I am a DIY nail girlie. I have been for as long as I can remember, with a brief, involuntary break when I was about six (I spilled red nail polish all over the white bathroom tiles and was temporarily banned from doing my own manicures). And though I’ve been whipping up my own nail art for about three decades, I’ve never quite gotten a handle on at-home gels. The polish is gloopy, the lights are clunky, and my unprofessional application techniques mean they don’t last any longer than a regular manicure would. But in this month’s One to Watch honoree from Olive & June, I may have found a product that changes my tune.
Founder Sarah Gibson Tuttle’s mission for Olive & June has always been to teach the general population how to do their own nails at home. The brand’s regular nail polishes are some of my favorites, its cuticle oil and polish remover pot have won multiple Best of Beauty Awards, and this year its long-lasting press-on nails won a Breakthrough Award. All that’s to say: The brand is quite good at this, and I was eager to try their latest attempt to bring the salon in my humble home: the Olive & June Gel Mani System.
Meet the experts:
In this story:
Overview
On a call that previewed this launch, Gibson Tuttle tells me that gel nails have always been on Olive & June’s roadmap, but she “wanted to make sure everyone knew how to paint their nails first.” With this kit, the brand aimed to create what Gibson Tuttle calls “drama-free gel:” long-lasting, less likely to cause allergic reaction, easy to remove, and accessibly priced.
On October 24, after three years of development, Olive & June launched its entire gel shebang: 28 gel polishes in the brand’s best-selling shades, an all-in-one system that includes everything you need to do your own gel mani at home, and a soak-off kit for removal.
About the system
Anne Reigle, the vice president of product development at Olive & June, tells me that developing a system that works together was no easy task. “You essentially have four formulas: the peel off base, the gel base, the color, and the topcoat, and then you also have the lamp,” she says. “We had to make sure that all of those things were compatible with each other, and every time we tweaked something, we had to retest it and then potentially tweak other parts of [the system].” Here, a breakdown of how those components all work in the final product.
The Gel Nail Polish
As mentioned, Olive & June is launching this new category with 28 of the brand’s already-popular shades. This means 21 opaque polishes in a very autumnal palette, three sheer shades, and four special-effects shades—all of which, the brand is very excited to say, are long-lasting (for up to 21 days) and HEMA-free.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
