How to make a manicure gel polish at home?

It is common for every woman to strive for perfection. At the same time, she pays a lot of attention to her nails, because well-groomed hands can tell a lot about her mistress. Along with the fact that today there are many tools for high-quality and long-lasting manicure, I want to keep up to date and use the best new products and materials. It is worthwhile to dwell in detail on how to make a phased manicure gel polish at home, indicate what this is necessary for and how to avoid common mistakes for beginners.

Gel Polish is a new generation of nail products. This coating is a hybrid, it is characterized by the qualities of gel and varnish at the same time. The material is characterized by a pleasant texture in work, it evenly spreads over the prepared nail plate.

The fundamental difference between gel polish and conventional materialswhich women usually use at home is the need for drying in a special drying device (UV or LED lamp). Without a lamp, the varnish does not dry at all, even if the coating layer is very thin. Of course, this facilitates the work, because you can not rush to the application, fearing the formation of stripes and bald spots. At the same time, to perform a manicure, you will have to buy a lamp, which can be complicated by a large number of proposals, since it is difficult for an unenlightened woman to choose the option with the right power.

Otherwise, gel polish is a unique material. It has a wide range of color shades and a lot of varieties that differ in the effect of texture. These are glossy, jelly, yogurt, magnetic, luminous varieties. Matte coatings with a textile effect are very popular today, as well as temperature options that darken in the cold and become light in the heat. Over long lengths they create a unique gradient effect.

A distinctive feature of gel-varnish coatings is their compatibility with any decor without exception. This nuance is a decisive factor in the choice of hybrid coatings. However, the execution technique has one significant drawback: it is lengthy and can take up to three hours in time. But if you consider that the varnish will hold for at least 2-3 weeks, this is entirely justified. This will save time on daily updating of manicure with regular varnish, which very quickly loses its freshness.

Another feature can be called the very method of performing manicure. Unlike the usual technique, you will have to apply layer by layer, drying each of them in a drying lamp for the right amount of time. It will not work to reduce the time or to cheat, since all the flaws will affect the quick detachment of the materials used. You must understand that these varnishes require high-quality and accurate work. Errors will have to be corrected before drying, then this will not work.

The inventory of professionals is different from what women use at home. Of course, if you have finances, you can get an apparatus, but for beginners, the usual set of familiar tools is quite enough. Since all equipment will consist of hygienic and decorative manicure, it is worth clearly distinguishing between two sets of tools that may be needed in the work. To prepare your nails for working with gel polish at home, you need to take care of the availability of tools such as:

• scissors and manicure scissors;
• orange stick
• cuticle remover;
• soaking baths;
• pusher;
• files and soft grinder;
• lint-free wipes;
• brushes for removing sawdust;
• special degreasing fluid.

To perform a decorative manicure, depending on the variety of his technique, you may need the following tools:

• thin brushes with pile of different lengths;
• drying lamp for 24/48 W;
• rubber hoof;
• orange stick
• Napkins without lint.

In addition, a pusher may be needed in the work to move the cuticle away before applying the lacquer material. A rough list of materials will depend on which design is planned. The usual standard list consists of the following materials:

• base coverage;
• finish (top);
• pigmented (colored) gel polishes;
• a primer;
• decor elements.

In order not to get confused in the steps of the master class, it is worth separating the main stages of its implementation and dwell on each in detail.

Hygienic manicure involves several steps.

• In the salon, before starting work, the client's hands are necessarily treated with an antiseptic. At home, you can wash them with soap, without steaming and without delaying hand washing. Align the length, with a file, give the desired shape to the edge of each nail plate. This should be done in one direction to avoid gel polish detachment. Use in the work you need good, not sharpened files.
• Take a cuticle remover and apply it to the skin around the nail, excluding the growth zone. This transparent substance will prepare the skin for further painless removal.It will reduce the risk of injury and reduce the stress state of the dermis, thereby eliminating the appearance of irritation.
• After applying the product, the fingers are placed in the bath for 4–5 minutes. The temperature of the water in the tank should be +4 degrees. During the stay in her fingers, it will drop slightly. Do not use cold water, it is harmful to the bones. After the set time, the fingers are removed from the water and wiped with delicate movements.

• Cuticles and pterygium are being cleansed. They take a pusher and with a spatula they first push it away, and then gently lift the skin at the base and sides, reaching the end of the finger. Do not touch the upper part under the nail. Raised skin is easier to cut off, which is why it is necessary not only to move it as much as to turn it around, it is more visible that it will have to be cut off.
• Using manicure scissors or a cutter (tweezers), they cut off excess skin. In this case, movements must be made in the direction of the cut (in no case upwards). If possible, try to cut not parts, but a whole strip of skin. This will reduce the rejection at work, which is one of the reasons for the gel varnish to flow over the cuticle.
• Then they arm themselves with an orange stick and check the quality of the scrubbing, conducting it around the nail in places of cleaning. If there are flaws, they immediately go up. They are cut with scissors or a cutter.

