DIY Gel Nails at home

I have a love hate relationship with my nails. 
I love to ignore them and hate to spend time making them look nice, but then I hate when they look ugly and feel cuter when they look nice.  I rarely do anything to them except keep them way short.  I do keep polish on my toenails most of the time though. 

A few months ago I bought the Sally Hansen at-home gel nails kit - 

Sally Hansen Salon Gel Polish Starter Kit

This is not the nail "strips" kit - it is the nail polish kit.

  
I paid $50 for it on Ulta.com (got $10 off with a coupon and free shipping - I think the price has gone up a little now). They had it at my local Target, but there are three color choices that come in the kit and they only had the color I didn't want so I did my research and found the best deal at Ulta.


Here is the Tired Girl review:

PROS:

 - For $50 this kit would pay for itself if I only used it twice (on my fingers ad toes each) and so far I have used it 4 times in 4 months.

 - There is no dry time (!!!) which was my biggest hang up in painting my nails at home - I love to lay around, but only on my terms, and there never seemed to be a good time to paint my nails and let them dry -- I almost always smudged them.

 - It is easy and fast.

 - My painted finger nails last over a week - sometimes more than two full weeks - so the energy I put in is made up for because they look nice for so long - a good bang for my buck in my opinion.

 - My toe nails last even longer of course (because I don't wash dishes with my feet) and I even put a touch up coat on them after a month and they still looked great.

 - The polish is easy to take off - no remover necessary -- you work up a corner of each nail and the whole thing comes off in one sheet of color. I don't use any remover - so less drying and chemicals.

 - I think they look nice - especially now that I am getting better at the polishing.

CONS:

 - The UV light is not good for you and is rather controversial -- UV= cancer (I am soooo not into cancer).  

 - The "gel" polish in any brand is a little pricier than regular drugstore polish - these are $11-$12 for a small bottle.

 - Because the color will come off in a sheet, once it does start to get bumped and chipped there is a chance your whole nail color will come off of one finger, which can be a bummer if you are not at home. 

 - They don't look as great as when someone professional does them for me -- because I am not great at polishing my nails. But since I am not going to have them done anyway, it's this or nothing. 

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 So, in the end I am way happy with my purchase and the idea that my nails look nice sometimes. Why is this a Tired Girl recommended product?  I save energy and money  while having nice looking and long lasting painted nails.  

 Here are a couple of extra thoughts - if you are still interested in this:

 - I like that Sensationail has more colors than Sally Hansen at this time, but I DO NOT recommend this brand for fingernails.  It lasted great on my toes, but only lasted a couple of days on my hands - started pulling up on finger nails the very next day.  Major boooooo. 

 - If you are NOT an expert nail-painter (as I am not) I recommend painting your nails the day before any event - it gives them a day for the little extra over paint areas to come off. They look best on day 2 or 3 I think. 

 - And finally, I have never had a gel nail polish manicure done professionally and probably won't (it's just not my thing to go to a salon and have them done - I spend all my time thinking about what else I could be doing for fun or money - http://www.thetiredgirl.com/2012/11/know-yourself.html ), so I cannot accurately speak about how this kit compares to a professional manicure.  I hope that doesn't make you angry. 

- I am going to try using the gel base and top coat and  UV light with a "regular" polish and will let you know how that goes. 

If any one has something to add I would love hear other Tired Girl's thoughts -