Want to try Shellac: how do I tell if it's really Shellac?

[Fabapocalypse]

I went on the CND website and used the locator thingy, and there are no salons in my town listed as offering it. I'm not sure how up-to-date the list is... but there are three salons here advertising that they do.

One is a salon which has done hair only for a number of years and suddenly has a poster in the window offering Shellac, one is a mainly acrylic and air-brush nail bar type place which has a very obviously ripped-from-the-interweb-and-enlarged home-printed poster in the window (so am thinking probably not THAT one!) and the other just lists it as a service on an A-board outside but it's an upstairs room so I can't see any products through the window.

Having heard (and read here) some horror stories about people being fobbed off with other things, I'm a bit wary. So, bottom line is, as a customer, how can I be sure that I get what's being advertised?

I saw Shellac "in person" on a pharmacist's nails and it looked really good, she thoroughly recommended it but isn't local to me so I can't get to the salon she uses.

 

[Lynne Baker]

Bottom line is that it could be tricky to ensure that it's absolutely genuine.
Even if the salon has what appears to be the real thing they could easily have bought it from eBay. They could have decanted fake shellac into real shellac bottles too, so even if they show you a real shellac bottle you can't be 100% reassured.
If someone came to me really concerned about my credentials I'd be happy to show them the sweet squared invoices, and my insurance, certificates, and anything else that might put them at ease.
Word of mouth goes a long way in your particular circumstance.

With regard to the salon locator it might be that they just haven't got round to it yet!

 

[Chickafish]

One way you can find out for sure if they're even using the real deal is to just be a genuine consumer and ask as many questions as possible directly to the tech that is going to provide the service. Ask about the product. Ask if you can see what it looks like. Ask about what will be done to your nails as a genuine inquiry concerning damage to your natural nails. Any tech using genuine product bought from the authorized distributors will have no problem showing you their credentials as Lynne Baker has stated, and they will have the products out in the open on display, so you can see for yourself whether or not they're using the correct equipment and products. You've obviously done enough research, so familiarizing yourself with what everything should look like should not be a problem.

 

[Fabapocalypse]

Thank you! I will carry on researching. I came across another thread on this forum which mentions another locator (Love Shellac) and bunged my postcode in that one, but none of my town's salons advertising it came up on there either!

I will try asking questions of the salons this week; am hoping they will give me the info I need before taking a booking as I would imagine it would be quite intimidating/embarrassing to deal with once you're actually sat there and they're working on you!

 

[Fabapocalypse]

Well, my quest continues...

The total of salons in my town offering 'CND Shellac' complete with posters and so forth but not listed on either the CND website salon listing or the Love Shellac salon locator has increased to four. Now, this is a small town: surely they can't ALL be 'fakes' or unaccredited? Can they?

I haven't been able to speak directly to a tech at any of the salons. Either they're 'not in today' or 'they're in an appointment' or whatever. One I have discounted since they mention Shellac in quote marks and brackets after describing another well-known brand of gel polish - and I know I don't want a gel.

Thought I'd try another tack and maybe look for an accredited salon near either to my folks or my other half; I'm regularly at both places. This looked more promising on the Love Shellac locator. 'Click to visit website' they said, so I did and oh dear me... vital pages not working (treatments offered and price lists?) or '404 not found', photos of beautiful looking nails but with red and sore looking cuticles; one listed salon not even taking bookings until next spring.

I have also read on four separate salon websites - in different parts of the country - the exact same word-for-word paragraph regarding the commitment to customer care and the percentage of repeat custom, wanting to earn my trust, etc., etc., which looked very good the first time I read it but lost its shine by the fourth, particularly when the wording wasn't really applicable to the particular salon or tech. Not sure if the paragraph is spreading from website to website or everybody has done the same sales training course!

May well give up on the Shellac and just keep polishing my own nails with my own (ordinary) polish....

 

[The Geek]

just because a salon doesn't appear on Shellac doesn't mean they aren't using Shellac... it means that if they appear, you have assurances they are using it. There are still loads that have yet to register as the site just launched

Best of luck!

 

[geeg]

Everyone should maybe put something like this in their salon.