Because normal nail polish NEVER lasts on my nails, I’m a huge fan of shellac manicures. For me, when normal polish lasts a day or two if I am lucky, the gel polish lasts up to two weeks when done at a salon. The trouble is, paying $35 or more every time I want my nails looking good is a serious blow to the wallet.

To get the gel benefits without the constant pinch to my bank account, I decided to try out the Sally Hansen gel nail kit. I’ll admit, I was a little nervous about doing this myself. Since I don’t polish my nails too often, I don’t have the technique down. But it was actually a lot easier than I would have thought.

The procedure is simple. Apply base coat, stick fingers under the light for 30 seconds. Apply color coat and place under light for 30 seconds. Repeat color step and then add the top coat, again placing nails under the light for 30 seconds. Wipe nails with a cleansing pad to remove sticky residue and that’s it! Simple. Fast. Easy.

For me, the at-home manicures don’t last as long as the salon ones, but they also aren’t as damaging to the nails as the salon ones can be. My manicure lasts about 5-6 days, which is two to three times longer than normal polish on my nails.

The biggest bonus is the speed of these manicures. Using traditional polish is about an hour-long process. You sit around with the semi-dry polish on your nails and try not to move, to touch things, to do anything that will harm your nails. With the gel you can immediately go about your day like usual without worrying about chipping or blemishing the manicure.

Now that I’ve given myself the gel manicure a couple times and have figured out how it all works, a manicure takes me about 20 minutes total, including the set-up.

A couple things to keep in mind when giving yourself a gel manicure:

• Apply only a light layer of each polish. Thick or uneven application makes the manicure peel away quicker.
• Keep away from skin. The more the polish touches the skin on the side of your nails the shorter it will last. I keep a very thin layer of nail polish free. Small enough that it is not noticeable but significant enough that the polish isn’t sticking to my skin.
• Removal requires 100% acetone and pushing the gel off the nail. Go gently so you don’t rip up nail layers.
• Better to dip your brush more often into the bottle than try to keep a lot of polish on the brush to sweep multiple nails. It is a little more tedious but give you more control.