3 easy gel nail tutorials: cute and colourful gel nails

Everywhere you look, all these nail art tutorials are popping up and so I thought I throw mine in there too for good measure. So here are my 3 easy gel nail tutorials. They are easy to achieve, don’t need any training and look well cute! Plus gel helps your nails grow long and strong and protect them against chipping etc.

Nail prep

Before you start with applying your gel, make sure to prep your nails by pushing back the cuticle, removing any dead skin on your nail plate and cleaning it with some acetone. If you wanna know more, have a read here. 

French gel nails with a twist

I love french nails but in celebration of spring – let’s change it up and make it all colourful. 

1. Start with base gel and let it cure under the LED or UV lamp. Add a pink gel. I like using anything that is light and more on the natural side like Nude Elegance from Striplac. Let the pink gel cure.
2. With your white gel (Sensationail White Lily) paint a diagonal stripe on the edge of your nail. Let it cure for 60 seconds. The white will help the colours pop.
3. Taking a fine brush, start with your first colour. I went with yellow (Tropical Dream Fifi Trixi Bell). Draw a medium line. Any mistakes can be cleaned up with a brush dunked in acetone. Then cure it. Take your second (Tropical Dream Peaches Honey Blossom) and third colour (Tropical Dream Evyblue) and repeat the steps. Curing each colour on their own allows you to correct any mistakes without messing up the previous lines. Depending on you gel, you might wanna do two coats of each colour to make them more vibrant.
4. Once you are happy with your stripes, finish your manicure with a topcoat. Depending on your top gel you have to wipe the sticky layer. Just use a cotton pad and some acetone and you are done.
5. Add some cuticle oil and take a cute picture. Viola, the first look is complete.

Rainbow gel nails

This is a look I did ages ago with regular nail polish and it was such a fuss but with gel it’s so easy as you can cure at any stage and since gel doesn’t dry you can play around as long as you need until it’s perfect. So let’s get right into it.

1. Start with base gel and let it cure under the LED or UV lamp. Add a pink gel. I like using anything that is light and more on the natural side like Nude Elegance from Striplac. Let the pink gel cure. 
2. With your white gel (Sensationail White Lily) paint the tip of your nail like you would when doing a regular french tip. Let it cure for 60 seconds. The white will help the colours pop.
3. Taking a fine brush, start with your first colour. I went with yellow (Fifi Trixi Bell). Draw a thin line. Any mistakes can be cleaned up with a brush dunked in acetone. Then cure it. Take your second (Peaches Honey Blossom) and third colour (Evyblue) and repeat the steps. Curing each colour on their own allows you to correct any mistakes without messing up the previous lines. Rotate your colours until you reach the tip. I could do two rounds of each colour. Depending on your gel, you might wanna do two coats of each colour to make them more vibrant.
4. The last step is to topcoat it all with your gel topcoat. Depending on your top gel you have to wipe the sticky layer. Just use a cotton pad and some acetone and you are done.
5. Add some cuticle oil and your second look is complete.

Pink and Blue gradient gel nails

I love a good gradient and I can tell you from experience, gradients with gels are so easy to do. You can perfect the transition from one colour to another with no hurry and they blend so well, as they will stay wet until you cure them.

1. Start with base gel and let it cure under the LED or UV lamp. Add a pink gel. I like using anything that is light and more on the natural side like Nude Elegance from Striplac. Let the pink gel cure. With your white gel (Sensationail White Lily) paint a diagonal stripe on the edge of your nail. Let it cure for 60 seconds. The white will help the colours pop.
2. Take your first colour (blue) and cover half of your white tip.
3. Add you second colour (pink) to the rest. It doesn’t matter if the two colour overlap as we will blend them together anyways.
4. Now we come to the fun part. Take a thin brush or even a feathered brush and start blending the blue with the pink. I like to just gently drag my brush horizontally along the middle where the two colours meet. Then with light strokes up and down, I perfect the blend. Once I am happy, I let it cure for 60 sec. Then I repeat the steps 2-4 for a more opaque look.
5. The last step is to topcoat it all with your gel topcoat. Depending on your top gel you have to wipe the sticky layer. Just use a cotton pad and some acetone and you are done. Add some cuticle oil and your third look is complete.

Easy gel nail tutorials for at home and removal

Doing my nails is so relaxing and I get to be creative all the same. For years now, I have been doing my own gel nails and learned some useful skills, that help me create those easy gel nail tutorials for you guys. So if you wanna get into doing your nails more often, why not check out my other post on nails here. And down below you can see the kind of brushes I used for the detail work.

Pretty nails are such a nice thing to have and with gel, they last ages. To remove your gel nails: Ruff up the surface with a nail file, then take a cotton pad and cut it up to pieces that will fit just on your nail. Dunk them in some acetone, apply to your nail and wrap some aluminum foil around to secure it. Let it sit for 10 min. Then gently scrape the gel off. If it’s still hard in some places, let them soak a bit longer before scraping away the remaining gel. If there is still some left, you can go over it with a file. Just do it gently and avoid the exposed natural nail as much as possible. Once the gel is off, use some cuticle oil and you can start all over again with a new design or let them natural as they are.

Thank you for stopping by and have a lovely day, xx