DIY Acrylic Nails (lightless)

After my experience with DIY gel nail kits (lightless) I decided to try and tackle DIY Acrylic nail kits (also lightless).

For those of you who don't know the difference between gel nails and acrylic nails (because it took me a long time to learn the difference!) is that acrylic is a porous material used on nails, it's extremely tough and long-lasting and gel is literally a gel put on the nail and hardened (either cured under an LED or UV or used with an activator to harden). Gel is not porous. They both have pros and cons.

I have found acrylic to be extremely hard to work with, and its a much longer process when doing it at home.

Anyway, after trying the gel nails (in my previous post) I decided to try the DIY KISS acrylic nails, also lightless. You can pick this kit up at Walmart or Shoppers Drugmart for about $12-$16 CDN.

My first few experiences were terrible with this. It's messy, and expect it to take a very long time if you want to do it right.

The kit comes with tips, orange stick, nail file, glue, acrylic powder, acrylic liquid and a brush.

First part is the same as any kit, you cut your real nails, file the tops a little bit (so nail sticks better) and you find the right nail size and glue tips to your nails. 

Like I mentioned in my last post, I definitely didn't know about all the different helpful nail tools there are (like electric nail drills, nail tip cutters, etc). So I cut the nails with regular nail cutters and once again took an hour or so to cut and file each nail into the desired shape.

Then you clean your nails off and pour the acrylic liquid into a dappen dish (or glass bowl) and you dip the brush into the liquid so it's wet, then drag the brush tip along the powder to form a ball at the end of the brush. 

You then pad the ball onto your nail to form a flat surface. This is all in the instructions. It's also extremely hard to do...if you've never shaped nails with acrylic before.

So after I did that to all of my nails I was left with very uneven surfaces of acrylic on my nails. As I  mentioned earlier this acrylic didn't need a lamp so it dried on it's own.

After all of my nails had dried I had to file the surfaces down so I didn't have any uneven ridges...this also took another hour to get it perfect. Finally after that's done you apply a topcoat to give it a smooth and shiny top.

This whole process takes a very long time if you do it the way I did...and in the end it's not worth it.

Acrylic is extremely durable, I had no problem with lifting or tips falling off or the acrylic breaking. But for some reason the tips yellowed after some time... or at least I thought it was the tips. It was actually all the acrylic. And this is very common with acrylic, especially with the at home kits.

So I wouldn't recommend a DIY lightless Acrylic kit. It also takes an EXTREMELY long time to soak them off. I used to soak my fingers in acrylic for 15-20mins (which is very hard on your skin) and then I discovered an easier way to do it...which I'll discuss in my next post :)

My Nail Experience - DIY Gel Nail Kits

Before I start my posts on how my IBD at home gel nails are doing...I want to first talk about my experiences with DIY gel nail kits.

First, I bought the DIY gel nail kit you can get at shoppers in the purple box. I'm not sure if they offer those anymore...but anyways it's lightless. You don't need to use an LED or UV lamp to cure.

When I first got this kit I thought it was amazing, and it was my first time experimenting with my nails at home besides using nail polish.

The kit came with white and natural tips and gel overlay, activator, brush cleaner, and orange stick, glue, and a file.

I honestly didn't know about the nail cutters that cut your nail so they're already shaped in that salon squarish shape. I used regular nail cutters and once I struggled getting the tips on with the glue, I cut them and filed them until they were a nice shape (this along took a good hour or two).

Then you clean off your nails and apply the activator and the overlay (activator allows the gel to harden).

My first reaction after I was done was "This is amazing!!". Because it did look good. At first.

What I didn't know was pretty much anything about gel. 

#1 - Gels that don't use LED or UV are not going to last as long...not even close. 

#2- Gels like to lift...right off your nail

So....after a few days the gel started to lift. It looked like little air bubbles under my nails. And the gel cracked. It was very disappointing. I also had problems a few days after that when the tips would come off and I'd have to re-glue and re-do the nail.

But honestly I used those for a good couple years or so (not all the time) because I loved the way it looked at first and it was cheap, and since I was a student there was no way I was going to a salon to get my nails done.

So that was my first venture into DIY Gel Nail Kits.

And sometimes the nails would last longer and look good for longer but around a week is when they start to fall apart.

Would I recommend using this kind of kit??? Absolutely not. Because you can get SALON BRAND gel nail kits for a pretty low price if you shop around - try EBAY or SALLY'S BEAUTY SUPPLY.

Next Post - DIY Acrylics nails kits