Makeover Your Manicure

I love manicures & pedicures. It’s one of the quickest ways to turn my mood around. The only bad thing about getting your nails done is the amount of time the nail polish lasts. Within a few days of school, chores and after-school activities, your nails are probably chipped, dull and ready to be re-polished. With the time it takes to meticulously apply polish and waiting for it to dry, no one really has the time to repeat this process every few days. When I was in high school, the only way to keep polish on for more than a week was to have acrylic nails; but I haven’t had acrylic nails since my high school prom! There’s nothing wrong with having acrylics but I like my natural nails and luckily I’ve found a few new products that make polish on my natural nails last like acrylic! Yay!


So what are these magical products I speak of? The first is Shellac by CND. It’s a UV based nail polish. It goes on just like regular polish, and requires a base coat, top coat and UV nail dryer. I just had my first Shellac manicure on Wednesday. Since then (5 days later), I have not had one chip on my nails and they are still just as shiny as they were when I got them done. It’s amazing! Typically they last 2-3 weeks. Another perk is by using the UV dryer, it only takes 2 minutes for your nails to dry – Literally 2 minutes! The UV dryer is required because it helps adhere the polish to the top & base coats, making it last longer than regular polish. Have you ever walked out of the nail shop without being super careful not to touch anything or hit your nails? Well, you won’t have to do that with Shellac. Shellac is also easy to remove. Simply soak your nails in acetone for about 10 minutes and your natural nails will be back to normal.

Another alternative for natural nails is Minx. I tried Minx nails over the summer while I was in New York. Unlike Shellac, Minx is not a polish at all. It’s actually like a sticker that adheres to your nails. The manicurist will shape the adhesive to your nails and then you will sit under a hot dryer so that the Minx can “melt” on to your nail. It looks great and comes in lots of funky designs and patterns. It will last about a week, but after that week is over it will start to peel on the tips. It’s easy to remove, just peel it off like peeling off a sticker and there is no damage to your natural nails. And just like Shellac, the best part – zero dry time!

A Shellac or Minx manicure will cost you more than a regular manicure, but there are more benefits to these procedures just a plain polish. You can go on either of their websites http://www.cnd.com/Consumer.aspx or http://www.minxnails.com/dnn/ to find a shop that’s right for you. You can also buy Shellac products on Amazon or eBay, but I don’t know that I would want to buy the required UV dryer for my house. Since it’s a little more, I’ll probably splurge every now & then. Save it for a special occasion like prom or homecoming. I also hear that OPI also has a UV gel product called Axxiom. I haven’t tried it, so I’ll leave that up to our readers to review :)

In other nail news, I did however find a new polish for the home manicurist. Serena Williams and OPI have recently teamed up and created a fun new polish line. Serena has come out with the Glam Slam collection. Simply Smashing/Black Shatter is the first duo in the collection. First you polish Simply Smashing on your nails, and after it dries, apply a top coat of Black Shatter. The Black Shatter will “crack” on your nails creating a unique design. I have yet to try this, but it looks fun and I look forward to seeing how my nails turn out with it. Serena & OPI plan to have more colors coming out soon… I can’t wait!

-- Martine Rouzan
Brownstone Team