During the March to July 2020 lock down era, I've been trying to keep my nails nice and long but it's been a traumatic time. I will explain why!
Back in February I finally took the plunge and made a decision that I wanted acrylic nails and went from quite long natural nails to almond shaped daggers within an hour! I wanted to try out an ombre nail and this was the only way I could do it as I didn't know any nail technician that would work on my natural nail. SO I had them done. I flinched when they used metal clippers to just "denail" the nails that had taken me months to grow and I'd put expensive treatments on them too, and avoided using nail polish as it had stained them in the past so my natural nails literally flew out of the window.
I went from this:
to this ... (I just couldn't grow my little finger out at this stage for some reason).
Now don't get me wrong, I loved the ombre nails which went to a white tip so were a take on a French Mani but more modern. The shape was so different for me too. But when you can grow your own nails quite nice it does seem bad to just chop them off and glue on some plastic! Another thing to note was for two days, they were so sore, they felt bruised and bashed about because I do not treat my nails so roughly, I think they were in total trauma mode. It did go away after two days though and the nails lasted weeks without any lifting or issues and not too much regrowth. I painted over the top of them a few times to change the colour and they looked nice. The only thing about acrylics was how thick they were, I had to relearn skills and couldn't press buttons or open cans or do any regular things like pick coins up off the floor! They felt so thick and I missed how well my nails can scratch an itch (with or without gel). But the Acrylics did not get dirty and looked lovely and clear all the time so I liked that - you couldn't get dirt under them as the extensions were flat on the back. Bit gross but you really can't pick your nose with them (I know you shouldn't anyway!).
Anyway, roll on to early March and I had the acrylics redone, with more pink and less white as I had the length reduced a bit but they had not grown a lot. I could feel people were talking more about lockdown and in the third week of March I had these removed at the salon and just opted for some pale pink nail gel polish. I couldn't cope with the idea of the acrylics growing out and had no way to remove them as they were fixed on so well. So on to the gels now.. they looked nice, I chose a nice pink and whilst they looked good they felt awful.
And they were BENDY!!! Shockingly so. I'd got the length and the shape I wanted but by the time I got home I had broken two of them beyond repair. This was due to the nail drill used on my natural nail so it was a big gulp for me as lock down began and I needed to grow out my entire nail. I have super long nail beds so to grow out a full nail has literally taken me from March to July and I still have a bit left of the pink gel on some of my nails. It just won't come off and I really don't want to ruin my natural nails now with drying acrylic soak off so I'm happy to grow it all out and cover up in the meantime!
This picture shows me trying some regular OPI polish - a glitter topper to try and save the lovely length.
So what did I do?
I turned to home gel. I hadn't used my lamp for ages, but it worked just fine when I used it. like this and boy has it seen some use. It has largely been a success but with a few frustrations along the way! I would say that this lamp is worth the money for sure. I reverted back to pretty square shaped nails as these tend to break less for me. I had a couple of short nails but had a look through my collection and the Boots nail lamp I use (SENSATIONAIL)
After the fiasco with the salon nail gel and the frequent bendy breakages I decided to take matters back into my own hands. Literally. I had discovered that the gel glitters offer incomparable strength to the colours so I was painting a base of gel colour (I've been using cashmere from Amazon) then topped with this Bluesky silver explosion glitter also from Amazon (priced £6.95 currently and lasts ages) actually I have bought the silver glitter polish twice as I lost it once and really can't live without (I have found it since though, it had rolled under the bed!!). Another gel product I have bought twice, highly recommend and could not manage the home mani without, is this box of sticky remover wipes, they are fab, each comes sealed so they are great value for money and I use them to wipe each nail top layer and it removes all the tack. At £10 for 200 the Mylee gel polish prep and shine wipes - they are such good value. I reviewed them ages ago and came back for more they were so good.
SO layering the cashmere and silver really works, see for yourself... (my fourth nail looks bent but it's just a trick of the light on the photo!).
Now one last touch, to make them extra special... is a regular Barry M nail polish I bought from Superdrug - it is a limited edition and yes, I am that person who finishes WHOLE bottles of nail polish (as if that's not a skill I'm putting it on my CV!!) ...but you could easy find something similar from drug store / boots ranges. it's a holographic multi colour micro dot regular polish.It adds further rigidity to the nail I find.
And finally one last product I have used I bought on a whim in M&S in January sales and it's the Leighton Denny gel polish converter that you use to sandwich regular polish so you do a base and top coat with this and it's quite a flexible clear coat that you cure with the gel lamp. The polish comes in a kit with some cleanser in a bottle (which I don't really use). It's currently selling for £18 on the nail polish direct website but I paid less than that for the one I bought in the sale.
So, all in all I am very grateful I bought home nail gel kit ages ago and hardly used it at the time but I have been really using it a lot lately. It's not as good as a salon nail job, but I won't use the nail drill as I think it is harmful and clearly made my nails paper thin. I just hope they grow back strong like before but the tips are still bendy so I am still waiting.
What problems did I have?
I have struggled a bit with PEELING I do cap the ends off when using the polish but it just doesn't seem to work on all ten nails. I must have an oily nail bed, plus I'm not dehydrating the nail and using a nail drill so I don't expect it to grow out. Plus, I can't leave them alone when the cuticle ends starts to lift, I'm my own worst enemy!! I have found thin layers work best as the thicker layers just act like vinyl and peel off or even flap off when you use your hands too much.
So right now I have seven nails all perfect (left hand 100%, right hand 20% good lol) It takes me five minutes to fix though so it's OK, I'm in control and could go fix them any time as I have all the tools I need to hand. I didn't really want permanent glitter nails but I'm stuck with them for now because I need the hardness the glitter provides. The only thing to note is that when I put solid glitter nails on my natural nail (not gel) they break really easy as the nail gets too hard with it and with the gel they seem to be hard but without the brittleness so that is good. I will just use the Leighton Denny top coat I linked above with glitter in the future as it doesn't seem to stain my nail at all. Plus, I don't really need to soak them off, I can get the polish off like Vinyl if I want to they just peel and they don't take my natural nail with it so it's good and bad I suppose. The other positive is that the gel nail polish does not smell like regular polish so it doesn't make my husband complain so much (it's just the machine beeping after 30 seconds he objects to now!!).
Final thoughts
Looking at the three bare nails I currently have, I can see some trauma to the nail where the nail drill has been. But they are hard and as I'm waiting to redo them on the gel lamp with the cashmere and silver glitter, I'm not worried they will break. I've given them a layer of OPI nail envy original to cheer them up while they wait. It's clear, so I'll just stick the nail gel on top of this when I get round to it. I've also been using lots of nail oil by CND solar oil and big bottle of £3.99 (and 3 for 2!) Barry M nail and cuticle oil that I slap on a few times a day. It makes my cuticles, well, cute. :-)
Future plans
So now nail bars are back open, what are my plans, after this fairly long 'recovery journey' ? It's so tempting to go and get nice nails done but I don't think I can cope with that nail drill so I will be resisting "that place" again. I think I'd rather save the money and spend it on a few more shades to use at home. I like being independent and in control but I don't like how the home gel doesn't last. I want my cake and I also want to eat it, clearly! SO I will hold off getting any more gel nails or acrylic for that matter... on last question, will my natural nails EVER be this long again? Thanks for reading. I'll review my Look Fantastic Beauty Box next. Till then x
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