A bit of a controversial subject here as I feel like I am the only one: most of my friends who are polished enough to have their nails done do Gel, but personally, not only I do not like it, I HATE IT.
Look, I can appreciate a gel design like my friend Zoe’s one—I appreciate it for the art of it, and IN THE CONTEXT OF THE FACT THAT THIS IS A GEL MANICURE. But still, I hate it.
Here is why.
1/ I don’t want art on my nails, I want it on my walls*.
2/ Gel makes the nails very thick. Is it me or do they look deliberately fake? Non non non. Audrey Hepburn would never approve.
3/ It lasts so long that unless one is very consistent, the weird moment always comes when:
The nail is still super shiny, but the hand around it needs TLC and it shows.
The nail gets horribly long and the regrowth gap is wider that Vanessa Paradis' dents du bonheur**. Even worse on the toes. Long toenails, arggggh!
One nail falls off, or breaks, but you don’t have time to get it fixed AND you can’t remove all the other ones (it has to be done at the salon!) so there is this sad orphan nail calling for attention all day.
I love a clean, classic manicure removed three days after applying. But three days is not long enough for lazy ass me to ever bring myself to do it, so instead I have absolutely unkempt nails all year round that make me look like I’ve just returned from Survivor*** season 145, which is about as shameful as a fifteen-days-old Gel manicure.
This is why I have no say in this debate, really. Also because the battle is already lost. Last time I went to a salon, I was informed that they didn’t do regular manis anymore. It's over. Gel won.
You can always count on me to fight a losing battle.
*Uhuhuh so pretentious. You want more pretentious? Here you go: I don’t need my nails to have a personality because I have one. Ooooh!!!
**Dents du bonheur: Teeth of happiness, which is what we call a tooth gap in French.
***The TV show I wouldn't survive an hour on.