Now the surface of the nail is being prepared, adhering to a certain algorithm.

• Take a buff (soft grinder) and delicately remove the gloss from the surface of the nail. Drive one spot of the nail with a buff no more than two times so as not to thin the plate itself. Using a brush to remove dust, get rid of sawdust. Then the surface is degreased with a dehydrator, removing residual sawdust with lint-free napkins.
• Now you can apply a primer coat to the surface, which will increase the adhesion of the nail to all subsequent materials applied. This function is performed by the primer, it is applied in a thin layer and dried in a lamp. The device timer allows you to withstand the time correctly, without violating the process technology.
• After this, the base could be applied, but usually many women have weakened nails. Often they need help, so they have to deal with strengthening. This is a special composition that can be included in the technology and applied with a thin layer on the surface of the prepared nail. It is transparent, has a viscous consistency and lays well on the surface of polished marigolds. The material is also dried in a lamp, keeping the right amount of time.

To apply the basic materials correctly, It’s worth a few steps.

• Take the base material and cover it with the nail. The tool must be applied to the surface with a thin layer so that it does not spread beyond the limits of the nail plate. To do this as accurately as possible, you can pull the skin around the cuticle with your fingers and immediately put the nail in the lamp. Do not apply the product immediately on all fingers, trying to save time. While the latter will be processed, the first composition may leak over the cuticle and side rollers.
• According to the rules of technology, when applying each product, you will have to go along the end of the nail. This must be done carefully, making sure that the layer of applied product is thin. So that the coating does not turn out flat, spreading on the sides, it is worth turning the nail down after applying the base, and then quickly turn it back and place it in the lamp. So the arch will not be smoothed.

• After the base material is dried in a lamp, a pigmented varnish is applied. To make the coating look more neat at the base of the nail, this line is created with a thin brush. To crawl with a brush does not work. On the manicure brush they draw up quite a bit of paint and paint on the beautiful edge of the bottom, and, if necessary, the sides. After that, paint the base of the nail or its entire area.Sometimes masters do not paint on the first, but on the second layer of applying pigmented gel polish. Each professional has his own opinion on this matter, however, working with a brush at the beginning of staining will completely block any flaws in the work with a second layer.
• After the nail plate is stained with pigment, it is given about half a minute for it to spread. This will avoid stripes and uneven distribution of funds on the entire plate. After that, the nail is dried in a lamp. The step is repeated to completely block the original color of the nail.
• After that, the coating is decorated and covered with a layer of top. The top is applied in a light layer, covering the entire nail and processing its end. Drying is then carried out in a lamp and after about 30 seconds, residual stickiness is removed. This should be done with nail polish remover. You need to work quickly and delicately.

Decorating nails is carried out mainly before they are sealed with finishing material. However, in other cases, it is necessary to apply decor on top of the top. It is worth considering the basic techniques for decorating nails, according to the general step-by-step instructions that you can do yourself. It is necessary to rely on the principle of work of nail service professionals.

Images are applied at the stage when the pigmented gel polish is already dried, but the top has not yet been used. The technique of drawing can be very diverse (from stamping with a variety of patterns to stencils). Someone uses dots with various ball nozzles to draw, creating interesting ornaments with ordinary round dots of different colors and sizes. In the simplest version, it can be an imitation of a French manicure, in which points form an arch. In the same way, they first draw the contours of the hole, and then fill it.

More advanced craftsmen use flowering coatings in their work. Here you don’t need any special skills: the pictures appear by themselves, creeping out from the usual points, lines and commas put on the nail. Sometimes it’s enough to point the dots with special paints on an un-dried transparent base coat with a flowering effect. As the desired result is achieved, the nail is dried in a lamp, and then the desired contours are given to the drawing. So the spots turn into flowers, leaves, dandelions, feathers and much more.

It can be painted on a pigmented basis using water-based artistic watercolor, gel varnish diluted with top, or acrylic gel paints. If the main background is dark, first they create a white underlayer of the desired shape, then it is filled with colored pigments, forming halftones and achieving realistic images. After the drawing is ready, it is dried (in case of using watercolors it dries itself), it is covered with top with further drying.

As for the theme of print, it can be very diverse. These are flowers, and geometry, and space, and ethnic motifs, and plants. It is fashionable to use seasonal pictures in the design. For example, these are butterflies, dandelions and insects for summer, prints in camomile, dew drops on flowers, colorful leaves and berries for autumn. Winter images can convey the beauty of frosty patterns; ideas for spring can be drawn from floral and Scandinavian ones. One of the most fashionable trends today is the boho style in the design of manicure with its inherent brightness and confusion of ornaments. You can draw on nails with manicure brushes, dots, cling film, stamps, as well as ordinary foil tape or even a toothpick.

