Show me your summer nails

[Bichette]

I have an appointment to have my nails done in a couple of weeks before we hopefully go on holiday to France.
What are the trends this summer?

@didireallysaythat

How does everyone get so good at painting nails? Did I miss the class at school ? I'm in awe

I do my own gel nails. I bought a UV machine and loads of colours. It worked out about £75 for everything so a few trips to the salon would pay for it. If find gel nail varnish much easier than traditional nail varnish. No pics yet sorry as I’m going to do them tomorrow…

Red with orange undertones. My go to summer shade

Mine are currently pale pink with a pink glitter on the ring finger and thumb.

No pictures as they are desperate for redoing.

Inspired by this thread and @ReginaaPhalange I have gone very pale pearlescent pink and for the first time have experimented with a complementary ring finger sparkle.

I do my own gel nails too - it's MUCH easier than normal polish as you can work it until it looks good without worrying about it going sticky / dragging.

Terrible pic as it's dark but they look really pretty
honest!!

Another here with a bright coral.

@LadyCatStark @FusionChefGeoff

Interesting! It had never occurred to me that gel nails might be easier. I don't know anyone who gets their nails done (I don't work or live near a nail salon so the idea of driving to the nearest city on a Saturday .. well you can see how that's not going to happen). But if gel nails at home are easy, well, that's a different thing.

There looks like there's a lot of choice of "systems" - any advice? And getting the things off is easy?

Summer pink nails with a bit of sparkle

@pk78 thank you! I can't remember where from though so sorry - it must be 20 years old

@didireallysaythat I just got my machine from Amazon and went for one that wasn’t the cheapest but wasn’t the most expensive. It was a Mylee one and I’m very happy with it but I don’t have anything to compare it with! Then I bought a set of Beetles nail varnish and some files and gel remover. Getting it off is a bit of a nightmare as you have to soak them off with the remover but I cheat a bit as my nails grow really fast and I like to redo them after about 10 days to a fortnight so I don’t file the top of my nails to create a rough bed for the polish to stick to and they peel off easily as free about 10 days but they can last 2 weeks if necessary. You don’t mind if they don’t last as long when you’re not paying salon prices 😂 it also stops my nails getting weak.

My top tip is take your time and get the base coat right and all the other layers seem to ‘follow’ when the base coat has gone. Glitter nail polish is far more forgiving fo start with and can be subtle, it doesn’t have fo be garish. I have a gloss and matt top coat and am still not ready for matt nails, they show up any imperfection!

@Lndnmummy that's a beautiful colour!

I've tried doing my own gels and the whole thing just peels off after a few days. What am I doing wrong?

@Russell19 what steps do you do? It could be that the polish isn’t very good, have you tried a different brand?

@didireallysaythat I started with a red carpet manicure kit but have now replaced basically all of it with generic stuff as it ran out. UV lamp and then a prep solution, base coat, top coat. Then the colours. Mine never last as long as salon nails - usually about a week to 10 days and I'm bad and just peel them off as they start to go manky. Not great but I'm sure someone will be able to tell you how to do it properly

Thanks all. Some great ideas here.
I'll report back when I've had them done, but it's another couple of weeks.

It's summer so it must be bright pink!

@ReginaaPhalange

I always go for a classic fade! Literally back 10 minutes ago with my fresh set

Me too. Looks nice with everything!

If anyone is still interested. Had my nails done yesterday, quite pleased with the results.

So for the first time in forever I’ve ventured away from red nails. Skinny french

Oh I like them. I do my own so no fancy ones here, just a couple of autumn shades(or Halloween shades maybe😅)