After months of futile attempts to fight my gel allergy and several bad reactions, I gave up and am now back to regular polish. I finally found a polish that reminds me of my favourite gel mani, “Gilded Galaxy” by Essie. It cheers me up a little.

My fingers and nails are still damaged from the allergic reaction. Still very much healing from the last. This is why my nail shape is so irregular and fingers slightly swollen with bumpy skin. I hope that eventually my nail beds would heal. But I think it’s important to show this process.

I’m also embarking on a journey trying to care for my natural nails better so that they could grow long and strong without hard gels. Pretty much starting from 0. I’ll likely have to chop these too before long, as they are quite damaged from the repetitive allergic reactions, but for now they’ll suffice.

Polishes used:

* Essence: Extreme nail hardener
* NailKind: Ridge filler primer
* Essie: All-in-one base & top coat
* Essie: Gilded Galaxy 17