Like the drawings, the decor is not performed on everyone, but only on accent nails. You can use kamifubuki (multi-colored confetti), broths, rhinestones, crystals, sliders, stickers with a sticky layer, powder, fimo and rub in for this. In addition, tear-off or transfer foil, as well as yuki flakes, can be an excellent decoration option.Each type of decor will have its own technology and sequence of application. For example, in order to transfer stickers of water is typical (slider design), on top of the dried pigment you need to apply a base (top, white base or ultrabond), then remove the protection layer from the sticker, lower the cut picture into water, separate from the substrate and distribute on a sticky layer of un-dried substance. After that, it is necessary to cover the layer with the picture first with a base, and then with a top. Each layer must be dried in a lamp.

The procedure for working with powders depends on their variety. If it is acrylic sand or powder, it is applied in two ways. In the first case, the base is applied to the nail, it is lowered into a jar of powder and dried. Masters often also polish such powders. Sometimes the powder is applied to a layer of an un dried base, sprinkling a nail on it. When you need to give volume to any pattern (for example, to create a knitted print), it is created with a transparent top, sprinkled with powder and dried.

In order to learn how to work properly with rubbing, you have to practice using tips. This veil is rubbed into the surface of the nails on the sticky layer of the top. The longer the processing time, the denser the effect. Applying mica flakes is also easy. They will look beautiful if they are painted over with, say, a thin layer of stained glass. Foil is transferred in different ways, depending on the type of material itself. Most often, a special glue is used for it, which is applied on top of the pigment. When dried in air, it changes color from white to transparent. As soon as this effect is present, the foil cut into the shape of the nail is applied to the nail, pressed tightly and torn off. The pattern remains on the surface of the plate.

As for rhinestones, they are glued to two types of material: modeling tool or top. It’s easier to glue them on an un-dried top, which covers a layer of pigment. However, due to the volume and in order to avoid quickly tearing off the sparkling decor, you have to apply the top again, only now without touching the rhinestones, otherwise they will stop shining. The “broken glass” technique is nothing but gluing a special manicure film with a different effect on a painted nail. It is cut into pieces, then glued to a base or top layer and sealed with a finish with obligatory drying in a lamp. Often, before cutting the film, the dispersion layer is removed from it. Use this decor only for accents, since it will look too simple on all nails.

If you violate the basics of technology and make up nails, missing its important points, this will affect the final result. It is worth noting the short common mistakes that are encountered by beginners.

• One of them is insufficient lamp power and, as a result, incomplete drying of the applied layers of various materials. In this case, the coating peels off the nails very quickly, and it can slide away immediately with a thick film.
• Sometimes, beginners do not consider it necessary to use one of the mandatory components of puff technology. By removing the base or not using a primer, you can not hope that the coating will be durable. The same can be said about such an important point as the removal of residual stickiness. If you do not remove the dispersion layer, this also leads to a quick detachment of the applied coating.
• Often the problem lies in non-compliance with the rules for caring for a finished manicure. To keep the coating on the nails for a long time without the need for correction, you need to follow a series of recommendations that are usually given by professional masters at the end of a manicure session. Neglecting these rules, we reduce the wear of the material and create all conditions for its speedy peeling. But at the first chips of wine it is often transferred to the poor quality of the used hybrid coatings.
• There are times when beginners begin to correct the coating after drying in the lamp.However, in any attempt to correct a defect, they are faced with the problem of chipping off a piece from the base layer. They fail to correct such a defect flawlessly, and they often do not want to redo it because of the long time due to the drying of each layer. However, the problem still remains: painting does not save the situation, because with the chipping off of a piece, an air pocket is also formed.

So that gel polish stays on the nails for a long time, It is worth paying attention to the following simple recommendations of nail specialists:

• they do not do manicures when a woman has critical days or at the time of taking antibiotics; it is useless, since the varnish will not hold firmly;
• in the presence of serious diseases (diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, endocrine system), gel polish is replaced with gel;
• hands in front of manicure try not to steam up, because excessive wateriness reduces the percentage of tenacity of gel polish and especially the base;
• they use high-quality nail files in their work, and also try to purchase materials from one manufacturer (base, top and pigments);
• to make up the nail without bald spots and stripes, try to pick up a varnish with dense pigmentation;
• drawings are made with varnishes, diluting them with the top; dense and viscous compositions in this case will leave steps between the print and the background;

• in order to prevent the varnish from dripping onto the skin around the nail, they put a little varnish on the brush, remove the excess, and do not forget to form a glare;
• if during the work it is necessary to use sliders, they try to ensure that there is no water on their front side, this reduces adhesion to the top;
• all layers need to be dried in the base, they cannot be overdried, as this may cause the coating to crack;
• you can not apply varnish to the cracked coating, it will still chip; if cracks are noticed after drying, you need to remove all layers and apply them again;
• varnish should be stored in a dark place (this way it is preserved better), and in the process of manicure you can not keep it near the lamp;
• on the first day after performing a manicure, you should try to avoid contact with water and especially steaming hands.

On how to make a manicure with gel polish at home, see the next video.