Hi hi!
And welcome to Part 2!
This post will show you how the acrylic process went on myself
how my own nails turned out!
I decided to go with forms to build the nail, since from my
previous attempts, it seems i was a bit better at making the
structure with them!
I can always try out tips in the future, but I really wanted to
see how quick and easy forms were!
･:*☆:.Theme.:☆*:･
I really wanted to go with a general blue & white sparkly
theme for Winter! I am not too keen on Christmas-ey nails and
I don't really like green and red together.
I also wanted something that would look cohesive into the new year!
I looked for Inspo and asked some other amazing Gals
for their inspo dumps too.
Some techniques I really wanted to try
or have included in this set were:
+ A french nail
+ Snowflakes in the nail
+Iridescent flakes
+ Ombre/gradient
Since I wasn't sure how long my first set would take me
I planned on making them during Christmas break!
I work from home on Thursdays, So I actually
started working on my nails Wednesday right after work.
That way, If they looked horrible or unfinished, no one would see it the next day!
[This would give me a 2 days and a half to have them
finished before Christmas].
I made sure to clean off my entire area that I was working
at and make sure everything was clean prepped and at
reach so I wouldn't have to get up much.
I started with my pinky finger first and work towards myself,
this just seemed like the most logical way to me, so
my other fingers wouldn't be as in the way.
I also started on my left hand first, since its going
to be my first in-real-time use, I want to
use the most skilled hand (my dominant hand).
･:*☆:.Prep.:☆*:･
I cleaned and prepped all my nails ahead of time;
pushed back and cleaned my cuticles,
buffed the nail,
Added the dehydrator and primer,
then would apply the form.
I messed up the order a couple times, not paying
as much attention when I was prepping and did primer first,
or would forget to buff.
I made a joke about the prep process saying,
"I'm Buff, I'm dehydrated, and I'm Primed!"
Which made me laugh but it turned out very
helpful and now became like a little joke checklist i run
through to make sure I did all the steps!
but since I was so new and took so long,
I wanted to keep my hands as clean as possible and if another finger maybe felt re-contaminated, I didn't want to redo the process.
So I did it one finger at a time.
I'm sure I will get faster and more confident with time!
The forms were a little tricky to apply at first
but I started to get the hang of it!
･:*☆:.Acrylic Application.:☆*:･
When applying the acrylic in real time, on MY OWN NAIL,
I felt way more pressure and more nervous than ever before!
I tried really hard to make sure my acrylic was flush to the cuticle, well balanced and not too lumpy.
I AM SO THANKFUL FOR SLOW SETTING MONOMER!
Imagining it curing any faster really freaked me
out and made me appreciate the option I had!
[After filing]
(ღ˘⌣˘ღ)
After all the nails were dry, I got to pull out my e-file
and file them down! I worked very slow and if anything; hesitant.
sort of make them a bit thick.
It was hard to judge what would be too thin because my
previous nails were VERY thin, so I was really trying to avoid that.
these are just longer almonds haha.
[Final with Deco]
In total from Prep to finish, My left hand ONLY,
took me 6 hours to finish!
[Yes that is an extremely long time and not normal ww!]
Suzie from NCE said in a video that her first SET
took 6 hours, That's BOTH HANDS!
Now mind you, this was a pretty complicated set and I did
each finger slightly different and used different techniques, so
that probably added a lot to my time.
Also, I added a lof of deco
and in a salon that would usually take more
time and be a bit costly too.
I started at 7pm and finished around 1am.
I was tired but I so badly just wanted one hand
completely finished.
･:*☆:.Right Hand.:☆*:･
I began on the right hand the next day,
I am right-hand dominant so I wasn't sure how well this would go.
Luckily, that morning I was already watching some more nail
informational videos and Suzie had a video on how to do your
non-dominant hand!
How lucky!
I started sometime in the afternoon and took
my time and was very careful.
I hadn't ate anything yet that day and had a lot of coffee,
so my hand was actually very shaky!
I just sort of accepted the shakes and worked
through them as much as I could.
I took the forms off and started filing.
hard desk-taps and wiggles, and a few of them felt a bit weak.
When I would look at the areas that felt weak, I would notice it was
a bit thin in acrylic. So I would just clean and wipe the nail with
isotropic alcohol, then reapply more acrylic.
This method worked really well for me and I finally got the
thickness I was looking for [probably too much ww].
That's when the night really grew long.
I felt like i was filing forever, and ever, etc.
It got to a point where i still wasn't satisfied in my filing and
my middle finger still felt way too bulky and my pinky & ring finger
felt a bit unstable.
But I could barely keep my eyes open.
I finally gave up , cleaned my nails off the best I could
and just went to bed [praying none would break in my sleep].
The next day, [Christmas eve] I began
working again on my right hand.
I started around noon and jumped back to filing.
I was finally at a point where I felt everything was decent
enough in thickness and shape and in all honesty, I was
just getting pretty tired in general www!
After Top Coat and Deco, I ended around 4-5pm,
but I kept taking breaks and was way more leisure about finishing.
[Totaling in a 7 Hr+ process for my other hand].
･:*☆:.The Final Look!.:☆*:･
All in all, I am very impressed with my capability to
do acrylics and I think I will get so much better with
practice over time.
Even though it took me SO LONG, I had fun the entire time!
It really was enjoyable and felt like I was in my own little world.
I felt myself trying to get other things done and "out of the way", so I could go back to doing nails as soon as I could.
Maybe there is a future of being a nail tech for me...
Getting better at filling the cuticles,I think I may use a nude at the cuticle for a
while because the white really showed my mistakes easily
Dont be afraid of thinner, File down more!I really made my first set way too thick and I need to
be careful and get the correct thickness so they don't become
unbalanced too quickly; or too bulky and break!
Try and get faster www!
･:*☆:.New Set-up.:☆*:･
After getting all these nail supplies, I definitely
needed more space to store them all!
I converted one of my shelfs to some of my nail supplies!
My co-worker got me these plastic organizers
for secret santa this year!
I really love how it turned out!
･:*☆:.Bonus!.:☆*:･
I just wanted to share my co*de
I wore on Christmas!
[Which features my new nails!]
I was inspired by this outfit that Yumachi wore
and waned to wear it ever since I saw it.
Thanks so much for reading
and Happy New Year!
Oooh I really love how they've turned out! I think it's a brilliant idea that you've decided to do your own nails (esp because of the previous experience you had). Another gal skill achieved!
ReplyDelete