Get a Long Lasting Gel Manicure at Home - Without a Light!
Wearing nail polish makes me feel very pulled together. Like, obviously I have my whole life together HAVE YOU SEEN THESE NAILS? But then you have to deal with chipping, and grow out, and there’s nothing that screams, “It’s ALL gone to hell” like a super chipped manicure.
How do I (we, them, the human race) reconcile these two conflicted yet inextricably linked concepts? Every manicure will fade, and then our polished (pun intended) image is immediately transformed into that of someone who is barely keeping their head above water. Who among us can redo their manicure the second it looks subpar? (If you are one of these unnatural beings, we don’t want to hear it. I’m speaking for everyone.)
The answer is gel manicures, duh. A gel manicure at a salon can last you two weeks with no signs of wear, but you have to stick your fingertips under a UV light to get it. In case you didn’t put this together, you’re putting your fingers into a finger-sized tanning bed. That’s right - the same setup that we all know causes premature aging and skin cancer. I bet salon gel manis are amazing, but i’m not about to get cancer from something I could have easily avoided.
So what’s the solution? Is there a way to trick the outside world into thinking you’re a HBIC with a smokin’ manicure while still avoiding premature death? Yes. It’s Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Nail Polish.
Sally Hansen also sells a gel nail polish that you cure under a UV light, but they also make Miracle Gel, which doesn’t use a light and still delivers gel manicure staying power. It’s a two-step process, wherein you apply your chosen color (sans base coat), wait five minutes, then apply a special top coat.
Street Flair, Greyfitti, and Slate-R Girl
I bought my first bottle of Miracle Gel at Ulta during a sale, but I loved it so much I’ve since bought more. I haven’t wanted to use any other nail polish in weeks since I’ve discovered Miracle Gel. I am real rough on my hands, and it isn’t shocking when I chip my nail polish after only a day or two. Now that I’ve been using Miracle Gel, my at-home manicures last over a week with no chipping. Imagine if someone who didn’t use their nails to open packages or scrape toothpaste off the side of the sink wore this polish. It could last three weeks!
You know how people take photos of nail polish and it’s the most perfect manicure that was clearly just applied (and possibly by a professional)? Well HERE is a photo of my nails 5 days after application. The day after I did my nails I did a bunch of stuff around my house - assembling furniture, hanging pictures, running errands… and this is four days after all that.
There’s some wear on my middle finger, but that’s because I can’t file my nails evenly, and because I hit that finger against a table while it was still wet and instead of doing it over, I just added topcoat till it was smooth. EVEN THEN, it looks pretty great considering all the things I’ve done.
Each bottle of nail polish and top coat is $10 (I’ve found it’s just under $8 at Target, FYI) and you remove it with regular nail polish remover. It’s so easy, it’s cheaper than going to a salon, and you won’t get fingertip cancer. (Sally Hansen is 3-free, but now there’s talk about 7= and 9-free and I just don’t care as much about that as I do say, UV lights. But if you research that and find out, let me know!)
