First At-Home Gel Manicure

On Sunday I got my first experience with a gel manicure. While I was out with my godfather and the family, my goddaughter began telling me about her gel manicure kit. I've never tried it so I asked her if we could have a mini manicure session at her house, she of course said yes. She had her own little kit with a set of four polishes to choose from. I honestly thought that it wouldn't be a big deal since I always paint my nails but boy was I wrong. My first try with a DIY gel manicure was a fail, without a doubt. Lesson learned, gel polish is not the same as regular polish!

The application itself wasn't bad since the instructions are very clear. Apply a PH bond, then the base coat, cure the nails, then apply the nail polish, cure the nails again, second coat, cure again, apply the top coat, cure the nails one last time, and then all you have to do is cleanse the nail to remove any stickiness. The curing time will depend on the gel kit and UV light that you have.

When I began painting my nails I had the mentality of a regular polish. Sometimes you get nail polish on your skin and it's no big deal, with gel manicure you really need to avoid your skin. If it gets on your skin it'll feel like when you get super glue on your skin. Another rookie mistake I did was apply too much polish. Instead of doing thin coats of polish I was doing thicker coats for a more opaque color. Yes, the color was opaque but the polish shifted and settled around my cuticle which made my nails look very odd looking. Another thing that I noticed was that the tips of my nails just didn't really get any color despite me putting nail polish there.

Despite my rookie mistakes and less than perfect DIY gel manicure, I still like it. We'll see how long they last but so far I'm really digging the color and shine. This is hands down the shiniest manicure I've ever had! I swear my nails look like candies right now because of the color and shine. Also I'm sure you're not surprised by the color, what can I say? I still have tangerine fever.

Do you have an at-home gel kit? If so which one? Let me know in the comments below.