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How I achieve salon-quality gel nails at home, with a step-by-step guide on how you can do the same.
Why I do my gel nails at home
I started getting gel nails last year after becoming fed up with painting my nails with regular polish.
For one, it takes a lot of patience that I don’t have; normal polish takes a long time to dry and you can’t really do anything while you wait or else you’ll end up smudging the polish and having to start from scratch.
Also factoring in 2-3 coats of polish to make the colour opaque, plus the top and base coat, it would normally take me a couple of hours to get the finish I want.
Even when I did have the self-discipline to properly paint my nails, I found that they would start chipping after a few days and I would end up repainting them.
Making the move over to gel polish was the solution to all of these problems, gel polish looks thick and glossy, a look that I could never achieve with regular polish, and it easily lasts up to a month.
Plus going down to my local salon to get my nails done felt like a luxurious treat, something that I could look forward to every month.
The only problem being that it put me back £30 a month – and don’t get me wrong, I’m all about spending money on things that you enjoy, but it just started to annoy me how much money I was spending, especially on something that I really could just do at home.
The Mylee Gel Polish Starter Kit
I did my research and ended up getting the Mylee Gel Polish Starter Kit.
The kit comes with the lamp, nail prep solution, gel polish remover, lint-free wipes, base and top coat, plus two nail polish shades.
If you’re starting from scratch with gel nails, this kit has basically everything you could possibly need to get started so it’s the perfect at-home kit.
This kit is an absolute must-have and the one that I recommend to all of my friends when they want to get into gel nails. It’s one of the most affordable, but professional, kits that I’ve been able to find!
I also purchased a gel nail remover kit which has the tools that you need to remove the polish which you’ll need for when you want to switch up your colours.
Gel nails at home application step-by-step
- File and buff the nails as needed to get the shape you want
- Soak a lint-free wipe in the nail prep solution and wipe over the nails to ensure your nails are completely clean and ready for polish
- Apply one layer of base coat and cure under the lamp using the timer
- Apply as many layers of your chosen colour as you like – I normally use around 2-3 coats depending on the shade
- Finish with the top coat
- Soak a lint-free wipe in the nail prep solution and wipe over the nails to remove the sticky top layer
I find that the whole process of applying the gel polish takes around half an hour, and factor in another half an hour if you’re removing old polish.
When it comes to removal you have to buff the shiny layer of the polish off, soak the nails in the gel polish remover for around 10 minutes, or until the polish starts to come off the nail, and then scrape the polish off.
It may seem like a lot of steps, but it’s still much quicker than using regular polish.
It’s also nice that once you’ve finished curing the nails you can go about your day without having to worry about smudging the polish.
My favourite polishes and nail art
The majority of my gel polishes are from Mylee and Bluesky which are two affordable but high-quality brands that sell their polishes for around £6 to £8, and have kits that you can buy if you want to build up your collection and reduce the price per bottle.
Another gel polish brand that I hear a lot about but have yet to try is The Gel Bottle Inc, their polishes are a bit more expensive at just under £15 each, but a lot of the nail artists I follow on Instagram use their polishes so it must be worth the price.
They also have a huge range of colours so I will definitely be making an order from them soon.
My nail colours of choice normally fall somewhere in the pink/red colour spectrum, with the odd appearance from a pastel-hue – some of my favourite shades including Creekside (Bluesky), Piping Hot (Mylee) and French Cancan (Mylee).
I’ve also been saving some ideas to my Pinterest board that I will be trying out soon.
I plan to order some nail art brushes and tools so I can attempt some more intricate designs, but for the meantime here are a few ideas that I’ve found that look easy enough to do with my limited amount of tools and skill.
