TIPS FOR A PERFECT GEL MANICURE AT HOME

Nov 21, 2019

I don't want to even think about the thousands of dollars I've spent to have my nails done at the salon, and honestly, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've been fully satisfied with a salon manicure. Either the nail tech will damage my nails, apply the product wrong, my nails chip after a few days, my nails are bumpy or uneven, gosh, the list goes on & on.

I guess I'm a bit of a nail snob, but when I'm paying $40+ tip for my nails to be painted, they should be darn near perfect. I have yet to have a constant great manicure, and I'm simply tired of wasting my money on mediocre manicures that don't last anyway.

A few weeks ago, Chris had the brilliant idea to go shopping and run a few errands. Of course, we ended the night at Target after we already went to BJ's Wholesale and spontaneously bought a new Christmas tree, so you know I was in a spending mood. He had to get more hair products, so naturally, I ended up in the beauty aisle.

I honestly wasn't going to buy anything, you know the look, don't touch at Target never works, so I ended up looking at new nail polish colors. I reached for my go-to Sally Hasen colors because they're a great price and work amazingly, but my next move changed my life forever...I saw the at-home gel manicure polishes.


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Now I have tried several at-home brands for gel polish, however, there are always like ten coats of polish involved...the cleanser, base coat, second base coat, color, color again, topcoat, some weird curing coat, and then finally, you might be done. Well, this time, I saw a new brand I had never noticed before, and it is ONE PRODUCT AND YOU'RE DONE! SAY WHAT?! <--- Hopefully, the all caps lets you know how freaking excited I was and still am.

I mean, honestly, one product with one coat that you cure for 30-60 seconds under an LED light, and that's it?...and the box says it lasts for 10 days?! Uhm, okay, well, I guess if it's not too expensive, I'll try it out. Y'all, this polish is $5.99!!! So obviously I bought it and tried it as soon as I got home!


I have an LED light from a past at-home gel manicure kit so I broke that out and got to painting. After reading through the instructions, it says you can do two coats and just cure for 30 seconds in between coats for a better look. So, I painted my first set of fingers, wiped around the edges, cured them under the LED light for 30 seconds, and then again for another 30 seconds because I got nervous they wouldn't actually be dry and then touched them to check, and guess what?! They were dry and hard like a salon gel manicure!

Immediately I was hooked. I kept going with my manicure and when I was finished, I honestly couldn't believe how great they turned out! I had extreme texture on my nails from when the nail tech at my last salon appointment freaking drilled divets into my nails...like deep divets, so regular polish was showing this, but not this gel!


In the end, I cured my nails an extra 30 seconds just to be safe since the instructions tell you to cure an extra 30 seconds if they feel sticky, so I did! I then wiped them with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton rounds, washed my hands, put on some lotion, and boom, my $5.99 at-home gel manicure looked better than any salon manicure ever had.

At-Home Application Tips:

Wipe your nails with acetone before to make sure you have removed all past nail polish and lotion/soap residue.

Go SLOW and take your time to wipe around the edges of each nail before curing under the LED light.



Paint your thumbs first--it's so much easier to get them finished first.

Pain thin coats.

Cure for 60 seconds after the second coat.

Wipe your nails with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton round when finished curing.

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I don't think that I'll be headed to a nail salon anytime soon, because there are so many color options to choose from, they last so well, it was the easiest application, and took all of ten minutes from start to finish!...oh, and did I mention it only cost $5.99 vs. $45?!

Be sure to grab your new favorite at-home gel polish here!
If you need the entire starter kit, get yours here for under $15.

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