Hi Marchbirdy Glad to see you went for the calgel too,first time I've been online this week so missed your post earlier but just to say what others have that you def need to get them quite short especially since you wear contact lense, I was like you to begin with but damaged so many lense and also had to get my husband to take them out that I decided short was better and have to say they do grow really fast with the calgel , much quicker than my nails normally do so short to begin with is good and makes it all last a bit longer! I have purple at the moment and this is another tip, dark colours last longer and appear to be stronger! what colour did you go for? I had french for my first but am more adventurous now, am going back next week to get orangey red for my hols