Cheap Sally Hansen Salon Insta Gel Strips Starter Kit, Wine Not

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Let me just say, I work at the store that sells these and I was very excited to try it as I love to do my nails. I love Sally Hansen nail strips, I use them all the time. When the GEL strips came out with this little LED lamp, I was intrigued. Let me also point out, the store I work at sells this item for quite a bit less than what I see here on Amazon. I also need to add that the gel refills for this kit sell for five dollars more than the regular Sally Hansen polish strips. Onto the actual review:

The kit comes with the mini LED lamp, 16 gel polish strips (more on this later), a bottle of the gel top coat and the nail cleanser pads. If you have ever used polish strips, you apply these in the same way you normally would. Apply them all to your fingers then begin with the gel polish. Just apply the top coat to one finger and put it under the lamp. The lamp is easy to use, just plug it in and when you are ready, put 1 finger under the light and press the button. It stays on 30 seconds, turns off when the 30 seconds are up. Do this for each finger. After the light, the gel polish is dry, though if you touch it you will feel a stickiness. Wipe your nail with the cleanser pads to remove the stickiness and you are done. It is very easy to use and comes out looking very pretty. I did notice the strips for this kit are thicker than are the non-"gel" strips Sally Hansen makes. I did not like this, and sure enough, being too thick they start to come up at the edges after a couple days. In fact, the kit has a very involved process of soaking your nails in remover to get them off. All I had to do was get my fingernail under the raised edges and peel each off in one go. Very odd. Also, I had major chips after the first day of normal wear. Over all, the process was easy as pie, but I was still unhappy with the overall results.

This got me thinking, I wonder if I can use the regular Sally Hansen nail strips with this LED lamp, which I already love and are five dollars cheaper than these "gel" strips. Both strips seem identical except how I mentioned the gel strips were thicker. I had plenty of the normal strips laying about, so I tried it.

I did the exact same process with the lamp. There is enough gel polish in the started kit to use more than once (which is weird b/c if you buy the refill pack which is good for 1 use [again, more on this later] there is a whole new bottle of the gel polish). To get rid of that stickiness that I mentioned I just wiped each finger with a wet wipe. You can also use an alcohol pad if you have them b/c that's all the nail cleanser pads are, essentially. It looked great and the process was just as easy. I am on day 4 of this manicure and NO CHIPS and only slight wear at the tips. I have gotten multiple compliments at work. My overall impression? This kit is a glorified TOP COAT! And I really like it. :)

I think you can use whatever you like and just treat it like a gel top coat kit. Don't buy the more expensive refill kits. Use the regular strips. My next experiment? Regular nail polish.

Onto my little secret about these strip kits. Each kit comes with 16 strips, and with 10 fingers, that is a 1 time use. With as awesome as these little strips are, a 1 time use per kit is pretty expensive. I keep my nails short. The strips are pretty long. When I apply the first strip, I file it off, peel off the silver tab from the top part, TURN IT AROUND and apply the other side of the same strip to the same nail on the opposite hand. If that makes sense, you can use HALF the strips this way, and get two uses out of each refill kit. :) Good luck! I hope you all give this kit a try!

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I tried Sally Hansen Insta-gel strips for the first time, and I followed the directions explicitly. The process was easy enough, and they do dry instantly after using the UV light, which is nice. However, less than 24 hours later two of my nails have already chipped. For this reason, this system is not worth the $14 it costs for the strips each time you want to do your nails. For that price you might as well go to the salon and get a manicure done. I also do not like that you basically have to soak your fingernails in acetone nail polish remover to take the polish off, which I understand is true of all gel polishes, but its just not what I feel like doing since I just did my nails last night. I do not recommend this and I will not be purchasing again.

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I'm a big fan of the standard Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips. I use them all the time and routinely get 10 days of wear from a set. So, I expected great things from this product.

I was very, very wrong. The strips included don't adhere nearly as well as the standard ones. And they sure don't wear even 1/10th as well.

I followed the directions to the letter. Within hours, 2 nails had chips--and all I did was sit on the sofa and read. Within 1 day, the strips peeled completely off 3 nails while I was washing my hands.

What an utter waste of time and money. If Amazon had allowed, I'd have given this product 0 stars.

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I just purchased this kit in a retail store today. It was on clearance for $13.99, and I thought I would give it a try. I prepared my nails per the directions, followed the application directions, and they seemed to set beautifully. Except that now, three hours later, they are peeling off and chipping all over the place. I haven't done much since I put this stuff on (I washed my hands once, ran the vacuum in one room, and did some typing). I am extremely disappointed. If this won't hold up to light work, it surely won't hold up under my normal working conditions. This was a perfect waste of money and time. The stickers were terribly frustrating to apply, and I thought, perhaps, proper gel polish might work better. I doubt I'll give this a second try.

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Overall impression: Lasts slightly longer than a regular mani, but nothing like a real gel one.

Pros: Easy to do, especially if you aren't good with clean lines. Looks nice while it lasts. Easier to remove than a real gel manicure. Not messy. Price. If your nails aren't too long, you can actually use 1 strip on two nails.

Cons: LED has a short and doesn't stay on. Peels slightly about a week in. CAN chip, even with a few top coats.

I think this is an instance of "You get what you pay for". I would have given them 3 stars (maybe even 4), but the lamp doesn't stay on consistently. This is a real problem since you can only put one finger in at a time. You can fix the peeling by filing it a bit and applying another clear coat. However, the chipping (which isn't terribly frequent) just is what it is.