Semi- permanent nail polish

[brightonite]

Firstly I'm so proud I have even got a thread in this section as style and beauty aren't words normally associated with me!!

After returning to work, I decided my "me treat" would be a regularish manicure. On a whim I had some semi-permanent nail polish -geleration the first time and gel the second. Now I'm hooked.... the catch is it's expensive and I can't afford to do it every two - three weeks.

I'd like to buy the UV lamp and polishes (initial outset of about £100) and do it myself but have been reading stuff on the net about needing a trained beautician to apply it.

Does anyone DIY with gel nails?

Can someone in the nail trade stick their neck out and tell me if there are any real dangers or whether it's really because beauticians don't want people doing it at home and they lose their business as a cansequence.

Thank you !

I will follow with interest because my nails are rubbish and gel nails are fabulous but unaffordable!

I had the Jessica everlasting manicure (which is a soak off gel polish and lasts three weeks) twice over Christmas, whilst it does look great, my nails were in a right state after I had this on for 6 weeks, flakey and peeling and it was a right pain to have to go into the salon to have soaked off...

are you good at painting your own nails normally, mine always look a bit of a mess when I do it myself so wouldn't want to do a gel nail polish myself.

Anyone?

I've had Shellac done by a friend who does nails and it looked quite simple to do. She put base, 2 coats of the colour and top coat and after each coat my hand went into the lamp for about 90 seconds.

It lasted a while but I found the edges on some nails bubbled a bit and came up and soaking off in Acetone was a bit of a pain and my nails were really dry afterwards.