Health & Swellness

Hot hybrid

June 17, 2010

My former obsession with lip gloss has, as of late, been replaced with nail polish.

I was able to try out the new Shellac Hybrid Nail Colour (from the peeps at Creative Nail Design) over at Ritual yesterday and so far I am loving the results — I opted for Wildfire (a bright sassy red). (Ask for Erin btw if you go to Ritual, she’s super sweet and very thorough).

Shellac is like a combination of gel nails and regular nail polish. Shellac goes on like a regular polish (so you get a base coat, two coats of colour and a top coat) but between each coat, you cure it under a UV light. The results are said to last 14 days. Best of all the product is free of formaldehyde, toluene and DBP.

A Shellac mani will set you back more than a regular mani ($45 for a full Shallac Mani at Ritual, compared to $27 for a regular manicure) but I personally think it’s well worth the investment. Don’t know about you ladies but a regular mani lasts all of one, maybe two, days before showing wear and tear, and I’m on day 2 of the Shellac mani and it looks like it’s just been applied.

On the downside: you have to go into a spa to have Shellac removed (special remover wraps target only the nail bed with remover), costing you time (10 minutes) and money ($10). Plus, the current Shellac colours leave a lot to be desired with only 12 shades in somewhat run-of-the-mill shades.

Will keep you up to date on how well the mani holds up!

Entry Filed under: Beauty. Tags: Beauty, cosmetics, Creative Nail Design, manicure, nail lacquer, nail polish, pedicure, Ritual, Shellac, Toronto.