Gel Nail Pedicure: How To Do Your Own at Home

1. Purchase the following nail products online (I shopped with www.Nailiteinc.com): Professional 9V UV Lamp ($30), Thin Gel Coat 1 oz with brush ($8), 100/180 grade nail file, 80 grade nail file, nail buffer, cuticle pusher, cuticle clipper, and cuticle oil.

2. Push your cuticles back gently with your cuticle pusher then clip them gently with your cuticle clipper.

3. File and shape your toe nail ends using 1st the coarse grade file and moving to the softer grade.

4. File your toe nail beds (the surface of the nail) using the coarse grade nail file first followed by the softer and finally the nail buffer. File until the nail bed is smooth. Remove any nail dust from your nails.

5. Paint a base coat of thin gel polish then dry it for 3 minutes under the UV lamp.

6. Paint a second coat of thin gel polish then dry it for 3 minutes under the UV lamp.

7. Once both nails have 2-3 coats of thin gel polish, smooth out the surface with your buffer again.

8. Paint 1-2 coats of your color polish followed by 3-5 minutes under the UV lamp each time. Make sure you paint color polish over the tip of the toe nails.

9. Paint a final layer of thin gel polish for the top coat, followed by 3-5 minutes under the UV lamp each time. Make sure you paint the top coat over the tip of the toe nails.

10. Once your nails are dry, massage oil into your cuticles, toes and feet and your fabulous toe nails are ready for the world!

11. Redo these steps about once every 3 to 4 weeks as your nails grow out. This brand of thin gel can be removed with acetone or non-acetone polish remover. Or you can choose to file your toe nails until the color is removed. Either way you will need to level the area close to the nail bed where the nail has grown out and the polished area is a little raised.

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Gel nails require the UV lamp for curing and will remain sticky if left out of the picture. Yucky...

The thin gel does not work as a base coat for manicures. I have tried it many times and it chips or peels with a few days, leaving the underlying nail bed dry and brittle. You must use a thick gel for the base coat, which requires the use of an electric filing machine like the ones used in professional salons.

While I enjoy going to the salon to have a gel manicure, I am always looking for other options that are more time and money efficient. I recently noticed a soak off UV gel nail system on Amazon.com. IBD and OPI (my absolute fav nail polish!) both have a system. See the image and link. After researching it online, however, I found reasons to not be so excited about it:

1. Each layer of polish takes 10 minutes to remove. So my usual 3 layers will take 30+ minutes per nail.
2. I did not like the idea of sitting and breathing the polish remover for this amount of time.
3. At close to $200 for the base + color + remover, it seems a bit steep to try out.
4. Probably I will need to use an electric nail file and thus invest much more time and money for training and equipment.

If you've tried this system, please comment on how well it works for you!