That is right, I am making the leap to gel nail polish. My nails having been getting longer by the week, with all of the dishes I do, 😉 and I want them to look nice for as long as I can. Therefore, I am treating myself to a monthly, at-home manicure, using gel polish, which is supposed to last 2-4 weeks, without chipping or peeling. (I will be the judge of that.) I forgot to mention that they require an LED light that “cures” them- like the new amalgam that is used in the dentists offices that requires a blue light to set the product. This gel will only “cure” under the UV or LED light, but takes only 2 minutes to dry hard. Yay!!!
When I was working, my nails would grow quickly because I washed them about 200 times every day. I needed to keep them short, however, so they would harbor as little bacteria as possible after all of the scrubbing I did. Now that I am retired, and living the dream, I only have to be a bit more cautious in my daily routines.
This does not mean that I have become a “princess”- far from it. Our lives here are much more difficult than up North. Very little is taken for granted here. For instance, there are no vacuum cleaners, no dishwashers, heck the washing machine has just been taken upstairs, but the dryer is still not hooked up. So, we either hand wash everything, and hang it all to dry, and hope someone gets it in before it rains, or, take it to the nearest laundromat, which is what we do now. We paid $500MN to have the equivalent of 5 loads done- remember, that is wash, dry, and fold. 🙂
We were asking the house keeper to do the washing for awhile, but the clothes kept drying with soap spots on them so we stopped that. They looked worse when they were dry, with spots, than when they were unclean. Anyway, the folks at the laundromat weigh the clothes we take, charge us by the kilo, and have them washed, dried, and folded, placed in neat plastics bags, and are very reasonable.
They also allow us our little “peccadillos”. You all know that I have been making our laundry soap for what, close to 10 years. And, we have only used white vinegar in the rinse, with wool dryer balls for the dryer for the pat 5 or 6 years. (Ivan developed an allergy to most laundry soaps, and most of the softeners). That was the best solution I could come up with- make our own soap, skip the softener, use the vinegar instead, and dryer balls in the dryer. No more itching, no more rashes. And no more softener smell that stays on your clothes for a month!!! The biggest plus, though, is that the vinegar keeps the washing machine clean of soap scum build up.
Did I mention all of the cost savings? It actually costs us about $0.02 per load of laundry at home. And the vinegar, keeping the washer clean, that is just a plus.
Anyway, what these nails will look like, once we start putting things away in the apartment, only the Lord knows. Until then, I am going to have some fun with gel nail colors.