After I ditched my acrylic overlay on my natural nails back in college I decided to stick with a regular old manicure and call it a day. It took a long time for my nails to recover from years of damage and I didn’t want to experience that ever again. Even with the rage of long lasting gel manicures I decided to pass as I am too scared of having my nails damaged again. I keep my nails cut short, apply my base coat, shade of choice and top coat, and do it all over again when it begins to chip too badly. I’m very active with my hands and my polish usually begins to chip in about 3 days and by 5 it needs to come off so this becomes an annoyance at times when I need my manicure to last longer like on vacation. I was given a gift card to Salon Ziba in Midtown and saw that they offered a Vinylux Manicure, so I decided to give it a try since I was heading to Cali.
Vinylux is a nail polish system that uses natural light to keep the polish on longer. The polish self adheres without a base coat and a special top coat is applied that increases the durability as your nails are exposed to natural light, helping to keep your nails chip free for up to week. I chose the shade Lobster Roll, a coral red creme.
Lobster Roll took three coats for complete opacity. The top coat gave it a nice high shine finish and it was dry to the touch in about 5 minutes. I still let my nails dry for an extra 15 minutes to be on the safe side. Before I left the nail tech applied some CND Solar Oil to give my cuticles some extra moisture and she gave me a sample sized bottle to take home. For the first three days I didn’t experience any chipping and my nails still looked shiny and freshly painted. Here are my nails on Day 3…
By Day 5 I begin to see minor tip wear and get a few small chips that were only visible upon close inspection but my nails were visibly growing out. They were still shiny but looked a little worn with a few scratches. Here are my nails on Day 5…
On Day 7 the chips were visible enough to warrant taking it off. My right hand was worst than the left since I’m a righty.
The CND Vinylux Polish was just as easy to remove as any regular polish and I didn’t experience any nail damage upon removal. Overall I was impressed with the wear of the polish since as I mentioned I’m usually chipping at day 3 and changing by day 5. I think I’ll invest in a few shades to use when I am going on vacation along with the top coat. I generally do my nails at home and the cost would be less than the cost of getting it done professionally.
CND Vinylux Nail Lacquers are available on Amazon.
Have you tried Vinylux?
4 Responses
Your nails looked good.. any ideas on where we can purchase this nail polish?
Thank you. I’ve seen it on Amazon
I’ve been using the Kiss Gel Nails & the Sally Hansen Gel Nail kits with the LED lamp. Gotta say I love it! Love having my mani last for so long without chipping. Granted, it doesn’t hold up for an entire two weeks but it lasts until I change my polish again, which is usually every 4-5 days (but it can survive a good 10 days with minimal wear & tear). I have to wrap my nails with cotton pads soaked in acetone then wrapped in foil- which is a lot- but it works perfectly and I’ve got no damage. Glad to know there are other at-home alternatives to get my gel mani. Love gel nails. #NeverGoingBack
Maybe I’ll give it a try. I’m so nervous. I haven’t even tried those nail stickers as of yet lol