Do gel manicures yourself!

About two years ago, I started going with my friend to get manicures or pedicures.  I got addicted to gel nails or SNS nails.  My nails are super brittle and will only grow if I have gel or SNS on them.  But, I'm super lazy and didn't always remove them safely therefore defeating the purpose of helping my nails grow and be healthy. 

Then, at the end of last summer, while visiting my friend, she had a whole kit of gel nail stuff!  She had her own UV lamp, and gel polish, etc. I did my own nails following her directions with the base coat, polish and top coat, and it was so easy I was hooked (and Mallary was hooked!). We ordered our own kit shortly after.  When I saw the price for the whole kit was the same as a manicure I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it.  Oh my word I've saved so much money with how much we do our nails.  Three of my friends even bought a kit too, and we've all been hooked.

Mallary uses it ALL THE TIME. I use it the normal amount.  We do gel on our nails and toenails. They last for two weeks on my nails and about a month on my toes (perfect for my lazy self).

Here is the exact kit I ordered from Amazon.  It comes with everything you need to get started.  I also ordered extra colors.  

 

 This is one of my newer favorite colors:  

You can see ours has been well loved... (i.e. Mallary is messy...)

You guys! Also, see the washi tape on the one bottle there?  My friend, was brilliant and got a different color washi tape for all of us to put on our bottles so that we would know whos was whos!  Brilliant! We can borrow colors and not get them confused. 

Honestly, twice I got colors that were kinda goopy. I reported it, and Amazon refunded my money. So, no loss on my part!

Then, my friend showed me this stuff you can use to turn any nail polish into a gel polish and I have been dying to try it ever since! (Like, seriously turning dollar store nail polish to gel polish, and it works!!!) I finally did yesterday! I am hooked! Here is the stuff I bought that can turn any polish into gel polish:

 

Mallary and I chose some of our favorite nail polishes to turn into gel polish.  This is how many we made yesterday! 

I ordered these empty small nail polish containers to mix them in.  You are supposed to mix the Hydracol and the nail polish 50/50, so I didn't want to use it all on just a few colors so I ordered these so I could do lots of colors. I still have more of the hydracol so I can do a lot more colors still! 

You can see my nails in this picture. That manicure is eight days old - no chips or anything. I did this manicure with this base and top coat:

So, these are some pictures from when I mixed colors yesterday.  You will need a q-tips to help clean the funnels and toothpicks incase the balls fall out of the nail polish and block the funnel opening. I showed you a picture of that as well. 

Honestly, we tend to just peel off the polish when we are ready to do a new manicure.  (If you don't buff your nailbeds before painting you can usually do this without harming your nails.) But, I'm trying to keep my nails healthy so I ordered these for me and my friends that have the kits to safely soak off the polish without having to wrap your nails in aluminum foil.

Anyway, I'm hooked!  I just thought I'd share one of our new favorite things!  

Practice makes perfect, but you will catch on so fast! Just remember not to put too much polish on your brush.  You just don't want the polish to be on your skin before you put it under the lamp, because it will stick to your skin and make your manicure not look great. Slow and steady is the way to go! Enjoy!