There are many gel starter kits out in the market but I decided to try the Red Carpet manicure set that I came across at my local Ulta Store. They're all around the same price range, but I thought this kit looked the best. It comes in two types. The starter kit comes with a mini ultra violet light and the pro kit has the standard size UV light. The starter was less expensive so I went with that. The only downside to the starter kit is having the smaller UV light. The larger UV light takes 45 seconds to cure each layer and with the smaller UV light it takes 2 minutes.
Another great thing is their color choices. They literally have 54 different colors where a lot of the others are limited to less than 20. The color I chose to try is 168 The Night is Young. It's a pewter shade and really nice.
My first pass at this was a little more time consuming since I'd never had a gel manicure. Between the prepping of one hand, the base coat, 2 coats of polish and the final top coat it took about 20 minutes per hand. It takes longer with the smaller UV light because you have to do the thumbs separate. So all together it took around 40 minutes. It takes me about 25 minutes to do a traditional manicure. If this really lasts 10 days it will be worth it.
The results of my first try are successful. I'm really pleased with how they look. The only thing I would change is I would've gotten the pro kit for the bigger light. That would have meant 45 seconds for each coat and thumbs would have been included. The smaller light really doesn't allow you to do all 5 fingers at one time.
The starter kit is around $59.95 and the Pro Kit is around $79.95. The polishes are $9.99.
I will let you guys know how it turns out after 10 days.
http://www.redcarpetmanicure.com
http://m.ulta.com/mt/www.ulta.com//ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=xlsImpprod3950155
