At home Shellac manicure

So, let me just say, this is my first non-baby related blog post. I'm enjoying this blogging thing and am going to try venturing out more.

I was so excited to find this DIY shellac manicure on Pinterest. I used to get my nails done all the time, but I preferred gels over shellac. We've been trying to cut back unnecessary expenses with a baby coming and wanted to focus on decorating the house before she gets here. Regular manis and pedis are one of the things I decided I could live without. I've seen a few tutorials on Pinterest for DIY gel and shellac manicures. The gels require the heat light and I'm just not sure I want to get into that. I came across this (http://keepingupwithkatiek.tumblr.com/post/35883558671/being-the-girl-that-i-am-i-decided-to-spend-my) tutorial for shellac. I got all of the supplies (even the same brand polish) but I have to say I was highly disappointed.

Here is what I used as recommended by the tutorial:

1. Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps Powerful Acrylic Gel
2. Nail polish of choice
3. Sally Hansen No Chip Acrylic Top Coat

The first time I did I used the essie polish. Awful, just awful. The second time I tried it I used the OPI polish. It lasted a day longer than the essie for a grand total of 2 days.

I trimmed, filed, shaped, buffed my nails each time.  Washed them and made sure they were dry.  I used one coat of the Hard as Wraps gel, two coats of polish, and one coat of the acrylic top coat as recommended by the tutorial and each bottle. 

I have to admit that I don't think the essie polish is to blame on the first trial. I started a little later than I should've and kind of rushed through it so maybe each layer didn't have time have time to dry well enough. But with the OPI polish I took my time and gave adequate time for each layer to dry.  I didn't take pictures of the essie polish, but here are the results with OPI.

The finished project after everything was dry. Sorry it's dark but you can tell everything is smooth, shiny and they felt hard like they would after gels. This was Thursday night.

Fast forward to.. Saturday night (48 hours!!)...

Some of the nails still look great, but most of them are already chipping at the tips.  Worse than that is that they are cracking. It's hard to tell with this color, but you can see it best on the thumb in the bottom picture. Every nail has "lines" going across it.  The purple did that after just a few hours. And now the polish is easily peeling off in large pieces. I think it's the top coat that is cracking, so maybe just a regular top coat would be better. The most I do with my hands is write and type so I'm not putting them through a lot. 



Overall I was pretty disappointed with this combination of nail products.  It would be fine if you needed it for a special occassion or a limited amount of time, but I was really hoping to find something that lasted closer to a week and would hold up through normal wear and tear.