Sally Hansen NEW! Salon Gel Polish Tutorial

Sorry about the lack of blogs, I have gone through a rough week and a half. Starting with swollen lips (who knows why, possibly an allergic reaction), followed by a severe cold that knocked me off my feet for a few days (still recovering), a cavity filling, and finally food poisoning. So much for a relaxing winter break! Of course Christmas was busy and wonderful with the family, sadly I was still feeling a little under the weather. But as 2012 comes to a close, I am feeling healthy and extremely happy and optimistic for 2013.

On to what this post is really all about: the Sally Hansen Salon Gel Polish kit. I bought this kit almost a month ago when it came out and I have since purchasing done my nails twice. Twice. And I have had two chips in my nails since I started using this kit. Just with that I am sure I will convince some people to go out and purchase it. So if you got this for Christmas but haven't tried it out yet, or you need to do some returns on gifts you did not love--look into buying this instead! I bought the actual Gel Polish Kit, not the Gel Polish Strips Kit. The price difference is around $40. If you buy the Gel Polish Kit you are looking into spending around $70 (check online for coupons before you buy, I got $5 off), the Gel Polish Strips Kit is about $30 depending where you shop.

This is what the box looks like if you were to grab it off the shelf, my Target had two total in stock, so this box had been pushed around a ton and so it wasn't in the best condition when it reached my hands.

The pieces in the box shifted around before I got it, as you can see the acetone had fallen into the UV light, but nothing was really damaged.

The reason I bought the Gel Polish Kit is because you can only use the Gel Nail Strips one time, and you can only cure one finger at a time with the UV light included. The Gel Polish Kit comes with base coat, one of three colors: Shell We Dance (light pearly pink), Red My Lips (stoplight red), and Wine Not (the color I bought, a sparkly deep red), and a top coat. The kit comes with enough polish for around 10 at home manicures. To me that was totally worth it. So here we go with the tutorial!

Note: Do one hand at a time, it makes for an easier experience!

Step 1: Start with clean nails! Take of any polish you have and trim them to your desired length. I prefer my nails as short as possible because I have such long nail beds. 

Step 2: File your nails into the shape you like, using the pink side of the file provided in the kit. I like my nails rounded.

Step 3: Push back your cuticles (if you have a cuticle remover creme you can use that here too!)

Step 4: Buff your nails with the grey side of the file provided, be sure to do this well so the gel polish has a clean smooth surface to cling to!

Step 5: Open a Nail Cleanser Pad (or rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball) and wipe down each nail.

Step 6: Apply a thin coat of the gel base coat, cure in the UV light for 30 seconds (the light will automatically shut off after 30 seconds).

Step 7: Apply a thin coat of the colored gel polish, cure for 30 seconds, apply a second thin coat, cure for 30 seconds.

Step 8: Apply thin coat of gel top coat, cure 30 seconds. Afterwards be sure to wipe with nail cleanser pad (or cotton ball with rubbing alcohol). 

Step 9: Admire the Gel Manicure you just gave yourself!!!!

I am a little late posting this blog, because it has been nine days since I did this home manicure, but because of that I can show you what my nails currently look like!

Besides a couple chips on the top of the nails they are still pretty perfect! I love them!