Goth upkeep

[cupcake_goth]

 I'm teaching myself to do builder gel manicures at home. Last night was the first time I did one entirely by myself, and it went pretty well.

• It still took, start to finish, FIVE HOURS. Most of that time is the sanding off the previous builder gel. 
• The builder gel kit I got is the type with the gel in a tub, not a bottle. You apply it with a narrow brush, which gives a LOT more control.
• The gel top coat that came with the builder gel kit is terrible. It never entirely cured; it was still slightly tacky to the touch after wiping it down with alcohol, and this morning the edges of the top coat and the color underneath are lifting. The builder layers are solid tho', thank goodness.

So today's projects include peeling off the defective top coat (which I've already tested doing on two nails and is pretty much like peeling stickers off of something) and redoing the color & top coat with a product I know actually cures. 

Still. FIVE HOURS. I hope I can eventually reduce that time.

Comments

[staxxy]

this is how I do it too. Things I have learned:

- do one hand completely at a time. It goes faster if you can just get through all the layers with one 'clean' hand.
- definitely use a higher quality base and top coat than what comes with the gel (I also use the tub)
- add at least 30 seconds extra cure time in for the top coat at least. I usually add an extra cure run for the builder layer just to insure it is fully cured.
- doing the powder pressed in is difficult and complicated and adds an extra half hour per hand to the process, so I am mostly doing bottle paint right now.
- there will always be a minimum cure time but you can get the hang of the rest of it with practice and the time will decrease. It helps to watch something or listen to something that you can just let run while you do the process because manipulating media or remotes while doing nails is a pain in the ass.
- amazon has some pretty interesting color sets to play with.
- the hardest part, for me, is getting the nail FORM stickers set fully up against the actually nail to create smooth lengths. just getting that curve right is hard.
- it is infinitely safer and cheaper to do my nails myself, even if it eats up several usable hours.

I have some stickers to play with that I haven't used yet, and need to consider doing my nails to strengthen them again. But I did finally get all of the mangled sanding of my nails that was done when I got a mani-pedi in the spring so my own nails are in and coming back stronger than they had been, which is good.