Have I used this title for an entry yet? Seems like one of those titles that I could get a lot of mileage from.

I have been saying for the last year and half that gel polish is the future of nail polish. Except for a few exceptions when I see a really great color, I have stopped buying traditional polish altogether. I am now down to only one regular client who wears it, and she doesn't really care what I use on her nails; she'd probably wear gel polish too if I didn't currently charge extra for it.

So I've been waiting for the first line of gel polish to hit the consumer market. And I've been anticipating the inevitable onslaught of industry whining that goes with consumer access to anything we consider "professional only."

So, this morning I found the link to Sally Beauty Supply posted to Facebook. Yup. They've got it.

And it appears that the first UV polish to hit the consumer market will not be Revlon or L'Oreal, or even MAC or Channel. Nope. It's my own, dear, sweet Gelish. Right there, whoring itself out to the masses.

OK. I admit it. I knew it was coming. I knew polish was headed in this direction and I knew that meant that the consumer market was going that way too. I've been expecting small, inexpensive UV lamps to be showing up alongside new UV-cured polish lines in Targets and Walmarts all across the land any day now. I just didn't think it would be a "professional" product line.

But the little 1/3-oz. bottles and the tiny little handheld lamp on Sally's website are so darn cute! And just perfect for home use.

The capitalist in me says, "Well good for them! Getting their product out there on the consumer market first!" But the pro-service snob in me says, "WTF?! WHY Gelish? WHY?!"

Well, I've decided I'm going to suck it up and not be a hypocrite. I've decided I'm going to be OK with it. It was inevitable. I knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time. It's not any different than consumers being able to buy OPI polish. And, despite some pretty common opinions of Sally's, it's not like Gelish showed up in Target first. This will still work itself into the public's perception that Gelish is a "salon" product, favored by professionals.

I do have one thought: I might have appreciated the opportunity to retail these consumer-ready versions of the product here at the salon before they went "public," per se. They would have made perfect salon retail items for clients to touch up edges and corners. And it would have endeared my clients not only to the product, but to me as their source for obtaining the product. This way, the product gets introduced to the public while bypassing the salon professional altogether.

I'm not saying I'm going to hold a grudge, and I can't really blame them. I just wish I got to be the hero here.