Happy hump day y’all! We are halfway through this week, and I couldn’t be happier. Starting the week off by losing an hour of sleep is never a good idea…honestly why is daylight savings still a thing? I already feel like there aren’t enough hours in a day, so who thought it was acceptable to steal another hour from our already hectic schedule?! Not cool. Despite having an hour stolen from me, I was still able to try out a product that I’ve been hearing good things about. I talked a little bit about anxiety in my last post, and one part of me that really suffers due to anxiety is my nails. I’ve been a nail biter for years now. It’s just a habit that I can’t seem to kick. I’ll go for periods of time where I’m really conscientious and do my best to keep my nails looking pretty. One of the ways I keep myself from biting is by painting my nails. I used to get acrylics put on, but I hated the way they left my nails feeling after removing them. They were always so brittle and weak, which did nothing to help me. It actually made it easier to bite them, because they would break and I’d try to even them out. Ideally, I would have grown them out and gotten gel polish put on them in order to keep a natural look while maintaining healthy nails. The only problem is the cost. Gel polish from a salon can cost anywhere from $30-$50. If I’m being honest, I would rather use my extra money on clothes or going out with friends. So, when my boss told me about Sally Hansen Miracle Gel I knew I had to try it. Walgreens started running a promotion shortly after that let you buy 2 nail products, get one free. If that’s not a sign that it was time for me to give this product a try, I don’t know what is! I stopped by Walgreens and purchased 2 nail colors and 1 nail gel. There was a starter kit available that was a little cheaper, but I wasn’t crazy about any of the colors in the kit (apparently there is a $2 off coupon in the kits though so I’d check that out). I got a white color called Get Mod that is perfect to enhance a summer tan! I’ve been obsessed with white nails lately, but hadn’t found a nail polish formula I liked. I also picked up a fun color that will be perfect for spring called Bourbon Belle. It’s an orangey peach color, which is definitely outside of the neutral nail colors I usually wear, but this color was so unique I just had to try it. There are over 70 shades, so I know you’ll be able to find something you like! The polishes claim to give you up to 14 days of color, without needing a light like the traditional gel polishes. I was veryyyy skeptical considering I have tried other brands that came out with gel polishes, but I haven’t been super impressed. The bottle says to apply 2 coats of color and 1 coat of the gel. I found that 2 coats of color left my nails looking a little streaky, so to get the opaque look I was going for I used 3 coats of color. I only used 1 coat of gel though. One of my favorite things about this nail polish is the brush. It has such a nice shape that really allows you to control where you want the product to go. When using this brush, I hardly had any messes to clean up around my cuticles like I normally do. One tip that I’m sure you’ve all heard before is to let each coat completely dry before adding another. This is so important. I can’t tell you how big a difference this really makes. I found that this polish dries relatively quickly, which is crucial for me because I’m super impatient when it comes to letting my nails dry. Overall, I think each coat took about 5-8 minutes to completely dry. Not bad! The gel is definitely thicker than a normal polish, so it took a little longer to dry. But the most amazing part is the longevity of this polish. OH. MY. GOSH. You guys. This stuff is unreal. I am on day 5 with NO chips. This is absolutely unheard of for me. I’m opening things and using my hands a lot throughout the day, so I’m usually lucky to get 2 days out of my regular nail polishes. Once my nails chip, I have to repaint them. The other cool thing about this polish is that it comes off just as easily as normal polishes. I use a generic nail polish remover from Kroger, and I’d say this polish requires a little more scrubbing to get off than regular polish. But I’m not complaining. Each individual polish retails for $9.99 (at Walgreens), while the kits (containing one color and one top coat) retail for $15.99. This has definitely become one of my favorite products, and I know you’ll love it too! Go grab some new polish and give yourself an at home gel manicure to help get you through the rest of the week…you deserve it 😉
Here’s some shades I’m currently craving:
