Shellac Review - my experience

Like many other ladies before I went away on holiday, I decided to get Shellac put on my nails. As you know I am obsessed with nails but as we were going for 2 and a half weeks I figured that getting Shellac put on would save the faffing with nail polish.
For those of you who dont know, let me first explain, Shellac is a gel polish which is set using a UV light and is meant to last for 2 - 3 weeks.

I spent a lot of time comparing prices of all the places in my local area. Initially I was just going to get my fingers done and local salons all seemed to charge the similar price of £25 for a shellac manicure. Then after chatting with my friend at work she told me about her cousin who did mobile beauty. It seemed perfect as 1 it would mean I wouldnt have to mess about getting myself to somewhere and 2. she was doing an offer where she was charging £25 for shellac on both fingers and toes.

I decided to get my nails done on the Wednesday we were due to go away - Matt was working until the afternoon so I booked in to have them done in the morning - I figured the closer I had them done to actually going away the longer they would last while I was away. Anyway I had them done I was in love with them.

About 2 or so days into the holiday I started to notice that the ends by my cuticles were starting to look a bit bedraggled - like they had been on a week or something.

Then on the Sunday after we got there (baring in mind we landed on the Thursday) we went to one of the water parks. I wasn't worried about my nails, I mean after all Shellac is marketed as the thing to have done before you go on holiday and people tend to swim on holiday so I didn't worry. When we got out of the water and back to the hotel I noticed I had 2 casualties! The ends of 2 of my finger nails had started to flake off!

Of course I took a photo for blogging purposes! Sorry its a bit grainy... This obviously is just one of my hands, I also lost slightly more on  the index finger of my other hand and polish on a couple of my toes.    I was gutted. I believe it hadn't even lasted a week considering it is meant to last 2 - 3 weeks with no chipping! I decided to brush it off and let it go however by the Monday night it was so bad that I ended up trekking across to Wall Greens and getting some Acetone nail polish, Cotton balls and a new nail polish to paint them with again! 

Overall I have to say I pretty disappointed with Shellac. Now my first thought is to wonder if it is because I didnt have them done at a salon, but she followed all of the steps to put it on so I dont think it could be. I dont think it would be the fact I went swimming because as I say, I know plenty of people who have had it done before they go away. 

I think maybe I would give Shellac another go. I havent fully decided yet. I was pretty disappointed to have wasted £25 before I went away to have my nails done, not to have them last a week but I am always willing to just see if it is one bad experience!

Have you ever tried Shellac? What was your experience like???