Sorbet Canal Walk Gelish Nails Review

While I may be falling off the “blog post publishing wagon” I’ve been working away gathering content, busy as ever. But one of my most enjoyable experiences has been having my nails done, professionally, for the very first time at Sorbet Nails.

The lovely girls at Sorbet Canal Walk invited me to come in and have a gelish session. I must admit, I didn’t even know Sorbet was a salon. I just thought it was a shop to buy buy nail polish and face wash! Not being a fan of face masks, I’ve never bothered to go in. However, you can actually have your mani’s and pedi’s done at the salons.

Sorbet Canal Walk

I arrived at the wrong Sorbet at Canal Walk, doh! There’s a small nail bar upstairs in the mall – save yourself the mission of getting it wrong! The big salon is tucked away under the escalator, near entrance 2.

I was warmly invited in by the staff, offered a cup of tea (with these super cool sorbet sweet things) and a crazy amount of nail colours to choose from! Decisions, decisions…

Manicures at Sorbet Canal Walk

I had a professional and friendly nail technician, Cynthia, who told me all about her journey to become a nail tech.

Cynthia was an assistant at a beauty college, spending her days watching students learning. Eventually she started doing her own nails, the nails of her friends and family in the township until the owner of the school noticed she had a passion for beauty. This resulted in Cynthia being offered a bursary type arrangement that allowed her to study.

Now she’s one of the best Sorbet nail techs in town! I loved hearing her story and she really did do a lovely job. And the process began…filing down to the shape you like.

Manicure Process

After buffering and cleaning my nails, I couldn’t decide which colour to go for so Cynthia let me roughly test a few out. They’re ALL so pretty!

So after FINALLY deciding on my colour, I had clear painted on, scratched with a brush and baked in a little nail oven!

A dark red coca cola colour was what I picked as I always say my personal style is ‘pop and roll’. A little rock n roll, that’s not too emo, and always required a pop of colour. So, in this instant, I chose a dark colour, but then brightened it up with some glitter.

Another layer of transparent gelish is then added and baked. My nails were then wiped off and shined up.

After they were shined up I was treated to a hand and arm massage with warm water and exfoliator. It was super relaxing – although my arm muscles actually hurt being massaged! Don’t think my forearms have even been massaged before!

HOW LONG DO THEY LAST?

After 2 weeks, this is what they looked like:

As you can see, they’ve grown out a bit but the colour hasn’t chipped at all. After 3 weeks:

HAVING GELISH REMOVED

It takes just under an hour so you will need to book time to have them removed. First your nails will be soaked in some kinds of nail polish remover acid stuff, put on cotton wool and hidden under tin foil!

You will need to sit like this for about 15 minutes. They will then remove the polish, which comes off really easily after being soaked.

They will then file your nails down and make them look nice. I didn’t have time to have more gelish put on as the store was closing and I could only go after work, so I just had the gelish removed.

And voila! Back to normal.

HOW MUCH DOES GELISH COST?

You can have Gelish with power mani for R380 or just the Gelish prep and application for R220. Mine lasted 3 weeks before it started breaking off and looking shabby. I absolutely LOVED the way it made my nails feel. They’re not false nails, which means they still feel very “connected” to you. They’re SO MUCH stronger and actually made my  nails feel how I think they should – like mini tools! You can open cans of coke without snapping your finger nails, etc. I have really weak nails so I loved being able to do things without ruining my nails – or hurting them.

At R220 x 12 months that’s R2640 a year, so it’s definitely a luxury. But it’s a luxury that I’m honestly considering doing it as I really, really loved them!

Find Sorbet nail and beauty stores all over Cape Town, just go to the Sorbet website for the closest store to you.