Many avid acrylic wearers will understand how taxing getting your nails done can be. First it’s the trip to the nail salon, then you have to wait for someone to do them, then there’s the time it takes to actually have your nails done which can range between 30 minutes to almost 4 hours plus, and then you have to cry as you hand over your debit card to pay for your newly-installed claws. What if I told you that you could have the look of acrylics without any pain or actual acrylics? What if you could have the snatched claws of your dreams in 15 minutes or less?
As someone who was madly in love with acrylics I took on the daunting task of learning how to do them myself. After destroyed nails, multiple tutorials, a headache, a huge mess of acetone, acrylic powder, nail tips, and a destroyed brush I thought all hope was lost. However, for the sake of beauty I felt that if I had a will there must be a way for me to create my own little masterpieces. I sat down with my stereotypical latte and began my research into the world of nails. Rocking my nails, au naturel, I began to see the toll that the acrylics had taken on my nails. To be totally honest with you, they looked like they’d had the life taken out of them and were looking for salvation. I came up with a plan to find something similar to acrylics without the horrible scent and damage that typically came with the territory. After a lot of caffeine, two nervous breakdowns, and surfing the interweb I found something called full covers. They were very affordable, already shaped, and came in various lengths and sized to suit my every need. I went onto amazon and ordered 500 full nail covers for $10.99 and ordered quick drying nail glue for $1.99 which meant that in total I spent only $13 whereas a set of acrylics typically starts at $25 dollars. If you’re looking for a specific brand, I’ve found that the full covers from Ecbasket and the Nailene Ultra Quick Nail Glue worked best for me and they can be purchased on amazon.com. You can buy full covers in multiple styles such as coffin, stilettos, square,etc and they come in white, natural and clear. It took only a few days for my supplies to come and I excitedly ripped through the packaging.
Let me just say now, I am never going back to acrylics. I was able to do my nails and have them last for around 2 weeks with no fuss or muss. I started by cutting my nails just to the point of where they were no longer visible above my fingers and then I roughed them up ever so slightly. Now this is very important, I washed my hands and prepped my nails with acetone to get rid of any oils or dirt that I had remaining on my hands. Lastly,I picked out the correct size nail for each finger, glue them down and then painted the full cover tips. Et Voila! I was done in less than 15 minutes and had flawless nails for two weeks! Granted there was minimal damage to my nails due to the fact that I had to roughen them up however, it didn’t even compare to how frail and broken my nails had become with acrylics! My nails, for two weeks, didn’t chip or break and I’ve gotten more compliments on them than ever before!