When you pay to get your nails done, you want them to last, but what if you don't want the hassle or cost of going to the salon?
Some do-it-yourself gel nail polish brands claim to give the same long lasting results at home, for less money.
Help Me Hank's Hank Winchester recruited some Local 4 staff to do an unscientific product test of three different brands of gel nail polish.
The Products and their Claims
Essie Gel Couture
Color: Pearls of Wisdom
Claim: Up to 14 days of flawless color and shine. No lamp required. Easy removal
Cost: 2 bottle kit $18.50 at Ulta Beauty, Kohls and $18.49 at Target
Sally Hansen Miracle Gel
Color: Red Eye
Claim: The #1 no light gel system. In just two easy steps, get up to 14 days of color and shine. More chip-resistant than regular nail polish
Cost: The color and top coat are $9.99 each at CVS, $7.49 each at Target, $15.99 for the kit at Walgreens.
Wet n Wild 1 Step Wonder Gel
Color: It's Sher-Bert Day
Claim: The first gel formula that doesn't require a top coat and cures without a lamp, this nail color breakthrough is about to become your nail MVP. Provides up to 2 weeks of color and shine in 1 easy step.
Cost: $4.99 at CVS
Special projects producer Meaghan St. Pierre chose the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel. Intern Sarah Shurge picked the Essie Gel Couture. Intern Amber Ainsworth put on the Wet n Wild One Step Wonder Gel.
The cost for a shellac or gel manicures at the salon can cost around $40.
These three products were cheaper, but it was time to find out if they would last the full two weeks.
All three products required two coats of color, while St. Pierre and Shurge had a second step of applying a top coat.
At a salon, you need to put your nails under a UV lamp for the light to cure the gel. However, none of these products required a lamp, claiming natural light cures the polish.
"So we're going to put it on today, today is Friday. It says it lasts up to 14 days, so I want you to keep track of your nails and let's see how they look," St. Pierre said.
The three women went about their lives in a normal fashion and checked back in after the weekend.
"So it is day three of the nails test, and they survived the weekend," Shurge said. "They seem to be doing pretty well."
Ainsworth was pretty pleased with her Wet n Wild One Step Wonder Gel as well.
"I think they're holding up pretty well. They started chipping a bit on the tips pretty quickly, but it's not all that noticeable," Ainsworth said.
However, one product quickly cracked under the pressure.
"I was pretty happy over the weekend. It wasn't until day four they started to chip," St. Pierre said. "This is day five of our nail test, and I am disappointed, because the nail polish is chipping off significantly on a lot of my fingers."
St. Pierre's disappointment with her Sally Hansen Miracle Gel continued on day six.
"The edges are completely off now. I would either be touching them up or taking them off," St. Pierre said.
After a week, on day eight, two of the products were still holding up.
"I think at this point, when I would do my nails, I probably would have a couple chips happening, but, like, there's nothing happening right now," Shurge said about her Essie product.
Ainsworth was also satisfied with her Wet n Wild product, especially with it being a single coat.
"It is holding up pretty well, especially being a single coat and not having anything else put on top of it," Ainsworth said. "It's kind of starting to scratch a little bit and chip on the top but not too noticeably especially for having it on a week."
But by day 11, St. Pierre had enough.
"I hate it. The nail polish is completely coming off," St. Pierre said. "I want to get rid of it."
St. Pierre called it quits and took her Sally Hansen Miracle Gel off with regular nail polish remover before the two week mark.
"It says up to 14 days. I got four out of 14 before we had significant chipping," St. Pierre said.
However, Ainsworth and Shurge had different opinions about the experience with their products.
"They're starting to chip and rub off, but I think it's holding on pretty well, especially since I didn't have any top coat on it," Ainsworth said. "It's lasted probably better than normal nail polish does and better than I thought it would though."
Shurge was the most pleased with her results from the Essie Gel Couture.
"Day 13 and there's not a lot of chipping happening. The only issue is that my nails are growing so that the top no longer has nail polish on it, so other than that they're fine," Shurge said.
When it reached two weeks, the women used regular nail polish remover to remove the products.
Ainsworth and Shurge both agreed their gel products lasted better than normal polish, and would likely use them again. St. Pierre said the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel product worked better than regular nail polish, and if she was going away for the weekend or had a wedding or another event that required her nails to look nice for a few days, she would use it. She would not use it as a replacement for a professional gel manicure from a salon.