3 /5 Emily Tirpak: Both negatives and positives. Communication was not great throughout and overall made the experience stressful. The order of steps here is a little different than other places, and every time I asked a question about what was going on, I was brushed off, kinda forced into a “trust the process.” I got polygel (thinking it was going to be builder gel going in), and think the tech might still have been learning how to do it, which is ok but I wish had been communicated beforehand. While it looks good from a distance, up close the thickness of the gel is inconsistent and is overall about 3-4x the thickness my fingernail is already. I like mine relatively short, and am glad I do because the molds for the gel builder are -very- curved and you’ll get claws if you want any longer than this. I felt bad having to ask 4 separate times to make them the length and shape we agreed on, but I did want to still be able to use my hands for my job. On bare natural nails, this set took about 2 hours total, which was about twice as long as I was quoted when booking.
I am VERY impressed with how long these lasted. The hard gel remained bonded to the nail for 8 weeks after they were done, and was helpful in growing the nails out. However…
What I didn’t love was after they were removed. In order to get such a great bond, the tech here sanded off the majority of my natural nail, and there’s so little nail left I can bend them in half (the uv bonding hurt a lot more than usual, that’s probably why). I ended up having to lose the whole section of nail I wanted to grow out because it was so fragile.
The color selection is vast and top-notch- so many beautiful colors that last a long time, including sparkle and iridescents. It was a weird experience and a little pricey for the service, but I got a LOT of compliments on this set, and would still consider going back.
