Gelishious 2: I Try DIY

A few months ago, friend/reader Aline wrote a guest post about doing your own gel manicure. It was great, and her nails looked fantastic, but I kind of figured I would never do it myself. It seemed like a lot of work, I didn’t want to store the lamp, and I didn’t need gels frequently enough to deal with all that. But…

That was my opinion before I had ever tried a gel manicure. After getting Shellac-ed a few times at the salon (and getting hooked) at $32 a pop, I started to consider DIY as an option. Especially because it took me all of two days to destroy the one $18 “regular” manicure I’d had since then. I just repainted them myself, but I wrecked that in ONE day, and then I did it again, and then I decided I needed a new plan.

I happened to be in a position to borrow all of Aline’s gel manicure stuff. (It’s a long story, but she’s in the states for a bit.) It took me a few days to gear up to watch the tutorials and set up the equipment, but, in the end, the manicure didn’t really take that long, and was almost easy. I just took it one hand at a time.

There are a lot of steps, but I was most worried about the actually painting. I was relieved to find the color actually goes on a little more easily than it does with other polish. It’s more opaque, so you don’t feel like you have to get it on perfectly to avoid streaks. I still ended up doing two coats though. Usually, darker nail polish gives me a hard time, but I managed a reasonably neat paintjob. You’re supposed to clean up as you go, and I didn’t really do a great job of that. However, I was able to scrape off some of the parts that got on my skin while I was in the shower. It was a lot more challenging than with regular polish though.

I think the tricky part is “sealing the nail”, which is when you paint the edge. At one point, I got some of the polish base on my finger, which I didn’t notice until I came out from under the lamp. I had felt some warmth on that fingertip while my hand was in the machine, and it turns out that was because I’d melted a drop of base to my skin. It was hard to get it off, but it didn’t damage the skin at all. I also got a couple of little globs under some fingernails, which were tougher to get out once the stuff had baked on, but not impossible.

I’m sure if I’d had some pure acetone, it would have been easier to deal with my mistakes, but I didn’t buy that until yesterday. (Yes, I agree that it would have been smarter to buy it before I started.) I got my bottle at Ricky’s, but Drugstore.com has it for like $3. I also smudged two of the nails at some point along the way, but I fixed that with regular nail polish remover and another coat of color. The most lasting flaws are two pinhole-sized bubbles in two nails on my left hand, but they are barely noticeable. I think I might have caused that by shaking one of the bottles before applying.

In the end, my nails came out pretty fabulous. (FYI That picture is from today, and I painted them on Tuesday.) The cashier at Sephora yesterday freaked out after she complimented them and I told her I did it myself.

My nails are super long right now, which is not what I normally do, but since I have them, I’m going with it. I have to tell you though, if there was a job for growing hair and nails, I would be SO awesome at it. Anyway, I think the longer length works with red. Totes retro.

At this point, I’m not 100% sure I’d invest in all the gear to do my own gels, mostly due to storing that UV lamp. It’s almost the size of two loaves of bread! I’m also slightly on the fence about using a UV lamp regularly, though you’re really only in there for 5 minutes total, twice a month, max. I guess I could put sunblock on my hands as part of my DIY mani. There is also an LED option, which I haven’t researched. The acetone thing kind of worries me too, since I generally try to avoid harsh chemicals. The two times I had Shellac, I just peeled it off. Not sure if the Gelish will be so easy, it already seems more intense.

On the one hand, I don’t know if I want to store all the stuff. But on BOTH hands, there are 24/7 glamour nails.