Hello Beauties!
Have you ever spent hours and hours on your nails and special designs just for them to smudge just before they dry or chipping minutes after the top coat dries? Yeah, I have too.
Nails aren’t normally too hard for me to keep up with though.
I’ve been traveling so much that my nails look absolutely terrible. They’re desperately in need of a fresh manicure, but I haven’t been able to find any time, money, or energy.
Normally, I can’t stand to have my nail polish look so chipped for so long; it just looks unprofessional and makes me feel absolutely terrible about not taking the time to take care of myself. Considering the fact that I got home from a visit to New Hampshire just yesterday, I don’t think I’m doing too badly.
My last manicure was about three weeks ago, so I’m definitely long overdue, but I can’t ever justify packing a nail polish in my suitcase or travel bag to be able to touch up my manicure looks. I also can’t just keep buying and buying new nail polish colors while traveling or reapplying nail polish since it takes so long to truly dry down.
So, with all this in mind, I’ve been struggling to keep my nails feeling fresh and cared for.
One solution that I’ve tried is to get gel nails instead of using normal nail polish. The gel nail polish dries fairly easily and I was able to buy my own UV Light machine to harden the gel from Goodwill.
While you can buy a UV Light machine for gel nail polish from Walmart, Amazon, or Target, I was able to find it while thrifting for cheaper than normal. Walmart has sales for their UV Light machines every now and then, especially when they want to sell their old past-season gel nail polishes.
The gel nail polish tends to last way longer on my nails without really risking chipping after tying a shoe or washing a single dish. It also helps since it dries in about 30 seconds to one minute, making the application that much easier.
I really love my Sensationail UV Light, as well as the decent selection of gel nail polishes I already own. Since I found it at a thrift store, it was about $20 cheaper than normal. After looking it up on Amazon and Walmart, the regular price is around $49.99 for a starter set which includes the machine, lint-free wipes, gel top and base coat, one gel color, gel cleanser, and gel primer.
The gel base and top coat takes only about 30 seconds to dry with the light and one minute to dry the color. Since it’s recommended that you apply two coats of the gel color, it only takes about three minutes altogether (after the primer) to get a lasting manicure at home.
After about 10 days, the gel color still looks amazing.
Even though it’s fairly hardy, the color can easily be removed with the gel polish remover wraps for around $8 or the gel polish removal tool for around $4. It doesn’t take more effort than removing regular nail polish, so it’s also not too harming to your natural nails underneath.
How do you keep your manicure fresh? I’d love to hear in the comments!
XOXO
Beauty Bound Beta
Beauty Bound Beta 