I love treating myself to a manicure every once in a while. It makes me happy to look at nicely filed nails, neat and tidy cuticles, and a trendy fun color. However, it makes me very unhappy to see a chipped nail within a day of getting a manicure. But being a mom means an endless amount of activities that put your manicure at risk – washing piles of dishes, snapping and unsnapping a million different kinds of buckles, scraping unidentifiable dried food off of your dining room table (please tell me I’m not alone with this).

The joy of a fresh manicure quickly feels like $20 down the drain.

In the past I’ve had “no-chip” manicures and have friends who have gotten gel manicures. But they tend to be much pricier than regular manicures, take longer at the salon, and require you to go back into the salon to either get the polish removed (and usually pay to have it removed!) or pay to have a new color applied on top.

I live in the world where maintenance and upkeep are not a possibility. I need easy, easy, easy!

So imagine my excitement when I was getting a manicure a few months ago (using a gift certificate, hence the reason for the splurge), my manicurist asked me if I wanted to try a new nail polish that has similar results to a no chip manicure but with way less fuss. Also, I could take it off myself. And it was only $3 more than a regular manicure. Yes please!!

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Enter, VINYLUX!

 

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Now, it’s similar to other types of “non chip” polishes where there aren’t a wide variety of colors available. I’m ok with that, and I manged to find a few colors I really like. But how this polish varies from other “non chip” varieties is that it goes on like a regular nail polish. The manicurist puts on two coats as they would with a regular manicure – no waiting in between. Your nails feel almost dry immediately. Because the polish hardens with natural light, my manicurist had me put my hands under a light for a few minutes, and then she applied a VINYLUX clear top coat.

And then you are sent on your way with perfectly polished and dry nails! You can immediately go about your business, run errands, and even take care of your child without fear that you’ll ruin your nails.

Eventually, of course, the polish will start to chip. When it hits that point, you can simply remove it with the run of the mill nail polish remover you have at home. I still thought it would be difficult to remove, but it actually came off easier than some traditional nail polishes. And your nails are in perfect condition after removing the polish!

My first VINYLUX manicure lasted close to 2 weeks before it started to chip. I’m pretty sure I was lazy and left it on for at least another week before I gave up the fight and took it off. But for that 2 weeks my nails were looking pretty great!

I just got another VINYLUX manicure a week ago before going on a trip. After traveling for 3 days (i.e. lugging a suitcase around, going through security at the airport, etc) and spending the other 4 days at work (typing all day long!) and taking care of Miss H (doing tons of dishes, snapping buckles and diapers, cleaning, etc), my nails look like this:

Please ignore my inability to take a nice nail picture.

Yes, after 1 week my nails are still looking quite good, if I do say so myself! They have teeny tiny little chips around the edges, but nothing substantial.

One final plug for VINYLUX – you can buy it yourself, so if you have a steady hand with a bottle of nail polish (I don’t!), you can easily give yourself a great, long lasting manicure at home.

While this may appear to be a bit of a silly post, this nail polish really does excite me to no end! I detest spending my hard earned money on something that has little staying power, yet a nice manicure every once in a while is such a lovely treat. This product is a winner in my book.

Have you discovered a product that feels like its completely geared toward a busy mom’s lifestyle?

*Note: I have no affiliation with the VINYLUX brand, I just really like the product (obviously!).