I know a good amount of people who paint their nails or et their nails done, it was just a matter of time until I followed along (I was around 7 maybe?). It wasn’t really a frequent thing I’d do, but it relaxed me and also let my inner nail artist out. It was only a matter of time (many years later) until I started to try out gel nail polish, and here’s what happened.
In my mind, gel polish is like plastic paint for your nails. It’s hardened by UV light (I know there’s an official-ish word for it but go with it for now lol) and becomes nearly indestructible afterwards. Not nearly this dramatic, but hey, it’s basically chip proof. The downside, in my opinion, is that it’s a pain to remove. You have to soak it in (insert substance name here) for who knows how long before you remove it. And I’m pretty sure our nails end up a little worn if we use gel nail polish a lot.
The end result, however, is kind of stunning. It looks like you have acrylics on, and some polish can have different effects that I feel are emphasized by the process.
A few days ago, I tried gel nails for the first time with the equipment I got at home. Everything was about $22 in total, $16 ish for two gel polishes, $2 for the UV lamp, and $4 for 100pcs of the gel nail removed things. Other than the polish, I got everything else where I usually get my things which you’ll know about if you’ve been following my blog posts for a while.
*Please note that I had regular base polish on instead of the gel one, I believe I have some on their way but I got too impatient. I also used a peel off polish in the skin around my nail to catch any gel polish so it wound cure onto my skin.
So as soon as I opened up the bottle of gel polish, it smelled like liquid plastic in a bottle. Honesty I have never smelled something so bad yet so weird, I may be exaggerating but I’m used to how regular polish smells. I ended up putting on those cloth face masks and turning a fan on to try to remove the smell.
So as soon as I opened up the bottle of gel polish, it smelled like liquid plastic in a bottle. Honesty I have never smelled something so bad yet so weird, I may be exaggerating but I’m used to how regular polish smells. I ended up putting on those cloth face masks and turning a fan on to try to remove the smell.
The consistency was thicker than regular polish but I felt that it was easier to work with. After I finished applying the polish I peeled off the barrier and then cured for about 60-90 seconds (big gap I know but I honestly forgot). As soon as I turned the lamp on there was a warming, slightly hot, sensation on my nails. I had no idea if it was normal so it did scare me a bit (still does now that I think about it). I finished my nails soon afterwards and couldn’t help but admire it.
Then came my curious tests, the first thing I did was wash my hands with soap. The polish held, and then came opening a pop can, flicking something, doing dishes, opening a pop lock container and washing my hair. It held up and there are no visible scratches or dents to be seen on my nails, which should be the results and I would be worried if it failed any of them.
