My First Official Gel X Nails Experience
Nail polish / nail decor hasn’t meshed well with me in terms of longevity. I’ve tried gel / shellac nails, and they’ve lifted within a day after getting those done. Same with dip nails – they’d crack or fully lift up within a few days. It’s like my nails reject that stuff.
Here Comes Gel X
Some nail salons offer Gel X nails, or Gel X extensions. They are pre-packaged shaped nails which the nail tech would measure to see which ones would match with each of your nails. They’d smooth your own nails down as well as the plastic-looking Gel X nails. Once all that is prepped, they would put some bonding stuff on the Gel X nails onto your natural nails and cure it with the LED lamp. Regular gel polish is applied onto the Gel X nails afterwards and those are cured with the UV light thingy.
Not All Nail Salons Offer
The Apres Gel X website has a listing of certain salons or speciality places that offer Gel X nails. A lot of them are rather expensive, especially if you want design added to them. There are some (are they unofficial?) salons that aren’t listed in the Gel X directory that offer Gel X nail extensions. I did a Yelp search and Chloe’s Nail Lounge in Lafayette, CA showed up. Not too far from the home and BART station, so I made an appointment after seeing some of their work via Yelp photos and their gallery. Also, they have a website and I can book an appointment online, so that was a huge advantage!
First Time @ Nail Salon in YEARS
Getting my nails done is such a waste since my nails reject a lot of the stuff, regardless of which salon I went to for gel polish, etc. Since Gel X was a new thing for me, I thought to give it a try. Chloe’s charged $65 for it, which was on the lower end compared to other salons in the Bay Area. The salon smelled like various chemicals, which was expected. I kept my mask on for that reason.
Various Lengths and Shapes
Gel X nails come in various lengths, and surprisingly the one I chose was considered their “short” length. They can make the shorter by cutting them, but I decided to try their as-is length. There were various shapes as well and I chose square.
Design or No Design?
I was looking at nail art design for a while the days prior to my nail appointment, but couldn’t settle for anything that I really wanted. Ombré nails seemed fun and I saw Chloe’s page had a lovely pink white ombré so I decided to get that done.
Pink Gel Polish and Airbrush?
Gel X nails were prepped and cured on, and after was the normal gel polish steps. Polish is put over the Gel X nails and cured via UV light. Multiple layers. They put on a couple layers of pink polish as the base of the ombré nails. Then someone else used this airbrush device and sprayed on the white polish to give it the ombré effect. Ah, so that’s how it worked! Top coats were put on and cured again. So many layers! Final smoothing out, and then I was done.
Long Lasting?
There was quite a bit of material/polish used to put on the Gel X nails, and these did last longer than a week! Gel X lasted so much longer than any of my other nail salon experiences. YAY!!! I had them longer than a couple weeks and even saw a bit grow out, which never happened with my prior nail experiences.
Broken Due to Stress Biting
Work has been stressful, and one day I was biting some of my nails during a super demanding day. They bent and broke. Whoops! My bad. I then trimmed them down when I got home to even them all out. More stressful days occurred and I was biting around the edges of my nails at that point. Ugh, the taste and the smell of broken nails with so many layers of polish. Not good!! Most eventually came off in bits so I ended up removing them all since they were beyond repair. I just used nail clippers for some and peeled the rest off. My nails looked so bad so I put on a layer of base coat to smooth them all over.
Overall Good
When done right, Gel X nail extensions can last quite a long time! Mine sure did – nearly 3 weeks, and they would have lasted longer if I didn’t chew on them.
Time to Get Used to Them
Any longer, I might have had issues wiping myself. This “short” length was alright. It took me a few hours to get comfortable typing at my regular speed. Doing the necklace clasps were painful, and there were some times when things snagged on the nail, which really did hurt. Overall, my Gel X nail experience and Gel X nail review is a positive one!
