60-second Minimum Maintenance Nails

Now, you know that while I love playing with cosmetics and colour, I rarely have the time to indulge myself as much as I’d like to. This is especially true of manicures and pedicures. While they are in that vague category of necessary luxury (I mean, come on—how often have you seen a person, of either gender, in a beautiful outfit but with ragged, unkempt nails?), for women particularly nails seem to take an inordinate amount time to groom.

Apart from the time it takes to actually get a manicure (let alone a pedicure), a fresh mani is so very, very easy to mar! When I lived in NYC, I got into the habit of putting all my jewelry, outerwear, hat and so on, and even paying (including tip) before the polish went on my nails. Now that I drive, even that ritual doesn’t cut it, as I invariably ding my beautiful mani on the seatbelt. Or on the gearshift. Or on, you know, my skirt.

You can imagine, then, how excited—and skeptical—I was when one of my bubbliest coworkers told me about GelMoment products (affiliate link, but doesn’t benefit me). I had heard before about expensive UV lamps (for home use) and marginally faster-drying nailpolish… but I did not believe GelMoment’s 60-second claim.

So I tried it out.

Surprise #1—the UV lamp turned out to be an LED lamp that under $30 and comes in a fun range of colours. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure all the products cost less than $35. See pricing here.

Surprise #2—the nailpolish came in a range of pretty colours as well.

Surprise #3—Huh. Each individual coat of nailpolish actually did dry in 60 seconds! I did my usual flapping hen impression until my coworker gently pointed out that I didn’t need to. I rubbed my thumb over the nail… and it really was completely dry. Caveat here: the LED lamp is so small that you can only fit two fingernails in at a time. Okay, I’ll take five minutes’ drying time over an hour any day.

Next up: How long does it last?