A few weeks ago, I posted about my DIY gel nail manicure using the Sally Hansen kit, readily available at Amazon or Walgreens/CVS.
I absolutely loved it!
It was easy, comfortable to do, allowed me to do it on my time and from the comfort of my own home.
I wanted to follow up with my readers on how it was coming along with doing my own gel nails.
These were my nails after my second application of the kit.
My nails have never been this hard and resistant to everyday wear and tear. They were actually TOO LONG for my comfort.
You can see how healthy they were. This was the Shall We Dance color that came with the kit, NOT a French Manicure. It looks like a French because you can see the white part of my free edge below the pale pink gel.
At the two week mark, you can also see the amount of growth that occurred from the cuticle to the gel edge. It was quite a bit and I can only account for that growth as a result of actually seeing the nails lengthen and not break off.
But, the time had come for them to be removed.
So I gathered my materials and started the process while watching YouTube.
I cut small "squarish" shaped pieces of aluminum foil. They were not large, around 2 to 3 inches.
I then cut cotton rounds into 4 pizza shaped pieces. I cut several rounds this way.
The kit comes with acetone, however, I had some on hand and decided to keep the kit acetone for travel situations where I might want do my nails away from home.
Using the acetone, I saturated my cotton round pieces right on a square of foil. I let them really soak up all the liquid.
Now it was time to soak off the gel nails the easy way.
Start by placing a soaked pizza piece over the nail.
TIP: Protect your surface below. Acetone will strip surfaces that are not glass or marble. I use a longer piece of foil underneath a cotton towel.
Take a piece of your cut foil and wrap it around the acetone soaked round, getting it squished as tight as you can. Your goal is to allow the acetone to soak through the gel so that it lifts from the nail bed. The tightness of the foil allows the acetone direct contact while it's softening the gel product.
Once you've done each nail, relax for about 15 minutes.
I find that I have to do one hand first, removing the gel and getting it all cleaned up before I can move to do the other hand. It's very awkward having all ten fingers wrapped in foil.
After 15-20 minutes, grasp the foil with a good amount of pressure and slide it off the nail, pulling along the nail bed. This will allow the foil and cotton to slide the gel product off with it.
If you find that all the product does not come off with this initial application, add a new soaked round and foil square and leave it a bit longer.
DO NOT TRY TO SCRAPE OFF ANY REMAINING GEL.
If you resort to scraping, you will be damaging your nail bed.
Don't freak out when you nail looks dry like mine did above. You have just had acetone on it and it will really dry the nail bed out.
But, once you give yourself a good mani it's all good.
I cut my nails down, removed the dead cuticle, and gently buffed the nail beds. I added a homemade nail and cuticle oil (Vitamin E oil mixed with YL Manuka Oil, YL Frankincense Oil, and YL Lavender Oil) to the whole nail and cuticle to soften both and put moisture back into the nails.
You can see that my nails are in great shape. The nail beds are healthy and ready for my next set of gel nails.
I'm going to give them a 24 hour rest period before I apply the new set.
I've also ordered and received some GEL LEN nail colors from Amazon, so I'm anxious to try those new colors out. I researched and found that you can use other gel polish products AS LONG AS they are LED light compatible and cured.
I'm so excited I really "nailed" this DIY!
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