Gelaskin your MacBook Pro

Gelaskins have been scarce in South Africa for several months and even during my recent trip to New York, I was not able to find any.

We eventually decided to order several skins from the Canadian based company. The gallery of pre-made skins is huge and covers pretty much any laptop model and size. More intriguing is the “Create Your Own”-feature which allows you to upload any image (provided that it is of good quality) and customize your skin on Gelaskins’ website.

There is no limit in imagination, and the final product (using high-grade 3M vinyl adhesive sheet) is excellent:

Creating a custom skin was as easy as uploading images and then using the web-based layout tool to arrange/resize the images for the chosen device. You are able to use transparent images to overlay images and arrange images in the layout editor.

My initial order had issues as the cut-out for the skin was not done properly and I could not detach the skin without the danger of tearing the skin. When I contacted Gelaskins, they were concerned about it and promptly offered to re-ship the faulty skins at no extra cost.

Shipping from Gelaskins was quick, but I did alert them about my horrible shipping experience with UPS to South Africa and I strongly urge you to only order from Gelaskins if you can pick an alternative to UPS. If it was not for UPS screwing up my delivery, the Gelaskins purchase would have been an awesome experience from start to end, but UPS did manage to leave a bitter taste behind.

Unfortunately this is out of Gelaskins control and the did provide feedback that my delivery issue has been escalated to their local UPS office.

Applying the Gelaskin is however really easy:

• Clean your MacBook Pro with antistatic foam to get rid of any dirt and make sure the surface is completely dry
• Remove the Gelaskin from the sleeve and from the sheet
• Align the skin on your laptop without pressing the skin down. The adhesive on the skin does not really stick and the skin can be peeled off at any time. You are able to adjust the skin without much trouble.
• Once the skin is aligned, take a soft cloth and push out any bubbles. It is common that bubbles will form, but gently pushing them with a soft cloth to the edges will remove them.