First of all, I really hope you’re safe and healthy, I know being home quarantined is hard for some people, but if we all cooperate we can beat this virus and start living our normal lives again.
When it comes to asking how to do nails at home, trust me you aren’t the only one! Nails won’t stop growing in quarantine sadly so we just need to make it work for ourselves. I’ve been visiting a nail salon for about a year now and I swear to you every time I look at my old photos and see my nails I cringe so hard! I couldn’t believe how absolutely horrifying my nails used to be hahaha. But thank God for Ana who saved them and made them look so much better!
My nails used to be super thin and that sadly didn’t change, they cracked every time I opened a cane… Yes, it was that bad, so I decided to go to a proper nail salon and extend them a little bit and make them thicker. Ana recommended acrylic nails and I’ve been having them since then. But now I just had to take things into my own hands and figure how can I keep my nails at least average if not outstanding, so I went to Notino and got myself some goodies.
My nails before:
I don’t really know how much of a tutorial this will be to be quite honest. I watched every single youtube video about how to remove acrylic nail gel without hurting your nails and they all said I need to:
- Get a plastic bag and pour a 100% acetone into it
- Put your hand into the bag and soak your nails for about 15 minutes
- When 15 minutes pass, get your nails out and the acrylic will ”vanish” from your nails.
I did all of this and in the end, my acrylics gel didn’t go anywhere, I was stuck filing my nails for 3 hours straight, I’m not kidding with you! I have to admit Ana put a lot of it on, that’s just because I wanted real little flowers on my nails which I dried myself, so there had to be a whole lot of gel to protect and really seal the flowers, which didn’t help me later hahaha. I also had this nail file I got in my local store and I demolished it… In the end, it just looked like a dog was teething and he kind of ate it.
So what I did?
Like I said I’ve spent 3 hours filing my nails but I left a thin surface of acrylics on them for protection, not on every single one of them because the acrylic was already deviating on some of my nails, so I filed them all the way. Let’s just say I had an arms day when it comes to working out. They literally almost fell off! But everything was forgotten when I saw my Semilac UV light and all of those beautiful Semilac nail polishes I ordered! I might have ordered too many of them but I just need options!
Then I shaped them into an almond shape, or at least I’ve tried to do so, and then the coloring started which was the most exciting part! I got my inspiration from my girl crush Emily.
- I firstly used an undercoat to be specific, I used Semilac undercoat with vitamines.
- After I applied undercoat I put my hand under my fabulous UV light also from Semilac for 30 seconds.
- Then I applied 1 coat of the Delicate French nail polish and put them under the UV light.
- Then the playing started. I started using brush strokes, starting with the Strong White nail polish then I continued with the brush strokes using Perfect Nude and for the end Gossip Time. After every brushstroke, I put my hands under the UV light just so the nail polishes wouldn’t mix with each other.
- After playing with nail polishes I used the last coating for protection but this one doesn’t have the sticky formula so after applying and putting it under UV light you don’t need to wipe them with acetone.
- I then applied Semilac Nial Oil to nourish my pour nails from all of that filing.
And that’s it my loves! I really wish I could document every step I did but you need to understand that in the middle of losing my mind over the fact that I don’t know what hurts the most, my hands in total or my nails, I haven’t had much time to also create photos.
If you only have gel nails as I do now, you’re luckier then you think! You will not spend 3 hours like I did the only thing you will need to remove gel nails is:
- Some cotton pads
- aluminum foil
- 100% acetone
- Something to remove the gel from your nails it looks like this
First, you will need some cotton pads for every single nail, you will then soak the cotton pads into acetone and you will place the soaked pads on each of your nails. Then gently wrap your nails with pads on them with aluminum foil and wait for about 10 minutes. When you’ll remove wadding and aluminum foil you will then gently remove the gel from your nails, trust me it won’t take 3 hours as mine did! There’s a huge difference between acrylic nails and gel nails, you’re fine!
My nails After:
I really hope I helped you in some way and I hope you learned something from this semi tutorial on how to do your nails at home.
Stay safe!