While your fashion attire and cosmetics form a significant aspect of your personality makeover, no one can ignore their nails. A well-manicured finish adds the required glory to your hands and makes you look as radiant as you can ever be. When it comes to nail manicures, you have to settle for the best gel nail polish. You have an extensive range of attractive colors to choose from. Let us see how to get the best gel manicure capable of lasting for an extended period.
Before the pandemic hit us badly, you always had the option of visiting the nearby nail salon. Today, with lockdowns all over the place, the DIY option is the best one available to you. Under such circumstances, it is best to keep all the ingredients necessary for the gel manicure ready on hand.
Be ready with the necessary constituents
Before you sit down for a gel color job, it is better to have the following items on hand:
- Foundation Base gel and Topcoat application
- Nail cleansers, nail file, buffer, and sanitizers, nail wipes
- Your favorite gel polish
- Nail bonder
- UV lamp (36W) or LED light
- Cuticle oil
The application procedure
Contrary to what many people feel, applying gel polish is not at all challenging. One should follow the appropriate procedure:
Preparing the nails is crucial. You should remove old nail polish if you have them on your nails. Clean your nails using sanitizers and smoothen the surface and edges using nail files and buffers. The cuticles can come in the way of a perfect nail manicure. It is better to push them inside their grooves. Remove the dust and debris on the nails using cotton nail wipes.
One can now begin by applying a coat of nail bonder to the nail surface as it helps bond the gel color to your nails perfectly. The gel base coat application should be as thin as possible. One should note to seal the edges as it could cause lifting of the polish at a later stage. While applying the base coat, you should take care to avoid the cuticles. A millimeter gap should suffice.
Cure the base coat application under the UV lamp for a minute. If you use the LED lamp, a 30-second exposure should be sufficient.
You can now proceed with applying the best gel nail polish in a thin application. One should note to avoid touching the cuticles. Sealing the nail edges is crucial.
If you use darker colors, it can take more time to cure under the UV/LED lamp. A 3-4-minute exposure is advisable. Lighter colors do not need such extended curing. Two minutes should be enough. However, if you have an LED lamp, the curing time gets reduced to 30 seconds because of the concentrated exposure.
Repeating the above two steps ensures uniform coverage.
The topcoat application becomes crucial to lending the required sheen to your nails. It is advisable to have a thin coat extending from the cuticles to the free edges.
Curing the topcoat layer under the UV/LED lamp for two minutes or 30 seconds, respectively.
On curing, you can wipe out the tacky surface using lint-free cotton nail wipes. Finally, massaging cuticle oil to the surrounding skin helps to relax the nails and provide the necessary relief.
Tips to get the best DIY gel manicure
Here are some unwritten rules to follow to get the best out of your gel polish job:
The gel polish tends to settle down to the bottom of the bottle. Hence, one should ensure to shake the bottle thoroughly to mix the ingredients. Using a nail polish shaker is advisable.
The nail bonder application is critical as it allows better bonding between the gel nail color and your natural nails.
Gel polish can dehydrate the skin around the nail. Therefore, cuticle oil becomes a critical ingredient of your gel polish manicure. Besides moisturizing the skin, it also nourishes it.
One should invest in a quality UV/LED lamp. The LED lamps available today allow the curing of all five fingernails at a time. Besides lasting longer than the UV lamps, LED lights do not require you to expose your nails for extended periods.
It is better to protect the skin surrounding your nail when exposing it to UV radiation. You can apply sunscreen lotions or use fingerless gloves before starting the manicure.
If your gel polish coating appears thick, you can use gel polish thinners to dilute it and extend the gel polish lifespan.
Conclusion
These tips should help you get the best gel polish manicure at home. The best aspect of this procedure is that anyone can master it with practice.