I was browsing the internet at some crazy hour in the night when I found myself clicking on this little UV lamp for gel nails.. being so small and from a shop on eBay it only cost around £8.00. Now I love going and getting my nails done and having a bit of a pamper, but unfortunately there is no such thing as a reasonably priced nail bar in Jersey (prices of gels range from £25 - £40+.. god help you and your bank balance if you want gel extensions or acrylics!) With this in mind, I thought why not give it a try. at least if it didn't work I wasn't going to be loosing a lot of money.. so into my basket it went. I figured before I paid I'd better check out the price of the gel polish, I was pleasantly surprised and ordered both the base and top coat for around £3.00 each. Then it came to choosing which colour I wanted, and we all know that this can be a long process, especially when you're faced with 70+ colours.. in the end I decided I would buy a gel colour from Boots, that way I could see what the colour was actually like in person (even though it cost a little more). I picked up the Rose Gold Glitter polish from Sensationail as well as their Gel Polish Remover and the Remover Tool.
Now I knew I wasn't going to get that 'salon quality finish' especially after paying for a cheap UV lamp, base and top coat, but I was looking forward to the experiment and it is safe to say I am pretty pleased with the outcome!
If you would like to know how they turned out or how you can achieve this at home then please keep reading :)
Step 1: First of all I had to remove the gels that were already on my nails (please don't judge..I had been drunken picking at them the night before)
Simply get yourself 10 pieces of cotton wool and 10 pieces of tinfoil
Soak each piece of cotton wool and pop it over the nail, then grab a piece of tinfoil and wrap it around the top - this makes sure that the gel remover stays in place as you have to leave it for around 10 minutes, and the heat also helps with the removal!
Oh.. and if you are doing it yourself then it's best to do one hand at a time!
TIP! Definitely make sure you do this over an old magazine or newspaper.. it can get a bit messy
Step 2: After 10 minutes remove the first cotton pad to see if the gel is ready to come off.
Using a remover tool like this one is better for your nails so it is definitely worth the purchase! (I can say this from experience after trying to remove gels a while back and butchering my nails after using a wooden stick. It was quite tragic)
Place it at the bottom of the nail with a little pressure and the gel polish should come off nice and easily
It is probably a good idea to put something on those poor dry, sad nails here.. but I didn't have anything. Nail technicians would be horrified by this I'm sure buuuut never mind
Step 3: Apply a thin layer of the base coat to the nails and whack them under the UV lamp
I had to do this a fair few times (I half expected this from buying such a cheap lamp, luckily for me I had no plans for the rest of the evening so time didn't matter too much!) and even then they didn't feel quite dry and had a sticky feeling to them..I gave up trying to get them any drier and moved on!
Step 4: Apply a thin layer of the colour and again, put them under the UV lamp
As before with the base coat, I had put these under the lamp a number of times and I won't lie, it was getting a bit boring. After the first coat of colour I started to think that maybe I had picked the wrong one, but I powered on
Step 5: Apply another layer of colour.. so basically repeat step 4!
After the second coat had been applied I realised that I HAD picked the right colour, this is exactly the colour I was after!
*Huge sigh of relief*
Step 6: Finally, apply the top coat and again dry under the UV lamp
I think it's safe to say the UV lamp isn't great, I wouldn't recommend this particular one..unless you're on a budget and don't mind waiting what feels like forever for them to dry! Also it got really hot after a while, so whatever you do, do not leave it plugged in even if the light is not on!
The base coat, top coat and gel polish I was really happy with and I will definitely be buying some more colours from Sensationail. I was also really happy with the Sensationail Gel Polish Remover, as well as the acetate it contains some oils and vitamins and it had a much less offensive smell than acetate by itself! The remover tool was also great and I didn't feel as though I was completely ruining my nails which is always a good thing
So far I am really pleased with the finished look..now to see how well they last! I will do an update over on IG (@SGX____) to let you know if they stand the test of time
Shop:
