I recently jumped on the gel nail polish bandwagon as I was intrigued by the idea of having perfectly polished nails for 2-3 weeks with a fantastic shine. The idea behind these gel nail polishes is that they are a hybrid between a gel and a nail polish and because there is no buffing involved to apply or remove the polish, they do not damage your natural nails, meaning that they are great for occasional use for special occasions, like holiday (as they don't need re-touching as they don't chip - meaning more time can be spent catching the sun rather than painting nails!) or even for everyday wear (as who doesn't want perfect nails?!) With many brands from shellac, gelish and jessica to orly gel fx and opi having the salon gel nail varnishes I was stuck with who to opt for but the decision was made for me when I spotted a local salon doing the jessica geleration nails for £10, whereas many other salons charge between £20 and £25.
As a post holiday treat, me and my mum visited the beauty salon and the entire process took around 45 minutes each and began by selecting the polish colour ( I chose a lovely coral-pink colour and also a subtle glitter over the top) and having my nails shaped. Then a foundation gel polish was applied (basically a base coat) and this was cured under the lamp for a minute prior to 3 coats of colour (which were each cured under the lamp for two minutes) and finally a top coat (which was also cured for two minutes). The process sounds quite lengthy but as one hand was under the UV lamp, the nails on the other were being painted and as we chatted away, the time soon flew and I was left with lovely shiny nails (the shine that is achieved by the gel polish is amazing and much shinier then any nail polish I have used before).
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| When they were first done |
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| After 2 weeks |
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| As you can see, the gel is just starting to come away from my natural nail |
To take the gel nail polish off, you can go back to the salon or you can easily remove it at home. I removed mine at home by lightly rubbing a nail file over the top of the nail to roughen the gel (this lets the acetone soak in more) then I placed a cotton wool ball with pure acetone on (which I bought from home bargains for £1) over the nail and wrapped this is tin foil and left it for 10-15 minutes. When I pulled the tin foil off, I placed a little pressure on the nail and twisted and then used a cuticle stick to push off the gel polish and my nails were perfect underneath.
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| With the tin foil and acetone on |
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| My nails after removing the tin foil and acetone, which was left for 10 minutes |
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| Removing the gel with a cuticle stick (note my mums gloves to protect her gel polish nails from the acetone haha) |
I loved my nails with the gel polish and it saved a lot of time as if I wear nail polish I chip it every day and so constantly need to re-touch my nails or re-paint them, whereas with this I didn't have to touch my nails for 2 weeks. After having them done and seeing how easy it was to apply and remove it, my mum purchased the UV lamp and everything that is needed to do the nails (but we went for gelish instead of jessica geleration as there were more colours that we liked) so look out for a future tutorial post! As you may have seen, you can apply pure glitter to the nails before the topcoat to achieve 'rockstar nails' - if you love glitter definitely google this because they are amazing and I will be trying to recreate them!
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| My nails in gelish passion (applied at home by my mum) |
