Hi! So, you know in When Harry Met Sally when Harry is telling Sally that she is high maintenance but thinks she is low maintenance? That is kind of how I am about painting my nails. I totally don’t think that I am high maintenance about it, but I would (and have) pay to get a manicure every two weeks! Unfortuantley, I hate how long it takes to get my nails done at a salon. (#firstworldproblems) I would much rather do my own manicure at home and listen to this while waiting for my polish to dry.

ANYWAYS – here is a how to on doing a shellac manicure and using regular nail polish (which I do alllll the time). Enjoy:

First are the supplies that you will need:

Alcohol, cotton balls, base coat and top coat, UV lamp.

Before I start, I normally soak my fingers in some warm water, push back my cuticles, and file my nails into a smooth and pretty shape.

Get your nails ready for the base coat by applying rubbing alcohol to your nails. I use a cotton ball (but should probably use something that doesn’t leave little fluffy bits on my nails) – you could just spray the alcohol onto your nails like the salon by my house does.

Apply a thin layer of base coat to your nails. Place in UV lamp for 10 seconds. Make sure before you put them under the lamp, that the coating isn’t on your skin, or shaped funny. It sets pretty hard onto your nails in just 10 seconds, so make sure it looks good before cooking it on!

If, like me, you are planning on using regular nail polish as your shellac color – apply a layer of top coat to your nails after you have let the base coat sit for 10 seconds under the lamp. If you are planning on using UV gel polish to add color, skip this step.

Let the top coat dry under the UV lamp for 2 minutes. After it has dried, remove the tacky layer from your nails with an alcohol soaked cotton ball (or non-fluffy-leaving-soakable-thing).

After you’ve removed the tacky layer, you are ready to add whatever nail polish you want! Since it’s Valentine’s this week, I decided to go with red nails! (I used a red O.P.I and red glitter China Glaze).

Let the polish COMPLETELY dry. After it is dried, redo steps 3&4 (add another layer of top coat, let dry under UV lamp for 2 minutes, remove tacky surface with alcohol soaked-thinga-ma-bob.) Also, if you get a bit of polish on your skin (like I do in the picture above), you can easily remove it with regular nail polish remover (don’t use acetone unless you want to soak off your gel nails completely).

And viola! You are ready to show off your nails for up to two weeks!

FYI: If you are brand new to shellac, I would recommend getting it done at least once in a salon just to observe and see what they do. Then after a few times at home, you’ll be a pro!

LOVES,

B