8 To The Day!!!

Welp.... it has been 8 days EXACTLY!!!!  CND Shellac is supposed to wear for 14 days, but for me, it only makes it to day 8.  And that is fine for me!  Honestly, NOTHING else wears that long or that beautifully... check out that shine (click on pic to enlarge)!!!

So the pic above is the exact same Shellac manicure that I wore for the past 8 days.  Day one features a white Konad nail art design (Click HERE for deets).  Day four features a black Konad nail art design from image plate M70 and day 8 is shown with all nail art removed using a non-acetone nail polish remover.  There are a few things to mention:

1)  The Shellac color DID darken over 8 days.  The color variations in the pictures is not a lighting effect.  I don't know why this occurred.  My first thought was it was just because the darker nail art on day 4 was just making the color appear darker.  But once I removed all the nail art on the final day, I did notice the color was actually darker than it had been the first day of the manicure.  Is this something that typically occurs with Shellac?  Is it because of the Konad special polish?  Maybe the non-acetone polish remover caused the darkening?  Or was it the Seche Vite top coat?  I'm not sure what the cause was, but day 1 was quite a bit "pinker" in color tone than day 8.

2)  I was able to change my nail art multiple times throughout the 8 days without losing an ounce of shine!!!  Because non-acetone nail polish remover does not effect the Shellac manicure (other than possibly altering the color a bit), changing my look was a snap making my nails look gorgeous and new without much effort!!!

3)  8 DAYS OF SHINE!!!  Except for a small amount of grow-out that is visible, my nails look PERFECT today!!!  Day 8 brought ONE chip in the polish of my middle finger that I noticed after doing my dishes.  Now, if I wore cleaning gloves like I know that I should... I probably would have gotten a full 14 days out of this Shellac manicure.  But I'm not one to fuss with those rubber gloves, so I'm content with my 8 days of wear.  Typically soapy water isn't very good for ANY manicure.  For those who love those manicures and hate those rubber gloves, you KNOW that 8 days of wear out of a manicure is AWESOME!!!

My final thought on the Shellac manicure is still, "I HEART SHELLAC" and I really might just consider investing in some rubber cleaning gloves and try this little test again.  I've only ever gotten 8 days out of a Shellac manicure, but after this little test I'm sort of motivated to give my nails just a little more care to see if I can get a few more days out of it.  If all I need to do is wear cleaning gloves while cleaning.... it might be worth it for 6 more days of a perfect manicure!!!  Shellac Rubble, here I come!!!  Check out the new 2012 Shellac colors HERE!