Let me show you...

You want to know how to do your own gel nails? Yay! Welcome to my addiction that is nail beautification! First let me congratulate you and say that you are in for a treat. Now let me make sure that you have read my first post on the cheapest ways to go about getting all the supplies you will need to do your nails at home.  If you haven't read it, go read it here.

Let me put my disclaimer in that I am not a certified nail technician and I do not claim to be. I have just tried doing the gel nails at home and have come up with the best way I have found to do them myself. Please read and get yourself educated on the gel nails before you attempt to do this at home. 

Now you've got all your supplies and ready to get your nail on. Lets do this! Lay out everything you will need. UV Lamp, polishes, orange stick, buffer, rubbing alcohol etc.

Step 1: Remove Old Polish First things first, you need to take old polish off. Out with the old in with the new I say! If you have gel polish on you will need to use acetone nail polish remover.

Cuticle pusher

Step 2: Pre-treating Now, pre-treat your nails as needed. If you need to remove cuticles, clip, file, etc. Do all of this first. make sure you use a cuticle pusher to push the cuticles down. Then take a fine grit nail file, and finely buff the top layer of your nails. This is to get rid of all the imperfections and score the nail to allow the gel polish to slick it's way perfectly on top of your nail. You don't need to go crazy just a little file over the whole nail.

Step 3: Wash OK, now go wash your hands you dirty girl. Don't use soap just use water, and if you have a nail brush, you can use that to get all that gunk out from underneath yo finger nails! OK kidding but you really want to make sure you have a nice clean surface.

Step 4: Apply UV Base Coat Apply one coat of your UV base gel. Carefully apply the coat and try not to make the coat too thick. Also, make sure to get the entire nail but not paint onto your fingers at all. I can barely do better than my 2 year old niece coloring in the lines... but if you get a little on your fingers like I always do, use your orange stick and get it off. Cure your base gel in the UV lamp per the instructions of the UV lamp. More powerful wattage UV lamps only need 30 seconds, some that are less wattage require more time. Mine requires 2 minutes. I always try texting with one hand or play doodle jump while waiting to cure. Somewhat difficult for me but at least I don't get bored.

I purchased some Anti UV Gloves to protect my hands while
curing my nails to dry. If you don't do gel nails that often
you don't really need this. If you do them often, this
isn't a bad idea.

 

use orange stick to get off any excess polish 

Step 5: Apply UV Color Now apply your color. When you apply the color  make sure to do nice thin coats. The thicker the coat  the longer it will take to cure and you can get some "waving" on the nail. Also, try to ensure you don't get the polish on your cuticles. I try to make sure I paint the entire nail leaving a itty bitty amount of of color not touching any part of my finger or nail bed. If you get color on the finger or it collects in the cuticles, it will grow out uneven and cause your manicure peel and not to last as long. So if you are like me and get it everywhere, don't despair! Take your handy dandy orange stick and use that to get it off your finger. BTW  my orange stick is not orange it's a wooden little nail tool... I don't know why it's called an orange stick. But they're cheap and work great!

Cure again after putting the color on.

Repeat the color step as much as needed to get the desired color. Thin coats are your best friend with gel polish. Every coat you need to cure in the UV lamp.

"Sealing" the tip of the nail

Step 6: Apply UV Top Coat We are almost done. Apply the top coat using the same cautions I mentioned above. You can follow instructions I know you can! Make sure to "seal" the tips of your nails by applying the top coat to the tip. Then, yep, you guessed it, cure again!



Step 7: Final Wash Take your rubbing alcohol and spritz your nails. Use a cotton ball and wipe off the weird tacky stuff that is left on the nails. I have no idea why it's there or where it comes from, but it's there so mop that nastiness off with the alcohol and cotton ball. There is no need to wait for anything to dry, your nails are cured and hard. Hey now - don't be dirty.. haha hard... anywho, gel nail polish does not need drying time, that's one of my favorite qualities of the gel manicure! Oh and it's magic and it's awesome.

Ta-da! You are done! Oh wait, go wash your hands one last time to ensure cleanliness. No actually, to get all that alcohol off your hands so that way if you operate a motor vehicle and get pulled over you don't get asked if you've consumed a bottle of vodka. OK - now you are done!

                                                        You're welcome!

I used the Harmony Gelish Tiki Tiki Laranga.
I added Harmony Gelish Waterfield over the ring finger for
some extra bedazzlement!