Pinterest Test: DIY Gel Nails

If you're anything like me, you really love gel manicures, but you don't really love paying $30 a pop (plus the tip)! So when perusing Pinterest and you come across a pin for DIY Gel Nails, you pin it and take a look.

I saw a such a pin and knew I could get the required elements needed to do it myself. Here is what you need:

1. a bottle of Gelous  Advanced Nail Gel Coat.
2. a bottle of China Glaze polish in your desired color. I used Glistening Snow.
3. a bottle of Seche Vite top coat. What I have up there is Seche Plus fortifier, and I used that.

It's pretty easy to do, though there are a lot of coats. Don't let it scare you too much, because it all dries pretty darn fast, especially if you use thin coats as suggested. Here are the steps:

Apply a thin coat of Gelous to clean, dry nails.
Apply a thin coat of China Glaze.
Apply another thin coat of Gelous.
Apply another thin coat of China Glaze.
Apply another thin coat of Gelous, followed by a coat of the Seche Vite.
Finally, one last coat of Gelous!

Let each coat dry for at least 45 seconds. I just waited a couple minutes between coats and had no problems.

Now, I must say that the original pin is a little misleading. It says "DIY Nails for 5.99"  That is true if you only need to buy the Gelous--it costs $5.99 at Sally's. If you need to buy Seche Vite or China Glaze, because supposedly they work best with the Gelous, it'll cost you more. But you are still saving a lot of cash in the long run.

I did my nails today and I am going to take another pic in a week and post it so we can all see how long these DIY gel nails last. If they are still going strong, I will wait another week and do it again. Stay tuned. If it lasts 14 days under my normal cooking, cleaning, piano teaching routine, I will change the title of this post to Pinterest Success.

Source of the original pin: http://www.hairsprayandhighheels.net/2013/08/diy-gel-nails/