Mooning over you..

Just a quick update today to let you know about my latest discovery.  Yes, I’m a bit late to this party I admit but....Shellac nail polish is a miracle.

I’m not the most organised individual at the best of times and I am at pains to admit that I hate painting my nails – it’s a bloomin’ palaver that, quite frankly, I could live without. Still, a “polished” vintage look (that which I aspire to and always fall short of) needs a good manicure and so, three weeks ago, I took the plunge and decided to get shellac done.

It had been a long time coming but I was trepidatious, back in my younger days I’d flirted with council estate chic – stripey highlighted hair, sportswear and long acrylic nails with airbrush designs – and I remember well how thick, ugly and unmanageable acrylic nails are.  I don’t like that chubby nail look, on my long skinny fingers it makes me look like I have a fungal infection.  It doesn’t even look good on our Dita, though this is an old pic so I'm sure she has discovered shellac too by now!

So I put out feelers, and, after asking the wise vintage girls of Facebook, shellac seemed to be the best option.

My local salon, the always rammed Ria Beauty in Dalston offered this and so I quickly booked in for a manicure and shellac.

The process is fairly simple.  Your nails are shaped, very lightly buffed(the benefit of shellac is the nail surface is undamaged as opposed to any other treatments where it must be filed to create a keyed surface for the gel or acrylic to bond to) and then a base coat applied, then two coats of colour,then a top coat; each coat dried under a UV lamp between applications.  You come out of this with gloriously shiny,100% dry nails – no chance of smudging and they are considerably stronger yet still thinner than acrylic.  All good in my book.

The only problem I had was explaining to the girl painting my nails that I wanted the half moons left blank, I’m not sure they really understood what was needed and my 45 minute appointment became a two hour one as she painstakingly painted her first half moon manicure.  Still, it turned out beautifully and everyone there ended up taking photos of my hands afterwards so I am hoping to have started a little trend in my Eat end backwater *wink*

I've had the manicure on for three weeks now and not a chip,it is still shiny.  The only issue is that it is starting to grow out, as I have unusually fast growing hair and nails, but I’m not too worried. I’ll just paint some normal varnish over the top!

This is definitely something I plan to keep doing.  I’ll be heading back next weekend for a new do,perhaps a dark red this time – they have a lovely Rouge Noir-esque colour called “Fedora” that I’d like to try.  I’m even considering buying the equipment myself to save costs, though at £20 a month my local salon is hardly expensive.

So, here you go – what do you think?

Immediately after the appointment

One week later

Three weeks later