Shellac Nails

CND Shellac Nail Polish is a "14 day wear, mirror finish, zero dry time, no nail damage" product. The answer to every nail obsessed girl like myself? Perhaps... I have had two applications of the product recently at Shi Beauty and Nails. For my first application I went for a french manicure. A base coat is applied, followed with two coats of your chosen colour and finished off with a top coat. All layers are "cured" under a UV lamp. A french manicure involves 2 layers of the white "smile" followed by whatever shade of pink you are using. I opted for Moonlight and Roses an iridescent pale pink. In total my Shellac was on for 4 weeks although after 2 weeks you will start to notice chipping and regrowth is a problem. I couldn't get into the salon sooner so I just painted over the top of my Shellac with the sparkly Deborah Lippmann polish I received in my Glossybox. I can also safely say that there was no damage to my nails and they were the longest they have ever been.

Removal of the old Shellac comes as standard at the salon I go to during reapplication. CND have developed a wrap which is soaked in acetone, place over the nail and secured. A few minutes later and hey presto the polish slides off the nail. Any residue is removed with a cuticle stick and oil is massaged into the cuticles. For my second Shellac application I opted for a dark red manicure (I think it was either Hollywood or Wildfire) with a glitter statement nail. The glitter was applied to the colour before curing and a top coat was applied as normal. On reflection, I think I was more impressed with the overall effect of the french manicure as beautiful natural nails is something I have always envied. However, I did constantly stare admiringly at my nails for the first two weeks which was a bit time consuming! Shellac is something I would definitely have again for a weekend out, special occasion, holiday etc. It is not something I could afford to maintain on a monthly business purely because after two weeks the regrowth on my nails is too noticeable. You can expect to pay around £20 for this treatment.


Removal of Shellac:

I decided to a little section of this at the end of my review purely because I performed a DIY removal of my second Shellac application. I knew that the only way to remove the polish was to soak it with acetone... Cue fail number 1! Normal nail varnish just isn't strong enough for this job (well mine wasn't!). I made make shift "wraps" out of soaked cotton wool pads and bits of tin foil - fail number 2! Needless to say when my sister walked in my room she thought I had lost the plot! I did one hand at a time and left the "wraps" on for half an hour at a time. This was successful in removing the top layer of the colour but left behind the first layer of colour. I applied the "wraps" again with fresh cotton wool but there was still residue on my nail that wouldn't come off when scraped with my cuticle stick. I was conscious of damaging my nails so did not want to scrape too vigorously. I'm going to purchase some acetone from a chemist should I attempt a future home removal. Warning; acetone in its pure form is much stronger and so you would not need to soak your nails for 30 minutes as I had to with nail polish remover. (I am pretty disappointed I did not take a picture of my Edward Scissors hands removal procedure!) Since I removed my Shellac at the weekend 3 of my nails have broken! Proof that, while on, the polish acts as barrier against breakage.


Say Hello to Shellac - CND (official website)