It’s been nearly a decade that I’ve been wearing my gel nails and even longer doing my nails in general. And over those years I Iearned a few tips and tricks for a long lasting manicure.
Nail oil or cuticle cream
Having moisturised nail beds prevents your gel from lifting or your nail polish from chipping. So don’t forget your nail oil or cuticle cream in between you nail appointments. Keeping your cuticles mosturiesed and happy with a nail oil or cuticle cream is vital. This makes sure your gel/ acrylic/ nail polish manicure will last. I usually massage some nail oil every night onto my nails, cutictle area and even under the nails. I like to do it as an evening ritual while watching one of my Netflix shows or listening to a podcast. Happy nails means a long lasting manicure for me.
Jewels not tools
Treat your nails as the jewels they look. Meaning: think twice before you use your nails to prone that coke can open. The harder you are with you nails the more likely they are going to get cracks, splits or liftings. So instead of using your nail, use a tool instead and your nails will love you for it.
The right prep
If you do your nails yourself, the nail prep is essential for a long lasting manicure. Before applying any gel or acrylic you have to clean your cuticles. Get rid of any dead skin on the nail plate and remove any oils with some acton or nail polish remover. Resulting in the perfect base to start applying your gel or polish. If you take the extra mile with these steps, your product will adhere much better onto your nails and give you long lasting results.
BIAB, shellac or nail polish
There are many ways and products you can use for your manicure. Nail or gel polish is one of them. If your plan is to grow your nails long and you’re not genetically blessed with some strong nails, builder gel could be your solution, not to mix up with shellac. Builder gels are structured gels that give your nails that extra support to grow them long and keep them that way. Shellac ist “just” a gel polish, which gives your nails no extra strength. Depending on what you want to achieve with your nails, choosing the right products is essential. I love to have a good base with BIAB (builder in a bottler). Then use gel polish for the colour and designs.
Maintenance
If you have a gel manicure it is recommended to get a refresh every 3-4 weeks. The weeks inbetween depend on how fast your nails actually grow. This will insure that you keep your nails in good and healthy condition. All while minimizing the risk of tears and cracks from an unbalanced (outgrown) gel nail manicure. I usually do my nails every 3 weeks but I could go for 4 but not over.
Further help
Here you can find some more posts I did on how I take care of my nails:
- Gel overlay on natural nails
- infill for your gel nails
- how to make your regular nail polish manicure last
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