I Hope you girls out there are enjoying my DIY videos, and I hope they are helping you in some way!
Hi everyone!Today I’ve got a highly requested article and it’s all about my nails and how I do my own acrylic nails at home. Yes, you heard me right. I do them all on my own, and I’ll show you all the steps you need to follow to get long nails like mine.
Quick history about my real nails and when I started acrylic….
My natural nails always grew long and strong, I have no issues in growing them. But sometimes of course I’ll go and hit one of my nails somewhere, and just one would break which could ruin the whole look. I mean like 9 nice nails and one super short one. This used to annoy me. So about 2 years ago, I discovered the world of gel and acrylic nails. I went to a nail spa and just got 1 or 2 nails put in—just the ones that were broken. I left the natural nails that were still long and nice. But then I realized that gel/acrylic nails were so much nicer. What I mean is that when you put nail polish for instance, it looks so much better than our natural nails. This is of course a personal preference. I loved doing my nails and then got, little by little, obsessed with long manicured nails. Even over my Facebook account, I could have put endless pictures of my long beautiful nails in different shapes and shades. I at the time was doing GEL nails. This was at a nail salon in Crescat. After a while, I just cut all my nails and did gel nails all the time. You’d never see me without them at the time. But of course every 4-6 weeks I’d take the whole set off and give my nails a rest for like a good whole week. I’d keep them healthy by putting a hardener if needed and definitely applying some cuticle oil.
How I changed from doing gel nails to acrylic?
Okay. So, I loved gel nails and I didn’t switch over because I didn’t like them. Yet, I decided that I want to start doing my nails on my own. Well I had watched my nail technician doing it for so long now and I picked up a thing or two. Then, I happened to have knack for these kind of things. So, I thought I’d attempt to do it on my own. But gel nails are harder to do at home because it’s costly to buy the UV lamp. So, I switched to acrylic and went on down to a beauty supply store and bought myself all the stuff I needed to do my own acrylic nails.
Comparing acrylic vs gel
Differences:
| Lasts longer I feel Burns a bit under UV lamp sometimes Need UV lamp Shiny finish Gel nails | Acrylic nails Matte finish No need of a lamp No burning sensation Lasts less longer than gel |
Similarities:
- Refill in every 2 weeks depending on growth
- Any nail shape can be available from both methods
- The plastic tips that you glue on are the same for both
So, you can see the differences and similarities. For me the only overriding factor was the fact that you need a UV lamp with gel and with acrylic you don’t. I’ve done both, and I have to say I like both of the finishes.
In this video tutorial, I show you, step by step about how to get a full set of acrylic nails at home for a minimal cost. If you go to a salon, an acrylic nail set will cost you somewhere between Sri Lankan Rs.6,000-Rs.8,000 and that’s for one set. Each time once you refill, it’s about Rs.2500. So, when buying the products needed to do it at home, you may have to spend about Rs.7000-Rs.8000 to get all of your supplies. However, this will last you for about 25 applications or more.
I started doing my own nails at home about 4 months ago and never looked back—hopefully I’ve been getting better and better, the more I do it. No, you definitely will get better at this stuff. Just practice and do it on yourself—you’ll get the hang of it. You can find more tips for doing your nails in this article from Cote.
Hope this tutorial is helpful. I’ll see you all in my next video.