Nailing It.

Shellac nail polish

At the risk of sounding really vacuous, I think I'd like to write about nail polish. There's a lot of meaning attached to the whole nail-painting process. In my house it has always been associated with being overly indulgent. Something reserved for ladies of leisure. You see, whenever any chore or task hadn't been done, for example if dinner hadn't been cooked, my Mum would say "Geez it's not like I've been swanning around painting my nails!" Because of that, I now associate having my nails painted as being a bit of a guilty act - something I can't admit to doing or enjoying for fear of being labelled as lazy. Another gem is that if your nail polish lasts a long time then you're probably not doing enough chores around the house. For if you were doing lots of washing-up and sweeping, vacuuming, washing etc, your nail polish would chip within a few days. And at school we were always told that if you had chipped nail polish it meant you weren't looking after your appearance. "Chipped nails are for tramps," we learnt. Who would have thought a tiny little bottle full of colourful paint could bring with it so many negative connotations?

So today, when I decided to go to my local nail bar to try out the latest fad in nail laquer, Shellac, I was feeling a little bit naughty. All my friends have been raving about how 'you really just have to try Shellac - it's like you've got fake nails - the polish just won't chip.' Well all that sounds pretty good, but then it's also about double the price of a regular manicure. My curiosity got the better of me so I was happy to pay the $35 to give it a go.

The process took about half an hour and I had four coats of Shellac - a base coat, two coats of my colour of choice, and then a top coat - applied. In between each coat of paint I had to place my hand under a special UV light which dried the polish instantly.

My Shellac-coated nails

What makes Shellac so special is that takes no time to dry and you get no chips or nicks in it. It takes about 10 minutes to remove, but it will last for two weeks. The only problem with it is that they don't have a massive selection of different colours to choose from yet. I opted for a pink neutral colour and my nail technician told me that the colour I had chosen was their most popular. If you were going to an event and you wanted your nails a certain colour, you'd potentially be stuck with the shade for two weeks. Woah, now there's a first world problem if ever you heard one.

I only had my nails painted today, so I'll have to see how long it will last. What with all the housework and chores that I do... let's be honest, it's definitely going to last two weeks.