✻ The 2 Week Manicure: Dip Powder Nails!

Hey everyone!

An ongoing theme with my nail polish reviews is that my manicures never last longer than 3 days. I assume that my best polishes will last longer on other people, especially when I was doing a ton of dishes (no dishwasher life). But longevity of polish wasn’t super important to me when I was just going to take the polish off and experiment with another color at the end of the day.

Once I started working at the Erin Condren store, however, my longstanding habit of doing my nails every single night quickly became impossible. It was annoying to spend that time with a bottle of acetone after a long day, and my lovely manicure always chipped within my first few hours at work. So I asked around- my manager always had nice nails. She told me about SNS dip powder nails done at the salon, costing around $50 and lasting about 2-3 weeks. I was sold. I researched salons and gathered up my coworkers whose nails were also not surviving our daily chores of restocking, building planners, and generally using our hands a lot.

✻ What are SNS Dip Powder nails? How is it different than gel?

I have never gotten a gel manicure for a bunch of different reasons, and SNS nails are NOT like salon gel manicures. SNS doesn’t involve LED lights, gel polish and top coat, and it isn’t even done with normal nail polish. SNS is a 10 step powder system done by a salon professional. They brush on different base coats and sealants and then dip your nails into powders (hence the name). You can get tips or not, and you can get any shape you want. You can have it done over your natural nail and the vitamins in the powder are actually good for the nails. They remove the nails at the salon with acetone and a dremmel tool, but it was MUCH less intense than I was expecting and not damaging to remove.

✻ How long does it really last?

My  manicure lasted a full two weeks. My coworkers have had them last longer- two girls are at 3 weeks (one of them did long acrylic tipped claws and one did short natural nails). I am a picker and started going at mine a little before the two week point. Two weeks in and I was ready for them to be OFF since they were grown out at the bottom, showing a lot of my natural nail (just a sliver but it felt like a lot to me). I also got very sick of the color since I’m obviously a person who prefers to mix up her nail polish colors (I mean, I used to do 20 different manis a month!!). Two full weeks is pretty insane to me. They didn’t chip at all and looked perfect until the day I took them off!

✻ Best of all… I paid just $45 after tip!

Research salons in your area and ask around. I got nervous after reading some Yelp reviews, but ended up at E’Shee Nail Salon in my neck of the woods in Austin after hearing word of mouth from people that it’s THE place to go.

✻ Here are the pics!

This shot was taken in the salon immediately after application. How they looked with almond shape and some acrylic tips:

They’re kind of thick and hard on the nails but feel completely comfortable. Your nails are stronger and more protected with them on.

Here’s at the two week point when they’d grown out and I was over them:

It feels kind of weird to do SNS Dip Powder now when my identity is tied up in nail blogging, but it is a huge relief to not have to worry about my nails ever. When I was still doing them myself at work, I once spent a morning applying stickers and opening boxes, and then while pointing to different cover options with a guest, I realized my nails were just horrible, chipped and jagged. It’s pretty hard to point out different options when you’re trying to hide your fingernails! I am so glad I made the switch to SNS.

What do you think? These would be great for a trip where you don’t want to pack nail polish!

Have you ever heard of this or gotten it done? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on my Instagram, which is @taylordorothy.

Have a great week!

-Taylor