Gel Color By OPI in Passion

Every year, the accounting firm that I work for holds an overnight staff trip to Blue Mountain Ski Resort in Collingwood, Ontario.  Since I haven't been working there for a year yet, it was my first time going and I was told that since this particular outing was a "last chance to cut loose before tax season starts" there was a metric ton of drinking. If there was one situation in life that I never thought I'd been in, I would say "Watching extreme fighting at a Ski resort in a hotel room with 25 very intoxicated Orthodox Jews" would be one of them.  And it wasn't even Purim yet! I also learned that if you don't smoke, do not smoke the Cuban cigars that a partner offers you, no matter how ungratefully or stodgy this might make you look.  Because of that, I ended up hanging out with the toilet more than any person that night...

I've never skied and have never been interested in it but luckily, my employers offered a spa option for those who didn't want to ski, so I figured that now was a good a time as any to get my very first manicure.  Yeah, I've been doing my own nails for over 30 years but not once had I ever been in a salon and had someone else do the work.  The additional bonus was that the spa of choice, Kalola Boutique & Spa, offers gel polish manicures so it was a great opportunity to try it out and it didn't cost me a dime.

My manicurist was a lovely young lady named Kina who had a very calm and friendly way about her and she seemed to understand really well when a person felt like talking or didn't feel like it.  Plus, she had a light touch and explained every step of each treatment, described the ingredients of each product (so you could choose if you wanted to use it or not) and gave a great hand massage.

Since I had all the intention of testing gel polishes claims of lasting for weeks, I wanted to choose a colour that would go with every piece of clothing in my closet so I choose OPi's GelColour in Passion.  It's a light ballet pink creme that look perfectly fine with black, white or any other colour who might be wearing.  Gel polishes claims to fame consist of a quick drying time but the polish must be "cured" under a low wattage UV light drier for a minute or so.  Despite the fact that that dry time is extremely fast, i still sort of felt like the process took a while since it included prepping the nails, base coat, two coats of colour and a top coat or maybe it was the first time I tried the product and wasn't really sure what to expect. I also usually skip base and top coats when I do my own nails. Here's the result on Day One:

Day One

If we had an any sunny days in the Southern Ontario area at all during this winter, I'd have a nicer photo to show you but you can still see that the polish is very glossy and almost looks wet even though it's totally dry to the touch.  I also like seeing perfectly round cuticles as I don't always push them back myself.

Day Two

Day Two and it looks exactly the same and still looks like it's freshly painted.

Day Three

Day Three and it still looks good.

Day Four

Day Four and it's still got a high gloss finish.

Day Five

Day Five and it still looks good but now I'm just getting bored...

Day Six

We finally got a sunny day and the gel polish still looks great!

Day Seven

Aha!  Finally a flaw!  The gel polish actually had began to peel in the corners of my thumbnail and it was lifting off of it in one piece.  If there was a time to remove the polish, it was now but I didn't want to go back to a salon a pay money to get it done.  I went to the drug store and bought some Sally Hansen Artificial Nail & Glue Remover and after soaking each hand for over 10 minutes, the polish began to lift and I was able to pull the polish off my nails.  However it did really stick to the middle of my fingernails and it required a little bit of buffing to get it off.  I also had a small amount of nail damage but a little bit more buffer help to fix it.  Here's how my nails looked with no polish at all...

I Took a Picture Just In Case I Forget What My Actual Nails Look Like!

To sum it up, if the polish didn't peel from my nail it would have likely lasted 2 weeks or more but I was actually glad it happened because by that time, I was totally bored of wearing the same colour day in and day out.  But if you're the type of person who wants a long lasting manicure then gel polish is definitely the product for you.  I would defiantly use this technique again but the next time, it's going to be a summer time pedicure because I hate doing my toes!