It does sound a little sci-fi—and okay, maybe a little frivolous—but it’s hard not to want great looking nails for a full 14 days. Especially if you’re getting married, and then jetting of to some semi-secluded island where the only plan is to lay around all day and admire each other.

The trend in nails is long-lasting, chip-free color. Polished on Capitol Hill certainly isn’t the only place in town to get your ten-day shine on, but, thinking of you and your honeymoon (or you and your pre-wedding party-filled ramp-up/countdown) it’s where I went. I know, super selfless of me.

Thinking also of modern science and weird chemicals, I took a couple of questions with me.

One thing I knew about this new wave of durable manicures is that they can require a fairly extensive removal process (I’d heard stories about hands wrapped in aluminum foil for half an hour—not the kind of sci-fi I"m into) depending on the specific brand and process. When something is that difficult to remove from your body, you have to wonder what it’s doing to you while it’s stuck there.

The long and short of it, or what I learned after quizzing Polished co-owner Esther Parkhill and then spending an afternoon of extensive Googling, is that acrylic nails are really gnarly (okay, we already knew that), gel manicures—wherein a product is sculpted and painted on to your fingertips—are often of dubious quality, but Shellac, by CND, the resilient nail color product of choice at Polished,, is a hybrid. It’s part gel, part polish, and like the lacquers you feel good about picking up at the PCC, at Julep, or from Butter London displays, it’s three-free.

Sure, anytime you cover the living, breathing organisms of your body for an extended period of time, you’re in unnatural territory and you can expect some unnatural things to happen. But let’s assume that you’re not going to spend the rest of your life underneath two layers of Shellac. Let’s say that for 14 days in the near future, you want to eliminate chipped, not-awesome nails from the list of things that’s on your mind. Your first priority should be choosing a whistle-clean nail salon that offers a reputable product. So pay attention to this: One of the two sisters who owns Polished is a dentist; they autoclave their cuticle clippers like they’re drill bits for bad molars. The salon is immaculate.

Here’s how it works:

-Nails are trimmed, and those aforementioned sterile cuticle clippers are employed to get your nail bed nice and smooth. The technician I saw was obsessive and efficient, just what you want in that brand of professional. She also shaped my nails perfectly. That’s important when you’re going to live with them for two solid weeks.

-Base coat goes on, and you tuck your hands into a UV “curing” box for a minute or so. This UV curing is integral to the whole Shellac thing, but from what I understand, the low wattage and quick in-and-out exposure doesn’t amount to anything you need to get to worried about.

-Two coats of the color of your choice go on, paying a visit to the tabletop UV box after each one. A word about color: I’d never scrutinized my options so carefully. I typically mull over the beige-y taupes and Seattle-y gray lacquers and figure, well, this manicure is only going to last for a few days anyway. But this summer I’ve been loving true red with the season’s neons and neutrals … so I went for it. Brides and bridemaids will probably go for softer, more subtle shades. Smart, because lighter colors are sort of the ticket with this type of manicure. While it’s pretty safe to bet that your nails won’t chip or break, they will continue to grow, and eventually you’ll have little gaps at the base. Perceptible when your nails are purple-y black, less so when they’re the softest eggshell. Another word about color: The options aren’t, in my opinion, totally genius. I wish there had been a nice, non-pearly taupe or a a soft, matte nude-pink.

-After the second coat and the second trip through the UV cure, the technician surprised me by getting out a bottle of alcohol, dabbing a little on each fingertip, and then rubbed it in. All good because my nails were already completely dry. Raise your hand if you almost always smudge a pinky or thumb as you fumble for keys or your wallet. The whole quick-dry aspect of Shellac is not to be discounted.

When the grow-out gets to me or I’m ready to not have red nails, I’ll need to return to Polished where they’ll slip little sleeves (not aluminum foil!) over each finger tip and remove the color. It’ll cost $10 if I then get another Shellac-icure, $15 if I don’t. Home removal isn’t really an option.

The whole thing took about 35 minutes—about 10 or 15 less than your than your average mani, since drying isn’t an issue. Shellac manicures do cost about twice as much.

As I type this, I can’t help but admire these Little Red Corvette nails of mine. I think I’m really going to enjoy spending the next two weeks with them.