A GEL MANICURE AT HOME? THESE GUYS NAIL IT

According to fans, once you Shellac, you never go back. CND Shellac, available at salons, paints on like polish but hardens like gel nails. The result is a shiny finish that can last up to two weeks. But Shellac tends to be pricier than average manicures, ranging from $25 to $65, plus a removal fee. (Maybe the saying should be: Once you Shellac, money you’ll lack.) Nailene has introduced Sensationail, an LED at-home gel polish manicure system ($89.99), so you may reap all of the benefits (and suffer the disadvantages) without visiting a salon. The procedure The starter kit comes with an LED lamp. It looks like a tanning bed for a tiny action figure. A button at the top turns the fluorescents on for 60 seconds (beeping after 30 seconds); lit up, it looks like a party bus for my nails. The process takes about 20 minutes. I applied a base and top coat, “cured” them for 30 seconds under the lamp, then applied two coats of Coral Sunset, baking each layer for 60 seconds. The nails were instantly dry and super glossy. The wear With Coral Sunset, my nails looked like Nestle’s strawberry runts: delicious. Every day for seven days, the polish appeared almost wet with shine and survived chip-free. I got my first chip on Day Eight — shy of the 14-day promise, but not bad for a manicure. The removal This is the hangover after the party bus. You must buff the shine off the surface and then soak your nails in acetone for 15 minutes. Following that, you scrape the gel off with a manicure stick. It’s unpleasant work and your nails look destroyed after. But at a salon, you’d pay to have someone chip it off.

The verdict For anyone who has taken a shine to gel manicures, the Sensationail is a great at-home alternative. (The starter kit comes with one colour but additional colours can be bought for $16.99. An essential kit replenishes your basic supplies: cleanser, primer, lintfree wipes and base/top coat for $31.99.) Melissa Leong, Weekend Post