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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be disappointed with this gel manicure?

131 replies

Saturdayrabbit42 · 10/05/2025 00:10

As title. Nails short but not bitten etc. (need short nails for work). Went to the salon today, £25 for these. Have had gels elsewhere before elsewhere with same length nails and I was really pleased…not thick/cuticles tidied/edges and skin clean etc. I messaged them when I got home to say that I was disappointed and their reply was my nails were too short and I just had to wait for them to grow. Perhaps they were right and I am being unreasonable?

AIBU
Yes-suck it up buttercup/nails too short
No-dogs dinner, even if short result should be better than this!

PS realise this is a very first world problem!

To be disappointed with this gel manicure?
To be disappointed with this gel manicure?
To be disappointed with this gel manicure?
To be disappointed with this gel manicure?
OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
mummabubs · 10/05/2025 08:57

Your nails are very short and personally I think the very light colour just accentuates this. Having said that... You can clearly see where they've been slap-dash and not shaped either your cuticles or the nail at all and there's no excuse for professionals to get any gel on your skin and leave it there (this is bad for your skin bur also means they're less likely to last as it will start lifting where it goes onto the skin).

I do my own gels at home (so they're not perfect by any stretch!) but I wouldn't be happy with these if I'd paid for these. Next time I'd choose somewhere else and maybe go with a colour closer to your skin tone if you want them to look longer?

Isabellivi · 10/05/2025 09:00

Yes it is unreasonable and crazy to spend this kind of money on your nails. Those chemicals cause cancer!!! Just have short natural nails and donate the money to a good charity

Mrsredlipstick · 10/05/2025 09:00

Nail expert here.

Your nails have been cut into the free edge (the white bit).
I suggest you stop doing that as it causes distortion and hang nails.

If you have a classic non gel manicure twice a month your nails will improve. I agree with the pps use some cuticle and nail oil. Stick to beige and pink. It will look better. Red looks good on short nails when you have a bit more growth.

ChristmasFluff · 10/05/2025 09:00

I have to keep my nails short for work, but they do not look like that. there's 'short', and then there's 'bitten down to the quick'

It looks as though you bite your nails, and wanted gels to stop you doing that - which is fair enough, but a clear gel or a paler colour would have been better.

I suspect they couldn't properly prep the cuticles as they too had been bitten and the skin around does look sore.

MoominMai · 10/05/2025 09:00

ScrewedByFunding · 10/05/2025 07:52

Way too short and wrong colour for such short nails. I would just keep them clean and tidy with a neutral tone of polish if needed. It looks like tippex.

This. Simply coat them with a clear varnish or a ‘my nails but better’ natural tone.

Original poster
Saturdayrabbit42 · 10/05/2025 09:01

Thanks all. Lots of helpful (and funny!) comments here along with some “thick skin/hard hat required” traditional AIBU stuff 🙈. Nails haven’t been bitten in over 20 years! Gel already removed. Lesson learned…will go back to my much more natural nail glow polish 😃

OP posts:
Shessweetbutapsycho · 10/05/2025 09:02

£25 is half what I’d expect to pay for a decent gel manicure- was this some sort of groupon deal or something? Presumably you chose the colour? I don’t think it’s a bad job given the what they were working with

LT1233 · 10/05/2025 09:08

Do you want them to be any longer or do you keep them that length purposely? If you want them to be longer, even just slightly, so that gels look better (especially with bold colours like white), get some BIAB (I recommend Mylee) in a clear colour and a cheap lamp and grow them out yourself at home, filing the sides regularly.

Emanresuunknown · 10/05/2025 09:10

Saturdayrabbit42 · 10/05/2025 09:01

Thanks all. Lots of helpful (and funny!) comments here along with some “thick skin/hard hat required” traditional AIBU stuff 🙈. Nails haven’t been bitten in over 20 years! Gel already removed. Lesson learned…will go back to my much more natural nail glow polish 😃

If they haven't been bitten why/how are you managing to cut them to below the level of the tip of the finger? There's no need for that, even in jobs where short nails are required you don't have to literally cut every last bit of white off? Definitely need to let them grow even a week or two will make a difference. The issue is being able to see the tip of the finger beyond the end

PruthePrune · 10/05/2025 09:10

They look a mess TBH.

