Instructions for this “at home gel manicure” are ALL over pinterest. I love the look of gel nails but hate spending the time to go get my nails done and really hate spending the money. I also get so frustrated when I paint my nails and they chip or smudge in less that 24 hours… So I figured I would give this a try. I watched several you tube videos and got the supplies I needed.
Here is what you will need to try this at home:
1. nail buff
2. alcohol wipe
3. gelous (this is the key to the manicure) You can buy yours at Sally Beauty Supply for around $6, I ordered mine from amazon.com
4. nail color of your choice- I used Essie “smokin hot”
5. top coat of your choice- I used inm out the door
It took me 2 tries to get this right. The first time I followed the instructions that literally everyone posted on how to do this. Ill give you the abbreviated version of this…
First thing I did was buff my nails and then wiped them with an alcohol wipe to make sure they were nice and clean.
2 coats of gelous (wait 2 minutes after each)
1 coat nail polish (wait 4 minutes)
1 coat gelous (wait 2 minutes)
another coat of nail polish (wait 4 minutes)
top coat of your choice
I followed these directions EXACTLY. I even set a timer after each coat (I did lunges and squats while waiting between coats; a girl has got to multitask) And 2 hours later my nails STILL WEREN’T DRY!!!!!!!!!! And I can’t say that I am surprised, I mean its 6 coats of polish.
So I took all 6 layers off (poured a glass of wine) and started over again. This time I decided to change up things alittle bit. Here is what I did the second time and what seems to have worked so far.
2 THIN coats of gelous (waited 2 minutes after each)
1 coat of dark nail polish (if it were a lighter color I would have to have used 2 coats) waited 10 minutes
1 coat gelous (waited 2 minutes)
1 coat of inm top coat
Now this is still 5 coats of polish but it seemed to work better since it actually dried this time. I also was super careful to use THIN coats of polish. Here is the end result.:
I love how it looks and promise to let you guy know just how long it lasts. The main things I changed from the first to the second attempt were that I only did one coat of the nail polish color and I made sure to apply all layers super super thin.
Has anyone else tried this at home? Any tips for me?
Hope everyone is having a good week. Its almost Friday!!
XOXO -Brittany
Glitter & Grills 