IBD Gel Nails Day 4 & 5

Yesterday on of my tips came off, as mentioned in an earlier post. So today I quickly re-did the nail before work since it's such a quick process :)

The nails on my right hand are not looking too good right now. My right hand is getting a significant amount of lifting and cracking....so that's no good.

My left hand looks pretty good though...so I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong. One of the nails on the right hand that has the worst lifting and cracking is because the nail tip lifted when I was using weak drugstore brand glue and instead of redoing it all over I just glued the tip back on so I believe that's why that one is so messed up.

I think I also might've done a messier job on my right hand (because I'm right handed) and maybe I got a lot of the product on my skin which will cause lifting.

I will try and get some pics in tomorrow of my nails in their current state. With the new nail I put on today I cured it in less time. I'm using my LED instead of a UV and LED's cure much faster. I was thinking maybe I over-cured the bonder if that's at all possible so the gel wasn't sticking to it properly.

Anyway we'll see if it makes a difference. Once I get my UV lamp in I'll also test the LED vs UV and see if that makes a difference.

~Gwen S~

IBD Nails Day 1, 2, & 3

Day 3 IBD Gel Nails Pic

My nails looked great after I finished them I was very pleased. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of my nails first done but I do have pics for Day 3.

The process was EXTREMELY simple. I'm actually quite surprised how simple it was to do my nails with the right tools.

First thing was buffing the tops of my nails with a buffer block (which gets rid of shine and dehydrates the nail) and then cleaning my nails with rubbing alcohol.

I made the mistake of first using drugstore nail glue (KISS) for my nail tips. Before you do any of this make sure you have good glue! I lost a tip the second day and that made the gel crack and created air spaces.

Anyways, after applying all of the nail tips to my nails I cut them using a nail cutter specifically for tips. Then you file down the corners a little bit until your nails are shaped the way you want them to be.

Then wipe I wiped my nails off again with rubbing alcohol to clean away the dust and get rid of any oil that might have gotten on my nails in the process.

I applied a thin coat of IBD bonder/primer all over each nail and cured in an LED lamp for 1 min.

I should mention, although it says to use a UV lamp in the instructions I was curious to try out my Sensationail LED Lamp because my UV lamp had not arrived yet. As far as I can tell it works perfectly.

I will try using the LED and the UV (one on each hand) next time and see if it makes a difference with how long the gel lasts.

From what I've read, LED lights are stronger and therefore faster at curing. I did a lot of research on UV vs LED and I really couldn't find a lot on the topic so I will experiment with both and maybe save some of you the hassle of having two lights for different products.

Anyway after curing the bonder/primer, I applied a thin layer of clear gel and cured that for 1 min. I then applied another coat of gel and cured that for 3 mins.

The last part of this was applying the Intense Seal to add shine and smooth out the top. I cured that for 2 mins.

That whole process is surprisingly quick I was very impressed. Especially since I'm use to having to take 4 hrs out of my day to get the perfect salon nails at home from lightless UV kits from the drugstore (that look good for about 3 days)...never again!!

Day 2

Lost 2 tips because the glue didn't hold well....so I went to Sally's and bought better glue.

Day 3

Tips were fine, noticed some lifting in the corners which I think is due to my own fault of getting a bit of the gel on my skin. Very minor though. Also noticed some cracks in either the top coat or gel itself...other people wouldn't notice it because they are hair pin cracks but I could see them and it bugs me....

See the lifting in the corner??

Day 4

Lost a tip that had the old glue on it... I did put the new glue underneath all of my other nails but that can only do so much....so now I need to redo that nail with the new glue.

That's as far as my journey has gone so far....

I really want to try the 'builder' gel which I've already ordered. The soak-off clear gel has a thinner consistency than the builder gel from what I've seen on tutorials.

If you have naturally uneven nail surfaces, such as I do, with little dips and whatnot, I would recommend trying the builder gel. It's suppose to be self-leveling and be a little thicker.

Once I get that in I will post the results.

Hope this was helpful and if you have any questions just post them up!

~Gwen S~

IBD Gel Soak-Off Nails...Follow Along

Through the next week or weeks I will post everyday on how my IBD nails are doing. After watching a tutorial on Youtube that used IBD soak-off gel I decided to give this a go. I discovered you can purchase salon brand nail products from Sally's Beauty Supply or other beauty supply stores or one of my favorite places to purchase things - Ebay.

After doing some research on the IBD nail products, I went on Ebay and bought IBD soak-off clear gel, IBD gel remover, IBD bonder/primer, IBD intense seal, and and IBD nail brush. This all costed me around $40...so not too bad. And all of this will last awhile so in the end its actually very cheap.

I will talk more about this tomorrow, along with LED vs UV light which is another experiment I'm throwing into the mix.

I'll start posting pictures so you can see my process as well. Currently I'm on Day 2 of IBD nails and so far so good... :)

Talk to you all tomorrow!

~Gwen S~