Lets be very clear about this. The total price for a "starter kit" that includes The Gelish Basix Kit (Mini Gelish Ph Bond, Mini Gelish Foundation, Mini Gelish Top It Off, Mini Gelish Nourish, Mini Gelish Cleanser, and Mini Gelish Artificial Nail Remover), one Gelish color gel and the new $xx.xx UV lamp is only $xx.xx - approximately the price of two visits to their nail salon.
A consumer does not need to buy all the colors. They will be happy to buy one color at a time or they will split the cost of the kit among their girlfriends and buy the color they want that month for just $xx.xx. Sharing is easy because they only need the Kit for a few hours every 2 to 3 weeks.
Hairdressers, beauticians and make-up artists would be happy to buy more or all colors because they can then sell a new service to their clients. A service which takes little time to learn and for which they can watch application videos on the new website
www.gelishminis.com
Reading the
BeautyTech Dedicated to Educate and Decorate forum and the comments above, it is clear that many people believe that consumers will be able to purchase Gelish at Sally Beauty. Even if a particular store does ask for a Trade Card, the card does not to my knowledge state the occupation of the holder and therefore the products can still be purchased by other members of the beauty profession who are not qualified nail technicians.
All the posts here have been concerned with one issue - if they will lose business or not. Ask yourself, if in this hard economy I can buy a kit for under $xx and this will allow me to save $xx every month on having my nails done and the hassle of driving to/from the salon - would I do it?
But there is another reason to be concerned, and that is a public safety issue. The plain fact is that Gelish is a professional product. Professional nail products contain chemical ingredients that can damage health unless used as advised by the manufacturer. In particular the risk of developing an allergy due to overexposure. For that reason every bottle has on it's label "For Professional Use Only" and a list of ingredients. In Europe it is also law that the packaging must contain the Safety and Risk precautions. This information has to be in the local language where sold and is provided for medical staff in the event of a health issue.
Sally's does sell other professional nail products. But these require the consumer, hairdresser etc to learn to sculpt nails and few will have the dedication or commitment to do this. On the other hand, anyone can learn to apply gel polish in a few hours. The results may not be perfect, but they can watch video's on the Mini Gelish website or visit forums like this and read posts that answer similar questions.
Apart from the obvious, let me explain why you as a nail tech should be concerned that untrained people are able to buy professional products. I have been told by the editor of the Swedish nail magazine that when gel was first introduced to the US, one company started to sell it to consumers via home-party's. The result was a significant increase in the number of these users developing allergies, to the extent that gel got a very bad reputation. According to the editor who was living in the US at the time, it took another 10 years before the manufacturers were able to re-introduce gel to the market.
What if history repeated itself, but this time consumers developed allergies because of incorrect application of gel polish? Sales of the gel polish would drop, but also the bad reputation would motivate fewer people to visit nail salons. Perhaps salons who made nails with acrylic could continue, but the irony is that most of the salons using acrylic in the US and UK are the low cost salons.
I have met a number of people who have developed allergies through the incorrect use of gel, often it seems to me as a result from picking up sticky jars without wearing gloves. Other than the advice to remove excess Gelish from the skin, there is no advice regarding safe handling or the risks of overexposure on the
Gelish Minis website that I can find.
There is a more full discussion on the Beauty Tech website:
BeautyTech.com :: View topic - Hand and Nail Harmony