Nail varnish

For the last few months I have been doing my nails with CND Shellac. It's a gel hybrid polish, which means that it has to be cured with a UV lamp rather than air dried but it lasts really well. If I take the time to properly prepare my nails before painting it on, I can get two weeks without any chipping or peeling (by which time I'm so bored with the colour that I am dying to switch it for something else anyway).

This is the sort of lamp I have - a cheap one from Hong Kong that I found on eBay:

And this is what the varnish itself looks like:

The process also requires the Shellac base coat, Shellac top coat, some isopropyl alcohol, and some acetone.

Step 1: prepare the nails (clean, tidy, remove stray cuticle).
Step 2: dehydrate the nail plate (use a 50:50 mixture of alcohol and acetone on a cotton pad).
Step 3: apply a thin layer of base coat, cure under UV lamp for 10 seconds.
Step 4: apply a thin layer of colour, cure under UV lamp for 2 minutes.
Step 5: apply a second thin layer of colour, cure under UV lamp for 2 minutes.
Step 6: apply a layer of top coat, cure under UV lamp for 2 minutes.
Step 7: wipe off the sticky top layer with alcohol on a cotton pad.

There it is, easy peasy! The end result should be perfect shiny nails and they are dry straight away. No more smudging or denting or having to avoid touching anything for half an hour just in case something smears! Use a nail oil every day to keep the cuticles nice and keep everything well-oiled and flexible.

I have had some bad experience with the polish peeling off because I put it on too thickly, so it's vital to keep the colour coats thin and build up colour with multiple layers rather than one thick layer. The polish will also chip or peel off if the nail isn't properly cleaned and dehydrated first or if the nail itself peels off. But the more I practise the better the results are, and now I have no excuse for ugly chipped polish.

Removal is easy too. Just cut up a cotton pad into little nail-sized pieces, soak in acetone and hold in place on the nail with tin foil. Wait ten minutes, remove cotton pad, polish slides right off with it. There is no damage to the nail itself (unlike some gel polishes which require the nail plate to be filed).