Accidentally Nailed It. Moving Away From Gel Nails And Getting A New Manicure

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After years of gel manicures, my nails have cracked, and I’m changing my nail routine forever.

I have always been one of those people who would get gel manicures every two weeks, and I loved it! My nails were always perfectly polished, and I loved the colors I could choose from. However, after years of this same routine, my nails started to crack and break. Now that might not sound like a big deal, but for me that was life-changing!

I went to a nail specialist and got the full scoop on what I was doing to my nails. She told me that using gel manicures for so long had dried out my nails and caused them to become brittle. This explained why they were falling off all the time!

So, I’m one of those people who’s had shellac nails for the past year. Yes, I know. I don’t need to hear it. I was such a loyal customer at my nail salon, I practically felt like family there. Whenever my manicure would start cracking and chipping, I’d rush over and get them fixed up right away. But recently, I’ve noticed something new is happening to my nails that has me worried: they’re breaking off in chunks! And they hurt!

Has anyone else experienced this?

I’ve heard all the talk about how gel nails can be damaging to your natural nails, but this breaking thing is a whole new level of bad. My nails are very thin now and when they break it feels like someone is dragging a razor down my nail—not fun!

As much as it pains me to say it, I think it’s time for me to move on from gel nails and find a safer alternative…or just go naked for a while!

I love having painted nails because they make my fingers look longer and thinner (don’t we all wish we could have that?!), but now it seems like nothing can give me that same look without destroying my natural nails at the same time.

What should I

I have been wearing gel nails for the past ten years. I have loved them and they have always made me feel more polished and professional. But… I have always had an issue with my nails cracking underneath the gel coating, and it has been progressively getting worse over the last year.

I have tried a bunch of different things to try to fix the problem (including going to a different place to get them done and even switching brands) but nothing worked.

After talking to other women who got their nails done, I realized that it was not just my nails that were cracking underneath the gel polish but almost everyone’s were. Apparently, it is a common side effect of having your nails covered in nail polish all the time, which makes sense as your nails need to breathe.

I decided that since nothing was working I had two options: stop getting my nails done or change from gel to shellac polish. I really did not want to stop getting my nails done (as much as I love the way they look, having my nails manicured is also about self-care and taking time out for me) so I decided to give shellac a go.

I recently got my nails done this past weekend, and I am absolutely in love with them. (I was a gel nails fanatic, but they were so damaging to my natural nails and it was also very expensive to maintain.) I want to share my experience with you guys today and I hope that you get some inspiration for your next manicure!

This is the first time that I’ve gotten acrylics, and I couldn’t be happier. The reason why I decided to go with the acrylics is because my natural nail beds are super weak from having the gel polish on for so long. In fact, the last time I went to get a gel manicure, the technician told me that it would be a good idea if I stopped getting gel, or else my nail beds would weaken to the point of no return. (My nail beds were already starting to crack under all of the pressure from these gel manicures.)

I ended up choosing a pretty color that looks exactly like candy apple red. The name of this color is “Rouge Noir” by OPI and I am obsessed! It’s such a perfect shade of red that gives you an instant pop of color wherever you go.

I was not a very good customer.

I have been getting gel nails for years. I love them because they last a long time, and look pretty all of the time, without chipping or getting nicked.

My nails were constantly chipped and jagged, due to my job where I’m using my hands all day long.

Plus I really disliked painting my nails, as it was just another chore that would need to be redone in a few days. When gel nails came out, I jumped on the bandwagon because they looked perfect all of the time. But their perfect appearance came with a price…

My nails became weak and brittle over time. They started peeling and breaking off at the tips when they were filed down to remove the polish. If you’ve ever had gels done you know how ridiculously hard it is to get them off when it’s time for your maintenance appointment. Most salons soak them off, which causes damage to your nails; or use acetone to remove them which also damages your nails. They’re supposed to last up to three weeks but lately mine have been lifting after two weeks so I have been going back every two weeks for maintenance. The cost adds up quickly too!

My newest issue is that they

I’m not sure if you can tell in the picture above, but my nails have been a mess lately. When I got back from Europe they were starting to chip and peel. I thought it was because they were just dry from the plane ride and that some lotion would help. I was wrong.

I’ve been doing gel nails for YEARS. I started when my best friend got married in the summer of 2011. We had a bachelorette party at a local nail salon and all got gel nails so we would have nice manicures for the wedding pictures. They looked great for about 3 weeks, and then one day as I was peeling an apple (because apparently I am 80 years old) one of my nails cracked down the middle and peeled off with a piece of the apple skin. It was pretty gross, but it never happened again so I forgot about it.

A few months later I added gel nails to my regular self-care routine (pedicures, eyebrow waxes, etc.) and have continued to do them for special events or vacations ever since. This past winter one of my nails started peeling again and it happened again last week after my Europe trip.

My theory is that being pregnant has made me sweat more than usual

I hadn’t been to the salon in years, so when I went to get my nails done recently, it was a whole new experience for me. I had never gotten acrylics before, but I figured that it would be worth it to get them done for my wedding day. After all, the wedding was less than a week away and my nails didn’t look great. But after getting my nails done I realized that they weren’t as great as I thought they were going to be. They were really thick and hard to cut and file. So after about two weeks of having them on, I decided that I needed to take them off because they were starting to crack and break. And after taking them off and trying to grow out my natural nails I realized that they weren’t strong enough to hold nail polish anymore.

So I decided that gel nails were the way to go because they are stronger than acrylic nails but still flexible enough so that they won’t break as easily. The one thing that has kept me from getting gel nails is the fact that you have to cure them under a UV light and I don’t want to expose myself or my kids to all of those rays if we don’t have too since we are outside all of the time anyway. And also because you

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