My First Shellac Manicure

I have never been one to keep up my manicures and my nails usually look destroyed. I've tried biotin and multivitamins, but I work a lot with my hands and always break or chip my nails. I work retail and while the clothes are soft, dressing the mannequins or styling the display jeans always runs my nail ragged.

This was supposed to be a before pic when I started biotin, except in 3 months they didn't look any better

I'm also addicted to glitter polish which doesn't help. I have a tendency to wear it just on my days off and remove it within 24 hours. Back when I worked in an office I wore acrylic nails, but my current job has a strict policy on styling and doesn't allow any fake nails.

Gel polish seemed like a good middle ground for longer and stronger nails. I took it to google to do some research and found some good guides on PrettyShinySparkly and About. One of my supervisors also wears gel polish and I loved how shiny her nails looked. I was hooked. After reading up on the different polishes, I decided that I would go with Shellac.

 

Directly before my manicure!

As you can tell from the before picture, I've neglected my nails. With work, moving and packing I just didn't have the time to keep them trimmed or filed. My cuticles seriously needed some attention since it had been almost a year since my last actual manicure. When you can't wear nail polish at work, you kind of just let things slip. . . a lot.

I went to Nail It Salon on Cass Street after reading the good reviews on Yelp. And they did a great job. It was $25 for the Shellac Manicure. The manicurist filed my nails, pushed back my cuticles and in preparation and then applied a base coat, two layers of color and a top coat. Each layer was cured under a UV light.  I was amazed that my nails were dry as soon as they came out from under the light. She said they would stay that shiny and chip free for the full two weeks. 

After with base coat, top coat and two coats of shellac polish

Its been 4 days since I had my nails done and they still look great! They even survived moving a mattress and bed frame from the basement to the second floor. I have noticed a little bit of regrowth at the cuticle but they are still just as shiny and chip free as the second I walked out of the salon.

Still looking good!

I really like that they haven't chipped or peeled! Normally I'm always breaking my nails. I think I'm a convert. Now if I can only make it to the salon every 2 weeks for the upkeep. . .