Really Real DIY Gel Manicure

3 steps I wish I had known are super important:
– buff the shine off
– apply a pH balancing agent
-apply a gel bonder

When I learned gel manicures could last up to two weeks, and I could do it at home I was on board immediately. I got everything I thought I needed, chose an inexpensive LED lamp that came with little gel polish samples, and went to town. Then I was disappointed. My polish was coming off really fast, in sheets of paint, and faster than standard nail polish. To say they were chipping would have been an understatement. I took to the internet only to find women saying they either love their gel manicures or it just is NOT working. Tutorials weren’t solving my problem either. For some reason there are tons of people masquerading that they have some really helpful information to share, and then they tell you what everyone already knows, paint neatly within the lines, correct your mistakes, make sure to use a base and top coat, yada-yada-yadah, things I was already doing. Eventuallly I pieced together the missing pieces of the puzzle from various sources. It took quite some persistence, but I wanted a long lasting manicure A LOT. Oh the joy it was going to bring me to see beautiful, unchipped, perfect paint for days at a time. Things haven’t been the same since.

I like to wear my gel mani for one week. I change it every weekend because I get bored of the same color, but if I wanted to, I could stretch it to 2 weeks, especially if I were to reapply the top coat and reinforce the tip by capping the edge. I usually don’t want to though. My nails grow much longer now that I use gel, they’re well protected and it’s a ritual to redo them on Saturday mornings.

Here’s what I found was the difference between a long lasting gel manicure and a dud:

Prep, prep, and PREP. Maybe it’s because you don’t have to spend as much money to prep your nails well and it’s not very glamorous that no one seems to talk about it. If you asked a salon manicurist, they know this very well.  But if you didn’t know it in the first place why would you ask much about preparation for a manicure? You probably wouldn’t. Follow the steps in the image I’ve posted above and you should be golden. I think naturally we all know our hands should probably be clean when we’re about to paint our nails, but some of the other prep work seems minor. It’s not. There were 3 things I didn’t do that were going to make or break my mani. I didn’t buff off the shine from my nails. Apparently, this really helps adhere product. I have a little anecdote about this. After I learned the importance of buffing, my boyfriend got a flat tire on his bike. He bought a patch to patch up the hole. It was a little rubbery square patch, some adhesive, and a tiny piece of sandpaper in the patch kit. Impatient as he is he looked at the sand paper and was all blah, I don’t need this! So he glued on the patch. The patch came off. I told him follow the instructions, you really do need to buff the area around the hole with the sandpaper, it wont stick unless you do it, it’s just like my manicures! He did it, and it worked. So there you go, life lesson, how to patch a tire, your mani skills can be applied elsewhere in life!

There are 2 more prep steps I had no idea about. I think it’s a secret manicurists keep so their nails will always look better than yours unless you visit the salon (I’m kidding lol). Those 2 steps are, applying a pH balancing agent, otherwise known as a nail dehydrator and a gel bonder. The pH balancing agent gives you a proper canvas to paint on, so your natural oils etc will not mess up your mani. The gel bonder, is exactly what it is, a bonding agent. This helps your base coat stick to your actual nail, along with the color followed by it.

The pH balancing product I use is OPI’s Bondaid. You only need to use a little every session and it lasts for practically forever so it’s completely worth it. I have yet to run out of the first bottle I ever bought. This can also be used to improve your non-gel nail polish application. You’ll use it as much as your top and base coat and it can improve the length of our manicure.

Bonding agent, as the box says, “maximizes adhesion of acrylics, tips, wraps, glue, and polish.”

The gel bonder I use, is simply the same gel bonder available from the gel polish brand I buy. I like to buy “ibd just gel polish”, mainly because the price is awesome. My favorite color is probably peony bouquet, a very nice bright pink with a shot of purple hue. I would describe it as a hot pink orchid.

I hope this info helps you achieve the long lasting manicure you want at home! These are certainly things I wish I had known from the start. By the way, I always use an LED lamp and LED gel polish, not UV. I wrote about my LED lamp a little in my post 5 Reasons to Try Gel Color. I also wrote about my choice of using LED in LED vs. UV Gel Lamps and am happy to report about a month later Allure also wrote about the topic in their article “The Gel Manicure Lowdown: UV vs. LED” in which they spoke to some beauty professionals who went as far as saying UV is obsolete. Glad to be on the same bandwagon! Allure magazine has always been my favorite beauty publication.

Until next time, stay beautiful! Smooches.

LED vs. UV Gel Lamps

When I first researched at-home gel polish, I, like many of you probably have, had to decide between a UV lamp or an LED lamp to cure (the way you set) the gel polish. This choice can be really expensive or pretty affordable, cheap even. I remember when I searched for info the best thing I could find was a little specs chart with a side by side comparison of the two. I still don’t know who originally created that chart but I see the same one floating around and I’m guessing it’s getting “borrowed” extensively. Today I was going to post a comparison of the two but I decided not to because since my initial search this has become old news! Instead, I’m going to talk about what other people are saying about this topic in general, to help sort through the truth and the half-truths. Gossipy of me I know. But that’s the job of the average consumer. Who likes to waste time and money?

In my earlier post 5 Reasons to Try Gel Color I shared the lamp I went with, and my happiness with it. It didn’t seem like a complicated life decision at all because it just worked. No fuss. Google search “LED vs UV lamp” and you’ll get plenty of results, but they say different things. Sometimes they say opposite things. Uh oh.

Here are the selling points that made me go with LED:

• Quicker curing time
• Longer lasting bulbs and no bulb replacement. If it dies, you need a new lamp, not replacement parts
• Didn’t have UV in the name (more on this shortly)

It seemed like a win-win situation. The only con of an LED lamp that I care about as a customer is that not all polishes are compatible with it. UV on the other hand is compatible with all gel polishes. This turned out to be a little con. I’ve found most gel polishes I’m interested in work with LED as well. It’s probably in the best interest of any gel polish company to make polish that works with both lamps. This is one of the “features” they usually emphasize so that people know they aren’t buying the wrong polish. Another potential con was that LED is more expensive, but that’s old news too and now I have one so it’s certainly not anymore!

Most of the posts out there in the world wide web get the above simple characteristics right, or at least there’s consensus, but they have differing “facts” about UV light exposure. NOT having UV in the name, made me feel better about going with LED, and many will say you can avoid it altogether with an LED lamp. I’m guilty of thinking this is how it worked. But if you dig a little deeper and find some references with some scientific backing, you’ll find they both have UV light in some form. In fact it looks like in the light industry some call it UV LED light. So what does this mean? None of are safe! Panic! Nope. I’m still loving gel polish, maybe instead of just sunscreen on my face everyday I’ll also put it on my hands once a week or two. The studies released say one of two things. One, the exposure is negligible, or two, LED is the lesser of two evils. They actually don’t even say evil. They don’t even say bad. It’s more like a “no-no” fudge brownies are a sometimes food, not an every day food. So my mind is made up. LED light is to my (exquisitely gel polished) hands, as chocolate is to my diet.