I am personally in team LED because uh hello welcome to the 21st century. They’re also clunky and fragile to transport. UV bulb lamps however take longer to cure your polish (we’re talking 2 mins vs. The bulbs are modular and can be replaced. There are two types of lamps out there: UV bulb and LED.īulb based lamps are typically larger, which means you can fit your whole paw inside. I mean, do you people like being useless for 60 minutes while nails dry? Why anybody still buys traditional nail varnish is a mystery to me. When I don’t spend hours doing a full manicure, I can bake on a layer on coloured polish in 60 seconds and walk out the door. I kid you not, this is now my most used appliance, second only to my kale-smashing blender. The first thing you should invest in is the UV nail lamp. The formula to nail extensions is actually very simple: clean nails, glue on tips, slather on builder gel, cook under UV light and polish. Let’s dissect that shopping list a little further: Material breakdown The only downside to ordering online is the 4-6 weeks it takes for the stuff to arrive from China. You may hate the process, and you will probably screw up a few times so why waste platinum product. If this is your first attempt, buy in small quantities, and buy cheap. Yes quality matters, but we are not enlisting in the nail olympics just yet. I bought all of my supplies on eBay, and filtered by the cheapest option. Total damage: about 25 bucks, free shipping So without further ado, here’s your shopping list: However for the mani-curious (oh yeah, there’s gonna be a tonne of terrible puns here), I suggest following this guide to acquire the basic supplies you need for everything from a quick polish change to full extensions. If your idea of hand TLC is chewing a millimetre off your nails, this is not a good starting place. Gel nail extension tips are pretty high up on the scale of complexity. If you’re stubborn as a mule and fabulous as a unicorn however, move on to the materials portion. So like with fake hair, if you want perfect, quick results HIRE A PRO. I like to think what I’m giving you here is not only the instructions and tools you need for the job, but a renewed respect and understanding for why professionals charge the rates they do. That said, I believe the DIY experience makes you truly appreciate a craft. It ain’t easy, and even given saintly amounts of patience, you will not be churning out competition grade nails on your first try. There’s a reason nail techs spend many hours and pay hefty tuition fees to learn this skill. Sure, there is risk of injury (although not much, I’ve deliberately exclude pointy objects from this toolkit), risk of infection if tools are not properly sanitized, and of course the ever lurking risk of pulling out your hair in frustration – thereby ruining both your wool dreads and your fledgling nail tips. I’m going to start this article with the same disclaimer I had on wool dreads: this is an arduous, time consuming process. This guide is fairly lengthy so I’ve broken it down into four steps. You can quick jump from here to help you navigate: Supposing you’ve now completed the finger-scalding, hair pulling ritual that is developing your fake mane, it’s time to tend to those hard working hands.Īfterall, what’s a kitty cat without her claws?Īnd so I give you this new guide to full gel nail tip extension manicures, complete with step by step instructions and links to all the products and supplies you need to stock your own mini home salon. It’s tough to follow up on the wildly popular DIY Wool Dreads to this day my most retweeted, linked and shared post. It’s been a while since I’ve written a solid DIY guide.
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