I have been wanting to try out gel nails for a while. The
reason being normal nail polish never lasts very long on me and it would be
nice to go somewhere and not have to worry about my nail polish chipping after
spending ages on the perfect design. After a bit of googling, I settled on
getting the SensatioNail gel polish starter kit, because it had decent reviews
and I had a Priceline gift voucher to use.
I read a lot of reviews before settling on the SensatioNail
system and it seems only fair I provide my own review in turn. A while ago I
went to Queensland for 8 days and instead of taking nail polish with me and
redoing my nails like 20 times, I took a SensatioNail gel mani with me to see
how it stood up to the rigors of holidaying.
So here is my (kind of long overdue) 10 day, SensatioNail
polish review! Be warned, it is quite word heavy < Basically it’s actually a diary.
Day 1/Night I did
them:
First up, I was kind of under the assumption that gel nails
were going to be a lot quicker to do than normal nail polish because of the
simple fact that you have no dry time. Well this is very much a lie. You still
have a dry time, this time is just that instead of air drying, you use a LED
lamp to chemically harden the polish. When using a colour this means a minute
of dry time, and you have to do this in between each coat. Therefore it takes
for freaking ever to do your nails, depending on the complexity of your design.
Anyway, because I was doing these nails for 8 or so days
away, I wanted something pretty and therefore didn’t want a single colour.
Therefore I used inspiration from @thenailboss and came up with the following
design using Scarlet Red, Lily White and Silver Glitter Sensationail polishes (plus studs from the Born Pretty Store).
Just so you know, these took me from about 8pm to midnight
to do properly, which is actually a ridiculous amount of time but kind of worth
it for the amount of wear I got. I apologise for the weird shadowing in the
picture, I took this photo very late at night.
Day 2:
We were flying out to Queensland this morning, so the first
test for my nails was last minute packing. I managed to break my suitcase in
the process but didn't chip a nail, so that’s a win in my book. On arrival in
Queensland sometime that afternoon, one of the first things I did was check out
the really sweet rooms we had then run down to the beach to take some pictures.
It’s so convenient having a beach 200m or so from your front door.
I was proud to see that despite the packing, which would
have totally ruined normal nails for me, my gel nails were still going strong
and were as shiny as ever in the lovely afternoon sun at the beach.
Day 3:
Today my younger brother and I were left to our own devices
as my Mum and Dad went to go visit our grandparents (we caught up with them
later in the week). We were staying a little outside of Surfers Paradise, so we
took the new light rail/tram down to Cavil Avenue. We did some shopping and had
my favourite food ever, rice burgers from Mos Burger…yum yum!
A quick wash and my nails were perfectly unaffected by my
slightly messy eating habits. So three days and the gel nails were still rock
hard! So far so good.
Day 4:
We’re finally getting to the reason I was in Queensland in
the first place and that was to support my sister at the National Cheer and
Dance championships. My older sister is fairly crazy and competes at an
extremely high level doing Pom, which is a part of cheerleading. Anyway, the
National Cheer and Dance Championships were run over three days at the Gold
Coast Convention Centre. It was seriously like a scene out of bring it on but
with slightly more Australian accents.
This picture shows the awards presentations. So many
cheerleaders in one spot! You might be able to notice that something weird is
going on with my pointer finger. Unfortunately I had a stud fall off and I
stuck it back on with nail glue. However I had no tools at hand and the glue
got everywhere. When I had first done the gel nails, I hadn’t been sure how to
attach the studs so had just used the gel top coat. I think if I were to do it
again, I’d use nail glue then top coat over the top.
Day 5:
Today my younger brother and I spent most of the day at the
beach and the night watching my sister compete for the second time. Because we
were at the beach I could not resist turning my brother into a one legged
merman.
Even with the abrasive nature of sand, this work of sand art
had no effect on the SensatioNail gel mani. I don’t think I've ever had nail
polish last five days without chipping of falling off, so I was pretty excited
by this point.
Day 6:
Deciding on day 5 it be totally awesome to go deep sea
fishing, my Dad, brother and I got up at 4am to go out fishing. Great idea
until I discovered I get very much sea sick offshore (I’m fine in inlets and
lakes). This didn't stop me from fishing though and although I didn't catch
anything myself, I did reel in a fish which is totally the hard part.
Although I spent much of my day sick and then in bed, I did
get to see this pretty sunrise and my nails lasted gripping onto a boat for
dear life and doing a spot of fishing.
Day 7:
Day 7 and cue a visit to the happiest place on earth, Food
Fantasy and their amazing buffet. If you've got a hankering for a lot of
delicious food and want to experience rolling home, this is the place to come.
This was also where I tried pumpkin pie for the first time ever and let me tell
you, it’s like sweet mashed pumpkin in a tart case and I’m not sure what the
appeal is.
A full week and my nails had survived almost completely
intact! I had lost only one stud and fixed that problem with a little nail
glue! I was totally ecstatic, though not so much at the taste of pumpkin pie.
Day 8:
Our last full day in Queensland and so we went to visit my
Grandparents. Later that afternoon we went to the markets in Surfers and had a
look around. I got some awesome Henna done and then it was time to head back to
the hotel to pack up so we could leave in the morning.
With the added Henna, this almost looked like brand new nail
art although my nails were showing some signs of wear. I’m not sure what day it
occurred but my thumbs chipped slightly. I think this was due to the incorrect
application of the gel by not cleaning it off my skin properly before curing.
However this was barely noticeable and I think wouldn't be a problem if I had
spent slightly more time cleaning before curing.
Day 9:
This was mainly a travel day with catching flights to get
back to Victoria. The joy of any holiday is the unpacking at the end and my
fingers were definitely looking slightly worse for wear by this stage.
As you can see I've had some major hangnail issues on my
pointer finger however the SenstioNail polish itself was still going strong.
Day 10:
Today was the last day for my nails. I was getting a little
sick of having the same nail art and I was now at home with nail polish
available so I took the gel off later that night. Truthfully they could have
lasted a few more days but as I said, I was sick of them…just the design (the
nails themselves were still looking ok). As a last task for my gel nails I set
up three Christmas trees, one for myself, one for my family and one for my
aunty.
Not even fake pine could get past these impermeable
barriers. However it was obvious they weren't first day nails anymore. There were
a few more lost studs on my right hand, obvious nail growth bare patches, and
quite a great deal of chipping on my thumb.
Just a quick note on the removal process, it wasn’t easy! I
used acetone and the foil method twice and still had some random clinging bits
of gel. I guess this just goes to show how strong the gel truly is.
However overall I loved my SensatioNail Gel experience. I
got a hell of a lot more wear than I would with a normal mani and there are so
many possibilities for nail art designs with gel. However it does take more
time than I expected to do an actual mani (even just a simple one) and the
removal process is a bit of a bitch. However if you don’t want to be painting
your nails all the time, this might be for you.
Check out the SensatioNail website for more information and
I apologise for so many words (1600 + words and counting).
No comments:
Post a Comment