Do Your Own Nails at Home

Selfcare

Whether you’re trying to learn how to do your nails or cut your monthly expenses, here is how you can do your own nails at home and what you need.

Last year, I decided to invest in an at-home nail kit to start doing my own nails at home to cut some monthly expenses. Since moving from my home town, I haven’t quite found another local nail tech that can do my nails the way my old nail tech did. I didn’t have the best experiences exploring so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I decided to learn and use it as a creative outlet and save some money. It sounded like a great idea, it was and was also was not. Heres why…

Pros:

  • Save money!
  • You can explore your creativity
  • Gain experience
  • You know how you like your nails and what you want
  • You can play around with designs and polishes.
  • Grow your nail polish art collection.
  • Do your nails when you want and basically for “free” (girl math)
  • You can do your friends and family’s nails.

Cons:

  • You have to invest time to learn
  • You WILL mess up
  • It takes a lot of hours
  • You don’t get the pamper relaxing feeling.
  • It becomes a chore if you don’t enjoy doing it.

What You Need

Here is what you need to get started I recommend to start simple: Gel polish and builder – it’s the simplest, easiest and quickest. There are several kits that have everything you need to get started. This is my personal favorite because it gives me a natural look with durability for about 2.5 weeks. I love using Beatles Base and Top Coat to prep and build the nail a bit thicker before applying my color polish and top coat.

Other techniques that require a bit more effort and time:

Gel- X

Gel-X nails were all the rage not too long ago. It’s preferred for its easy application. Kind of like an elevated press-on nail. Super easy and all ready to apply. You find a nail tip that fits your nail bed and apply nail glue, cure and paint or design and you’re done. I personally don’t like that the bottom of the nail near the cuticle can easily look like a press-on nail if you don’t file it/shape it down, which sometimes I don’t have the patience for.

Polygel

Polygel one is probably my favorite methods after just gel builder. It lasts longer than gel and it’s easy to apply. Essentially, you put gel on a dual nail form, cure it, and pop off the dual form and you’re left with a sturdy nail tip without the nail tips. I love my nails as natural looking as possible and with this method, you can control the thickness. I will say, that removal has always been the tricky part for me.

I hope this was helpful to get you started on your at home nail journey! There are several tutorials out there to better explain and guide you with prep, application and design. Have fun creating and saving!

FTC* This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link at no extra cost to you. For full disclosure read here. All opinions and recommendations are my own.