People have been painting their nails for centuries - the first use of early nail polish was recorded in ancient China, 3000 BC (use that at your next dinner party, you're welcome).
But while we love to switch up our nails at home, we've also had to deal with the consequences. Smudging, spilling, chipping, and picking things up with delicate Grinch fingers for an hour while waiting for our manis to dry.
Enter the angels that are nail technicians, and the heavenly invention of gel polish. There's no doubt - the work of a trained expert cannot be beaten, and getting to sit back, relax and leave the salon with a fully cured set of nails that will last several weeks is a great feeling.
Only problem? It's expensive. Like, an average cost of $77 per mani, expensive. If you're getting that done every couple of weeks, you're looking at over $2000 a year, and that doesn't even include extras like nail art or builder gel.
Plus, with the influx of 'NailTok' videos and so many mani-lovers on social media, it can be tough to get an appointment at a convenient time and place as demand grows.
So nail techs, please don't come for me. I love you, I respect your craft and I still visit you for special occasions, you are the professionals. But, I've also learned the joy of caring for my nails at home and saving some cash in the process.
We love discovering a new hobby as an adult!
There are lots of DIY gel nail systems on the market these days, but you want to be really careful which one you go for. Any gel polish brings with it the risk of developing an allergic reaction - and this can happen even at a salon.
Your best bet is to make sure you invest in high-quality products and always avoid getting gel polish on your skin. You also want to follow all instructions super carefully, take your time with application and fully cure the gel.
Gelous is NZ's first homegrown DIY gel nail polish brand, and they were kind enough to send me a starter kit plus a few jazzy extras to learn with.
Prepping nails starts with gently pushing back your cuticles, filing nails to shape and lightly roughing up the whole surface of the nail so the polish can adhere. Then you can give it a wipe with a bit of nail polish remover, and use an (optional) nail primer to dehydrate the nail.
For application, I used a rubber base coat (thicker than regular base coat, and helpful for weak, uneven nails like mine) then a couple of thin layers of builder gel (also optional, but makes a big difference in strengthening). From there, it's 2-3 coats of whatever colour I choose, and finished with a shiny top coat.
Each layer is cured under the UV/LED Gel Nail Lamp for about 60 seconds.
Patience and practice, I learned, are key.
Once I got comfortable with the basics, I was able to really level up my manicures with a few additions to my kit - the mixed nail art brush set made applying builder gel a breeze and a thin angle brush dipped in remover is great for cleaning up any time you didn't colour within the lines.
But what about nail art? If you're someone who loves to take a complicated inspo pic to your artist and dream big when it comes to designs, a professional is still probably your best bet.
But I was so excited to find a few hacks that let me have a play with nail art at home, despite my zero artistic talents.
I had heaps of fun with the Silver & Gold Rhinestones, which adhere to your nail with a special nail art glue that also cures under the nail lamp. They were a bit fiddly to start with, but I found using a pair of needle nose tweezers was a game changer.
Nail Stickers are also amazing if you don't rate your steady hands (spoiler, I don't) when it comes to painting designs.
They even have Chrome Powders available to give you that iconic Hailey Bieber glazed doughnut look. Crack or tear a nail? No problem - there's Fibre Gel Nail Repair Glue to mend them back together. They've honestly thought of everything.
The rare times you can bear to have bare nails, oils, exfoliators and treatments are your friend. These will help keep your natural nails in good nick and give you a cute self-care moment.
Revitanail sent me a few gorgeous products to start taking care of mine, and you can really tell the difference. I frequently drenched my nails in their Nourishing Oil, which has Vitamin A and E as well as Sweet Almond Oil, which is something a nail tech once specifically recommended to me for cuticle care. As someone who often suffers from owchy hangnails, this was amazing.
They also have an Intensive Strength Nail Treatment formulated with calcium to promote stronger, healthier nails, if you can commit to it for the whole 28 days - I usually just did a week at a time.
And as if I hadn't annoyed the professionals enough already, I have to say I even found some success with press-on nails when I was short on time. Ardell and Manicare both have really good options here - some even come pre-glued, and they last surprisingly well.
Anytime I did sit down with my full gel kit though, I really enjoyed it - especially the fact it kept me entertained for an hour or more with no doom-scrolling on my phone. If you've never had the feeling of replying 'thanks, I did them myself!' when someone compliments your mani - you might want to give the DIY route a go.
Just good luck choosing a colour!
