of any oils/creams
Always paint the edge of your nails (with regular polish too)! This will make a huge difference in the longevity of your manicure.
Be very careful to not get the gel polish on your skin or pooling around your cuticles. This is so important! Any polish touching your skin will create an opportunity for it to lift and detach from your nail.
You’ll notice the basecoat and color still feels tacky even after curing for 30-60 seconds; this is normal, and doesn’t mean you need to cure longer. Once you add topcoat and wipe the residue off, they’ll be totally dry!
Overall I’m quite impressed! While the polish doesn’t last as long as a professional gel mani, (and perhaps it will as I get better at doing it), it does much better than regular polish. It’s quite easy to do too, and only takes me a bit longer than regular polish does. The lamp also has a built in 30 second timer, so you don’t have to worry about timing it yourself. I have a tutorial saved to my Instagram highlights too, if you’d like to see!
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