Sensationail Gel Starter Kit Review

Hi guys! Today I have a review on the Sensationail Gel Polish Starter Kit in Pink Chiffon. My mom picked this up for me at Walmart and I used it last week. I've been wanting to try gel nails for a while now so I'm super happy. Long, and wordy post up ahead.



Once again, I find myself apologizing for the lack of posts. It's very frustrating, because I'm not burn out, I have tons of stuff to post about, and I want to, but I haven't had time these past weeks. We're still in the "settling in" process of the move and very stressed out about a ton of things. Since this is supposed to be my relaxing hobby (nail polish + blogging), I hate not having time for it at the end of the day. Anyway, on to the review.

The kit comes with a bunch of stuff in the little box. The most important thing is the mini LED lamp. The package claims it's a new lamp that cures 2 times faster than the previous lamp. You also get mini bottles of gel cleanser, gel primer, gel color, and gel base/top coat, a small pack of lint free wipes, a double sided buffer, manicure stick, and a bonus sample of a product called "Nail Shields".

The kit is really easy to use. Here are my step by step instructions:

1. Push back cuticles and gently buff the nail surface if needed.
2. Clean each nail with a lint free wipe and the cleanser. You only need a little bit.
3. Apply the gel primer in a circle around your nail, following the nail tip and the sides. 
4. Apply one very thin coat of the gel base/top coat.
5. Clean up any excess gel from the skin. 
6. Cure for 15 seconds. The lamp has a sensor and turns on when you put your fingers inside, it blinks at the 15 second time interval and shuts off after 30 seconds.
7. Apply one thin coat of gel polish, clean excess, and cure for 30 seconds.
8. Repeat for a second and third coat if needed, remember to always clean up before curing.
9. Apply the base/top coat again, clean up if needed and cure for 15 seconds.
10. Use a lint free wipe and the cleanser to wipe off the tacky layer and you're done.

The color included in the kit is called Pink Chiffon and it is a very light pink. It looks pretty decent in the swatches but don't be fooled. I had slight visible nail line and patchy areas after 3 coats. It's ok for the average user but the application bothered me. I can be hyper-critical about those things sometimes so it might not be an issue for you at all. I thought that, since it was gel polish, it would be awesomely opaque in 2 coats but that was not the case, so I was definitely disappointed.

The base/top coat is not the shiniest. I wore this polish for 4 days, until I got super bored with the color and soaked it off. I snapped the swatch pics right before I took them off, so you can see there's no chips or wear.  However, the polish peeled off in large sheets in my right hand by the 2nd day and I had to reapply. I figure that's probably due to user error, maybe that hand wasn't clean enough or properly dehydrated, maybe I soak that hand more often in water, or maybe the base/top isn't the best for me.

Removal was relatively easy, I used the foil wrap method for about 15 minutes and then used the manicure stick to gently scrape off any stubborn bits. 

One other thing I had a lot of trouble with is the clean up. First of all, it's rather annoying to have to clean up after every single coat of gel, it took me a really long time. Not that I'm a messy polisher, but since I have short nails, when I wrap or cap the tips, there's always polish that gets on my skin. I'm not certain on what's best to use, I found some bloggers used acetone and others used alcohol. I tried both and got better results with the alcohol but it seemed to be ruining my nice clean up brush, so I switched to an old brush and that gave me sloppy results. It was rather frustrating to feel like a newb again.

I did my mom's nails and used the Nail Shields. She's a breast cancer survivor and even though her last chemo treatment was months ago, her nails are still suffering the side effects. She wanted the strength and protection gels provide, but she can't soak her fingers in acetone for more than a few seconds or it irritates her extremely sensitive skin. The Nail Shields ended up being the perfect option for her, you place them on top of your natural nails after you've gently buffed and cleaned, then apply the coats of gel polish and topcoat as normal. Once you're ready to remove the gel, you soak your hand in warm water for 5 minutes and they pop off. In her case, her manicure lasted a full week before they popped off on their own and her nails actually grew a bit and didn't suffer any damage so she was pleased.

If you made it to the end, congratulations! Have you used gel polish before, do you have any tips for me? Let me know in the comments!

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