On July 13th I got a manicure- the first manicure I’ve had in over 10 years!  Geez!

When Trevor was a baby and I was working at FCNB I used to have acrylic nails, but I quickly learned it was hard to keep appointments with a little one, and decided it was a luxury that I should let go. Ever since then I rarely have long nails, and if they do grow long very rarely do I ever paint them.  I’m rough on my hands and especially my nails and nail polish never lasts more than a day or two on me before it starts cracking and chipping and I start picking at it.

I’d been thinking about shellac for a while now, and I finally had all my nails at a decently long length so I booked an appointment.

I walked out of the salon with 100% dry, hardened, ultra glossy nails in a sparkly nudish color.

About 6-7 days after my manicure the only “bad” thing I noticed is that my nails weren’t as “wet glossy” as they looked when the manicure was fresh, but that is remedied by dipping a cotton ball in rubbing alcohol and wiping each nail to remove any “scum” buildup.  There was certainly no chipping or cracking or peeling-  I even whacked a couple of my nail tips hard enough that if there was no shellac I’m sure my nails would have broken.

I have to say that Shellac is certainly longer lasting and more durable than regular nail polish- I’ve been loving it!  BUT, here’s where my nails take a rapid downturn….

Day 9.

I noticed with the grow out that there was a little “edge” and on a couple nails that edge was peeling back a bit.  Picky me starts pick picking at it and next thing I know I’ve picked all my nails and here’s what I’m left with:

Ugh.  Why do I have to do that?  At least there’s no damage underneath them, nor did I peel off any layers of my actual nails, but what am I supposed to do with THIS?

My original plan was to do some filing of the back edge and repaint my nails as they grew out.  I heard that you can paint over shellac nails with regular polish, and even remove that polish without damaging the original shellac job.  But now that I’ve done all this pick picking, I’ve gone beyond the point of return.

Grrrr….

So off to Sally Beauty Supply I went- to buy a bottle of 100% Acetone.  I soaked my fingertips in the bowl for about 10 minutes (as directed) and gently peeled/scraped off the mostly-dissolved-by-then gel nail color.  Thorough hand washing followed with moisturizing and here’s my newly bare nails:

I’ll let them air out for a couple days then maybe do a home OPI polish on them.  That seemed to last me several days just before I went in for the shellac.

I will do Shellac nails again, just not from the same place.  I’ve read that shellac nails are NOT supposed to peel like that and that it’s an operator error type of thing most likely from using cuticle softeners/cleaners.