Has anyone stopped getting gellux/ shellac and started doing their own nails?

[sortingmyselfoutslowly]

My nail lady is busy this week so I soaked off my gellux with a home acetone kit and painted my nails with Autograph polish and a gel top coat. I'll be interested to see how long it lasts. They actually look quite good... I think nail polish quality has improved recently!

I have a home shellac kit which is brilliant. Doesn't last quite as long as getting them done professionally but still looks great!

I do. I use a mix of bluesky and elite99 gels off amazon. I can get a good 10 days wear minimum.

Yea! I actually never had gels but I had a lady do acrylic tips for me once about 3 months ago and I ordered a nail kit and I've been doing my own acrylic tips ever since. I love it!

I did my sister's nails too. Some of them come out less than perfect but still look much better than my natural nails! It's fun and cheap to do and this way I can have more control over the results so that they feel natural to me. I don't have to deal with strangers yapping on at me, wait for an appointment if one needs fixing or even leave the house.
Are you are considering trying to do your own extentions? Or are tour nails naturally long? Did you cure the nail polish with uv? I'm curious to know more about using gel!

Sorry for the weird formatting, I've never shared images on here before!

I do my own gels (when I get the time) and love it! Normal nail-varnish never lasts a day on me, no matter how good the top-coat, and I can't afford to regularly get them done professionally so this works really well for me. Just takes hours though - I don't do them often enough to be really practiced!

I bought a CND Shellac starter kit, which includes everything you need (LED lamp, lotions and potions, base and top coats, four bottles of shellac etc.) for about £250 from Amazon. It's fab - I enjoy doing it and it looks just as good as paying £20 at a salon.

Only thing is, I seem to have developed an addiction . . . I have fourteen colours now

Yes. I use the Sensationail kit with the gel-to-polish converter as I have an embarrassingly large collection of conventional polish. You can either mix the converter with the polish and apply as a gel manicure, curing each layer, or apply it as a top coat after painting your nails and then cure the lot. I tend to do the latter as I find the mixing faffy and I don't get noticeably longer-lasting results from it. It easily lasts a week and a half, often two weeks. I can't get away with any longer even if my polish is still perfect as my nails grow very fast and the nail beds start to look odd after a fortnight.

It's definitely addicting! Luckinly my family seem to have noticed how much it helped with my pnd and showered me with nail products for xmas :)

My friend does mine with a home gel kit and uses bluesky, they look fab! She redoes them every 2 weeks and they look as good on the 14th day as the 1st, just a bit grown out.

So I always have gels usually, I’m a picker so normal nail polish always chips really easily - usually after a day. But this week I didn’t have time to get them done so grabbed a normal polish and a maybelline super strength nail primer from Superdrug - omg it’s amazing! Only one nail has slightly chipped and that happened today - I did them Tuesday night. Ive now stocked up on loads of new ‘normal’ nail colours to test with the primer.

The issue with getting gels done in the salon is that if one chips you’re stuck with it or you have to go and get it fixed. At least if you do them yourself you can fix them yourself.

Yep, use Sensationail and I get a good week or maybe more.

For quickness I did mine with normal polish the other day and it lasted precisely one day before chipping.

Yes I use Mylee Pro Led lamps with bluesky polish - they last as long as the professional gels I've had done - I reapply because my nails grow quickly. It take dd nearly an hour to do it but it's good mother - daughter bonding stuff.

I think that short nails look better, personally.

Short enough that if you look at them straight on you can see the end of your finger, if you see what I mean.

I recommend Sally Hansen base and top coats, but really the thing that stops chipping is nails not being so long that they get knocked on things all the time.

the thing that stops chipping is nails not being so long that they get knocked on things all the time Normal nail polish get chipped because I'm constantly working with my hands - my nails are relatively short.

Clearly if you work with your hands you have higher nail polish strength requirements than everyone else :)

I was offering up my experiences on how to get the most life out of "normal" nail polish. Topcoat can only go so far (as I'm sure you agree).

I whack a bit of normal nail varnish on. It takes about 2 minutes max. Per application it must cost all of about 20p. It lasts for about four days before it might chip a bit.

Taking it off is a pain have bought these to help, haven't used them yet....next weekend. Seriously though I do quite a bit of DIY, reupholstering furniture, lots of cooking and cleaning and my nails still look great.

moochypooch I use those. I found wrapping in foil beforehand makes it easier to scrape off.

I used to get gels done and then also have my own kit at home but for the past year I've been using Avon gel polish with the gel top coat - as long as I do 2-3 thin layers of colour and a good coat of top coat it lasts at least 4-5 days without chipping
I use a quick dry spray after the top coat
Gels do last longer but such a faff to take off without ruining my nails

I was hoping I wouldn't have to wrap them in foil! Taking gels off is definitely something I need to improve on.

Be careful doing them at home. There were a thread on her last week I think with warnings about damage you can do if you don’t do it correctly- can’t remember details

^ ie people’s nails fell off and they got burnt

Foils do make removal quicker and also if you wrap your hands in a warm towel or oven gloves. Make sure you buff off all the top shiny layer first (but not your natural nail. If they take ages, try skipping the primer or only using it round the edges

Or you can put nail shields on underneath so you can just peel them off!