I’m a nail polish freak. I don’t do naked nails and the thought actually petrifies me! I just look so odd without nail polish on. Obviously, because of this, I was really excited a couple of weeks ago I went to a beauty bloggers event hosted by Ipulse, SensatioNail and Boots. It was a great evening in a gorgeous central London hotel and we were lucky enough to be given a goody bag full of treats and gems.
SensatioNail were really generous and gave me a starter kit. I will be honest. While I have heard of at home ‘Gel Nail’ kits. I have never tried them for many reasons and pessimistic thoughts. I used to go to a salon and pay £25.00 every 2-3 weeks to get a gel overlay on my real nails. Once I woke up and smelt the coffee I realised this was a ridiculous amount of money, time and effort! So I started doing my nails myself. Just standard nail polish. Nothing special, as my impatience is not a virtue. Sitting there waiting for my nails to dry is probably one of my least favourite pass times. But saying all of this, I love my nails, I want them to look good and to be healthy.
So what are Gel Nails? In my opinion, nothing looks better than gel nails. It’s a coat of nail polish that basically turns hard and gives you a high shine long lasting manicure. Salons put a layer of gel over your nails and leave it to dry under a LED light. With SensatioNail, you do this yourself with their nail polish.
I’ve never quite believed at home gel nails would be for me because I imagined it being far too complicated, tedious, long winded and expensive. I always expected to make a complete botch job of it too. But SensatioNail have completely changed my perspective and I am actually really surprised!
It’s a really simple process and the starter kit has EVERYTHING you need. Including the LED lamp, nail polish, the top and bottom coat (which is like the gel), cleansers, nail files and lint free wipes. Literally, open the box and you’re good to go.
The instructions are mega simple –
Clean nails with the cleanser provided, file & buff, apply the gel primer, apply the gel bas coat, pop under lamp for 30 second (otherwise known as Curing), apply nail colour, cure for 60 seconds, (apply second coat if required – I did for luck and cured for 60 seconds), apply top coat of gel, (last cure for 30 seconds), cleanse the top of the nail for high shine and there you go!
I can’t even explain how easy it was and as soon as you have cured the nail under the LED lamp the nail is dry. I don’t mean touch dry, I mean dry enough to dip your hand in some popcorn with no disasters! I literally was scared to touch it, because it was so shiny too. But I did and it was 100% dry.
As for time, let me tell you this. I did it for the first time at home while watching the X Factor results show. (By the way the X Factor contestants use this too apparently!) It starts at 8pm and I laid out the contents of my box, took my time and kept stopping to shout at the TV. My nails were, done, finished, completely dry in 30 minutes!!!!! Next time it will take me 20 minutes max to do my manicure because I know the process.
It’s taken me a while to do this post but there is a good reason. I wanted to do a real review. I didn’t want to say after 2 days ‘’oh! It’s great go and buy it’’ because any nail polish does that. One of the main selling points of SensatioNail is that the manicure is meant to last up to 2 weeks with no chipping, smudging, cracks or dulling. I’m telling you this is a hard task for me. I am constantly tapping away at work and home, I do the washing up, wash my hair, pick at my nails and basically a manicurists night mare. So I had to REALLY judge it over a period of time. So I did.
So 10 days later this is how they look –
Pretty impressive if you ask me. It’s so nice to not have to worry about chipping and to look at my nails over a WEEK later and think they still look great! What an achievement.
The major perks of SensatioNail for me have been –
- Beautiful, shiny looking nails. PLUS, my nails have actually grown in the past week because I haven’t been picking! (Terrible habit)
- Amazing colours. (Mine is Raspberry Wine) and the colour hasn’t faded.
- It lasts 4x longer than my usual nail polish with NO touch ups and NO chips. I reckon I still have another 3 days before I need to reapply.
- It was super quick. I was expecting to my nailed out for ages, but 30 minutes for my first application while being completely distracted. Brilliant.
- Available at Boots so I know I can always get my top ups, new polish and other bits & pieces.
I am genuinely impressed. The starter kit is £69.99 on the SensatioNail website, which is less than 3 salon visits. The starter kit I have, gives me enough for 10 manicures at home. If each manicure lasts me 10 days. That’s 100 days of beautiful looking nails. £0.69 per day!!!!! That is a flipping bargain if ever I heard one.
I’m genuinely impressed with SensatioNail and can’t wait to make my next application tomorrow. Also to note, they do glitter polishes and pens, you can still do your nail art, almost 60 different shades and as a tip, you can mix your SensatioNail polishes in a bit of foil and create your own colour. They also have a removal kit to make it super easy to start afresh, or if you’re a picker like me you can just ease the polish off. (Bad advice I know!)
A massive thank you to SensatioNail for letting me sceptically try the starter kit. I am now a fan and a customer for life!
SHOP THE LOOK
Have you tried at home gel nails? What’s your SensatioNail tips?
