SWEETIESAL

I am obsessed with having nice nails and for a long time my quest for the perfect talons took me to get powder gel applied at a nail bar in Manchester.

Now, this post isn't designed to make anyone feel bad if you have them, I enjoyed mine for a long time and I think when applied correctly and in a clean environment you can have very few issues with them.

My decision to remove the powder gel was based on the fact that I knew that my natural nails would probably be suffering, I have small, sensitive nails and repeatedly exposing them to the nail drills and harsh product wasn't doing me any favours, plus it's an expensive habit to have!

I decided to remove them myself as I thought I can do it in phases, let it grow off a bit and do a mixture of soaking it off and buffing the gel down. I found this to be the least traumatic way of getting rid of it, but my god it took sheer perseverance!

If this is something you want to do then I would recommend buying some acetone or nail polish remover containing acetone and get ready to sit and soak. You need to be patient and then less damage will be caused to your natural nail. I then used a buffer to gently buff down the product.

That said, once I had got it off, my nails were very weak, short and thin. I decided to give them a few days with a hardening nail polish on them to try and strengthen them up, and then I had UV gel polish applied before I went on Holiday as they were that thin that I thought I could actually do some damage if I wasn't careful!

I am really pleased I did as now they are short but look nice, my cuticles look much better and they are growing again! Result!

It has really got me back into loving UV gel polish, I have all the bits and pieces to apply it myself but had just been lazy and got into the routine of having the powder applied. UV gel polish is less harsh on your nails and once they get growing, there is no reason why I can't have longer, more healthy natural nails.

I have treated myself to a couple of colours from Bluesky UV Gel Polish, which you can buy on Amazon for approx £5 and I am determined to steer clear of the powder gel, given how much it damaged my nails! I am really impressed with the Bluesky polishes so far so I'd really recommend them if you have the rest of the kit to apply them yourself.

Check out my previous post on how to apply gel nails at home.