Beware: Gel Nails VS Gel Polish

I going through my email and found a deal from Living Social for a $35 gel polish manicure from the Waikiki Edition Hotel. I didn't realize that it was a gel polish service, and not a gel nail application until I was reading the fine print because I saw that the original price was $75. After I realized what it was, I decided that I should inform you all about the bad pricing tactics that some nail places use to make more money and cheating their clientele.

I will admit, I'm no nail tech, but I am a nail product enthusiast. That and the knowledge from Kali, the owner of the former Kali's Nail Supply, I feel I have the authority to give this information to people, especially susceptible people. Please take this with a grain of salt, and ask questions, if it's not to me, to someone you know and trust that does nails.

Gel Nails

Gel nails are an artificial nail enhancement designed usually to strengthen or elongate your nails, an alternative to the traditional liquid + powder acrylics. These enhancements are only in one phase, a gel-like substance (hence the name), sculpted onto the nail surface (and tip or form if your natural nail is too short) and is cured under a UV lamp. They're often refered to as a soak-off gel, which takes away a little more of the confusion.

Lots of people are familiar with the brand Calgel, which is supposed to be a natural type of gel. I've tried this one before, and I liked it. My nails were actually a bit damaged from my love-hate relationship with traditional acrylic, and after one application, my nails felt a lot stronger, and it was pretty easy to remove since the application calls for a lot less product (unlike the traditional acrylics with the curve that has to be "built" to ensure lift-prevention). For those who don't have much time to change nail polish often (on your natural nail), gel nails would be pretty good. I believe you can go weeks between fills, and polish adheres nicely to the gel.

Common brands: Calgel*, OPI Axium, CND Brisa

Gel Polish

Gel polish is simply what it sounds like, a gel nail polish. You can't sculpt it onto your natural nail, nor can you extend your nail. Unlike regular nail polish, you cure this product under a UV lamp, and unlike a gel nail, it doesn't make your nail stronger. In fact, I believe it actually damages your nail, and dries it out. All you do is paint it on like nail polish and cure under a UV lamp.

Common brands: CND Shellac, Gellac, Calgel*

SO:

Where there is some mis-communication on the part of salon owners and their clientele is that salon owners are charging an arm and a leg to their customers for a gel "manicure," when in fact all they are doing is a gel polish manicure. There is a lot less skill and other resources involved to do a gel polish manicure than a gel nail service. Therefore, salons should be pricing their gel polish services not that much more than a regular manicure, or even just offering a gel polish upgrade for any natural nail service. The way lots of places are pricing, it makes it seem like it's a nail enhancement because the price is so similar to other enhancement services.

So, my conclusion is this: know what you are paying for. If you are in doubt and think you may be getting ripped off, ask questions. If you don't get the right answers, then leave...they don't deserve your money if they are gonna rip you off!!

*The way you can tell the soak-off gel from the polish is the container it comes in. If it looks like a nail polish bottle with a bush attached to the lid, it's a gel polish, if it's gooey and comes from a jar, without a brush attached to the lid, it's a soak off gel.

Memorial Day Sales

So many good sales going on this week!!! To commemorate the holiday weekend some of my favorite places to shop is offering deals that I would so go for, but don't have the money :(

Kali's Nail Supply is going out of business. They're actually retiring, and it was a quick decision, so they will be open today from 10 till 6 and tomorrow from 10 till 4 and they're offering 50% off the whole store, at least their retail products, which include nail polishes, treatments, and other basics that don't require a license. Check out their facebook page for the details.

HauteLook is one of my favorite places to get things that I can't normally afford or don't have access to. This weekend they are offering free shipping for orders 50% or more. It looks like the sales are lasting through the weekend instead of the normal three days, and there also seems to be more sales going on now.

And Tokidoki is doing a Memorial Day sale with 30% off online and in store. I don't know of any Tokidoki stores here, but since their stuff is quite pricey, I think this would be a great time to buy those gifts to yourself ;)

Okay, not that many things I found. Just to help you people on a budget. It's also a great opportunity to buy gifts :) I think it's never too early to start Christmas shopping, although I usually scramble starting December 20th or so ;P

Happy Memorial Day!!!

