Fab Find Friday – Shellac

Yay, yay, it’s Friday! I’ve decided to bring back my Fab Find Friday features – and why not? We all need a little pampering preview before the weekend right? So stay tuned for these in upcoming weeks.

This Friday, I wanted to tell you guys about Shellac – a fairly new (to South Africa at least) nail painting system that will blow you away! I’m absolutely hooked, and I only got Shellac-ed on Wednesday, so that already says a lot!

As you probably know, I love nail colour – just like many of you I’m guessing. And just like everyone else, I hate it when my nails chip. Generally I can max out my nail polish for three days, but that’s seriously pushing it! I’m very hard on my nails; banging away on a keyboard all day, opening parcels etc. It’s not a pretty sight when my polish chips off and it certainly is’nt a good look for a gal that runs a beauty and fashion blog!

Shellac is a product of CND who are an award winning brand the world over. In the 2011 Nails Readers Choice awards CND won 19 awards, 9 of which were first place and CND Shellac was voted as the number one UV Cured Polish so you know it’s good stuff!

I had already heard all the raves about Shellac from my beauty blogging buds on Twitter, so when I got a call from Jo-D, Durban’s CND rep, I was amped to try it out. Choosing a colour from their selection of 30 was easy for me; I simply wanted Jo-D’s colour. Her nails looked amazing – the colour, Asphalt.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “it’s like gel” – well let me just clarify it for you before we move on. Shellac is nothing like gel! Although, yes you may get the same effect as gel, and it uses a UV light, it’s nothing like it. I used to do French gel overlays on my nails all the time. It was a pain. You had to be super careful with your nails, wear icky gloves when washing dishes and the more you moisturized your hands, the weaker your gel got. To add to that, my gel nails always managed to lift off, and I end up ripping them off – ah ha, you guessed it, pain!

While I’m not dissing gel, I personally don’t like it. I feel that it makes my nails weak and that I had to keep using it and spending hours in the salon. The Shellac mani on the other hand, took 30 minutes and I could literally dig in my garden straight after if I wanted to. With Shellac there is also no buffing, Jo-D simply shaped my nails. Another thing I loved was how “solid” the colour looked, but it wasn’t thick as in a thick layer the kind you get from gel. They looked more like that had been painted instead of plastered on.

There was no smudging and even if I tried to push the polish up with my fingertips, it stayed put. Another thing I love is how shiny and healthy my nails look – I am seriously sold on Shellac!

I took this pic in the car straight after I got Shellac-ed! I’m going back in two weeks, –coz apparently that’s how long this colour will last- to have it taken off and see the removal process. Im curious to see how my natural nail looks underneath, and if this colour will last that long. So stay tuned, I’ll keep you guys in the loop.

To find out which salon offers Shellac, you can call their headoffice on (011) 791 4027 or visit the CND South Africa page on Facebook.