NYK1 Secrets Gel Starter Kit Review
NYK1 Secrets Gel Starter Kit
This is a first for me. Gels have always been a big scary unknown to me. It might sound daft, I know, but the whole thing just seemed so complex, so when I was offered the opportunity to test out an at home kit I was pretty excited.
NYK1 Secrets provide Shellac kits, polishes and accessories. The kit I have here is a start kit with 4 polishes, plus top and base coats and all the other bits and pieces you could possibly need. Not content with a simple single colour manicure, I went with a glitter gradient and an accent nail.
NYK1 Secrets Gel Starter Kit, ‘Helena’, ‘Summer Holiday’ and ‘Platinum VIP’
NYK1 Secrets Gel Starter Kit, ‘Helena’, ‘Summer Holiday’ and ‘Platinum VIP’
NYK1 Secrets Gel Starter Kit, ‘Helena’, ‘Summer Holiday’ and ‘Platinum VIP’
Pro’s
Wear: The wear time was great. Admittedly I don’t have any experience wearing gels to compare it to, but it does what it says on the tin. The colours seem pretty varied, especially for something that lasts for so long you won’t be changing colours too often.
The kit: It seems to have everything you need. There’s plenty of acetone, brushes, wraps and the like for multiple applications. The instructions are also easy to follow and fool-proof.
Con’s
Application: Application suggested 2-3 coats for full opacity. The purple needed 5 coats, plus the glitter, plus base and 2 top coats meant I was wearing 8 coats which was incredibly thick on the nail.
Wear: While it lasts for ages, I felt like it was constricting my nails, like it was too tight almost. Hard to describe, but I didn’t love wearing it.
Removal: Well, it was a bitch. It said to soak the nails for 10-20 minutes before using the stick to scrape it off. I soaked for 40 minutes before anything would budge, scraped to no avail and then soaked for another 10 minutes. In the end I didn’t get it all off, my nails felt awful and I was generally not happy at all.
I don’t know if these issues are all related to the issue of the opacity. Perhaps if I’d had less coats it wouldn’t have felt as tight on my nails nor would it have taken so much effort and damage to remove.
Overall
I have a feeling gels aren’t for me, so if you’re into wearing gel polish you can probably decide for yourself based on the above comments. I feel like the price is pretty good, gel manicures in salons can cost a lot of money and if you’re competent enough to paint your nails well enough yourself, then you could make some killer savings by doing it at home. The orange was a much more opaque so it’s likely that many other colours don’t have the need for as many coats as the purple needed for me. I found that application took a little more concentration, I didn’t notice an ever so slight run toward the side of the nail that you can see in one of the photos. Because I cured it before attempting clean up, it just wouldn’t budge. I don’t slap polish all over my fingers, but I’m pretty good at clean up so I don’t always paint perfectly (shock horror) so my mistake was there for the duration of the manicure.
I am keen to experiment with regular polishes and a gel base and top coat to increase wear. On the whole I don’t want to wear polish for too long, but I can imagine some scenarios where knowing that a mani will last more than three or four days before chipping will be a massive selling point. While the colours are pretty varied, including some glitters, I have far too many polishes not to want to wear something a bit more special on those occasions that I might want long term wear.
I’m interested to hear about your experiences with gel at home kits, and gel in general. Is gel for you? And if you’re a lacquerhead like me with countless polishes, how do you feel about gel?
Important Bits:
Volume 10ml
Top coat One coat of top coat over all
Cost £125.00 down to £94.95 currently
Availability www.nyk1.com though my kit didn’t contain the glitters as I believe it was a blogger sample special.
Products sent for review.