HAUL: Nails Nails Nails

So it would be a pretty big understatement to say that I bought a lot of nail stuff this past week. Let me just recap a bit: earlier in the week, Kali (from Kali's Nail Supply) had tweeted that she put more nail polishes in the $2 box. I LOVE the $2 box. The things that go in there are actually still good stuff, it just may be discontinued, or the packaging was done wrong, so they can't sell it at full price anymore. And, in commemoration of their 25th anniversary, they did a 50% off the entire store for their "First Sunday/Monday" sale they do monthly. I HAD to take the opportunity to check it out. So, the big sale was today, and I really wanted to get more stuff, but I really had to limit myself to just essentials. So, I got nail polish remover, a file, LOTS of top coat, and glitters. Here's what I got from all this maddness:

DISCLAIMER: I still haven't gotten the hang of taking these types of pictures, so some of them look a little overexposed, some underexposed, and some are out of focus...SORRY!!

$2 Polishes

Left to right: Breakdown Blue (light blue to pink), Patient Pink (light pink to white), Fearless Fuschia (fuschia to pink), Paranoid Purple (purple to pink)

These Jessica Polishes were kind of a disappointment unfortunately. They're supposed to be color changing , according to their temperature, but they don't work that well. The other thing was that they're really sheer, so it took I think 4 coats to get it nice.

Left to right: Manhattan, OC Codler, South Beach, Bridgit

Left to right: Chily Secret, Times Square

Left to right: Hello Hello, A Lot Of Shekels, Bright Tights

Left to right: Shower Popper, Handle With Flair, Lacy Not Racy

Left to right: Baby Girl Pink, Spring Lining Lavender, Baby Girl Pink, Purple Glitter

I know what you're thinking...they're the same color? I don't have a definite answer, but my guess is that it one of the two was incorrectly produced, and since they had different labeling (on the bottom), I assume one was in the box because it was "old" and the other because the color was wrong. That's purely my guess.

These are the nail art ones. The three on the left have a nail art brush and a pen in the top. I have one of these, and the color got really whack after a while, I think it was because of how I stored it (in sunlight), so I'm hoping for the better in these. The one on the right is a glitter, I think it's a clear base with purple glitter. All are by Nubar.

So, after all that madness, I don't have room in my box anymore. It's totally full, and I still have other stuff to store. I am on the search for more storage!

Here's those essentials that I got from today's sale:

Zoya remove + is one of the best nail polish removers I ever used. As you can see I got that small bottle a while back, and I like that flip top thing, you can push down on it and it will dispense the product. This is way better than placing your nail wipe (or cotton ball) on your bottle opening and flipping it over, risking spillage and dried out skin. It's not just the bottle I like though, it's the product. It removes nail polish without really drying out my skin a lot. I used to use the pure acetone, which is actually not too good for your skin, or your eyes (your cornea to be exact), but it was the fastest way to remove polish and glitter. Now that I found this one, I think I will stick to it because it removes glitter pretty well too, not as great as pure acetone, but it doesn't take years to get the stuff off my nails :) I bought the big bottles because I can just refill, that's no issue, and it's a better value ;)

The BEST top coat EVER! Enough said!! Hah...This really is my favorite. It not only dries quickly, but it's super shiny, and it self levels, so when I use glitters, my nail is left pretty smooth after I apply this top coat :D

Now, I know glitter isn't really an essential, but to me it IS!! I love China Glaze's Nova, and I wanted to try Techno. They're both silver holographic glitters, but Techno has medium and large hexagonal pieces, and Nova just has the medium ones. Also on the far left is Nubar (I WILL GET THE NAME SOON!!). Just figured I'd try it since it was half off ;)

Also, a few weeks ago, Zoya did this massive sale online to its account holders. They were pressuring all their facebook followers to make sure they had accounts because that was the only way you had access to the sale. The deal was buy one get one free for their entire summer collection for this year...PLUS only $2 for shipping. I couldn't believe my eyes, AND to note...they shipped to Hawaii, which is quite spectacular because many companies do not ship nail stuff here. Of course this sale was pretty neat, but unfortunately, I don't have all the money in the world, so I only got these four colors:

Left to right: Apple, Faye, Mira, Areej