Anewdawnanewname · 10/05/2025 09:20

The colour and the length doesn’t help. I also think, for £25, they’re unlikely to be doing cuticle work etc. I’d let them grow while this colour is on, and go to somewhere better for your next one.

Noshadelamp · 10/05/2025 09:21

Colours with a white base are always thick and gloopy looking.
They shouldn't blame it on your nail length because it's irrelevant to the job they've done.

Needanadultgapyear · 10/05/2025 09:22

I suspect you work in a similar industry to me and nail length should be 3mm or less. A good manicurist can shape the nails, but it is tricky. I always go for neutrals and often the translucent neutrals. So I have short neat, professional looking nails.

doodleschnoodle · 10/05/2025 09:25

Dear me, what a mess. Your nails are very short, were they already like that? But the gels have been messily applied regardless. Terrible colour too, did you choose it?

Did you remove the gel properly? It can be really damaging to the nails if you peel off or anything like that.

HonoraBridge · 10/05/2025 09:39

It doesn’t look as if they have tidied the shape of the nails, neatened the cuticles or applied the gel carefully. Not good!!

LlynTegid · 10/05/2025 09:45

Whilst you will not be going again, my first thought upon seeing the photos was whether or not this was one of the nail places which have been thought to employ migrants with no right to work here, or modern slavery. I hope that is not the case.

Gahdammit · 10/05/2025 09:47

Not good.

The shape is awful and different on each nail (although I appreciate you might have gone to her with that shape in which case there wasn't anything she could do). If not, you can still shape very short nails nicely.

The cuticles are a mess. Apart from her not tidying them up, the colour is also applied badly around them.

If looks like she got colour on your skin too?

White is very difficult to wear on nails. It has to be absolutely perfect to look good. If you had a different colour, it may have been more forgiving?

WimbyAce · 10/05/2025 09:47

They do look awful. Also I'm not sure how they are that short if you say you aren't biting them. Surely you aren't cutting them that low?

vintagecrow · 10/05/2025 09:47

Panamacatinahat · 10/05/2025 07:54

Putting gel nails on such short unkempt nails just highlights how bad they look. I wouldn’t have bothered. Tend them and take care of them. Let them grow a bit before going for a colour.

This. And the colour is dreadful on those nails.

Gahdammit · 10/05/2025 09:51

LlynTegid · 10/05/2025 09:45

Whilst you will not be going again, my first thought upon seeing the photos was whether or not this was one of the nail places which have been thought to employ migrants with no right to work here, or modern slavery. I hope that is not the case.

Good point. At £25 it does suggest one of the dodgy walk in nail bars that often have "questionable" employment processes.

Klozza · 10/05/2025 09:55

As others have said probably too short to look amazing, but these are pretty horrific. They’re really messy, they don’t seem to have cleamed up the sides or anything. I feel like they could have at least tidied them up a bit

MuddlingThroughLife · 10/05/2025 09:59

Mine look better then that and I do them myself with Holy Gels!

To be disappointed with this gel manicure?
Chicken5ausage · 10/05/2025 10:03

They don’t look great but those look bitten to the quick which doesn’t help. You can have short nails but to the nail edge and shaped would look a lot nicer.

Chellybelle · 10/05/2025 10:09

They don't look good but this is probably down to your nails being in a bad way rather than them doing a bad job. I wouldn't have bothered getting them done professionally while they were like that. I'd grow them a bit so they're not digging into the skin and then go.

TheChosenTwo · 10/05/2025 10:11

As pretty much everyone said they’re tricky nails to work with, too short to be able to shape properly and evenly.
Saw that you’ve taken them off now. Lesson learnt I suppose, £25 is incredibly cheap so I also wonder if it’s a matter of getting what you pay for (i used to get mine done 15 years ago and paid £30 then for shellac, prices must have gone up considerably since then?). Now I only go for an occasional pedicure and pay around £60 for a ‘deluxe’ pedi, not sure what makes it deluxe but they do a great job.