I always thought that acrylic nails would be the best kind of manicure. They never, chip, crack or break. So, this past quarter, I decided to give them a try, but little did I know what my experience would be.
I went to a place called Nail Talk to get my nails done. I asked for the acrylics to be the same length as my natural nails with a white, matte gel coat. (This was the moment, I realized I needed to have done some research). The lady looked at me strangely, but gave me what I wanted. The first thing she did was buff my nail beds, which is not the most comfortable thing. I thought it was quite painful, though bearable. Next she shaped my nails and filed them down. The next step was the clear acrylic. That’s all my acrylic nails were, was just the clear nail. I didn’t get the acrylic nail polish, because I honestly didn’t know what I was doing. The next step was adding the white nail polish and curing it.
My total came out to be a little over $40 for a manicure I didn’t end up caring for. Afterwards, examining my nails, I noticed that the acrylic nails seemed to be so thick. For example, I couldn’t peel up stickers, because the nails were too thick. My roommate, who always had acrylic nails, informed me that this was normal, but it didn’t look right it to me. Later that night was the worst part. My hands were in so much pain, and it was because of the acrylic nails! You know how when you wear faux nails, they feel tight? Well this was that feeling times 10! I didn’t know that was going to happen and it was kind of scary. At that point, all I wanted was to take them off.
When the pain eventually went away, I began to enjoy my nails. I loved how they looked and how long my nails got because of them. My first thought was, I’m addicted, I can’t wait to get them again! That’s definitively not how I felt during the removal process. Being cheap, like I can be sometimes, I decided I was going to take off my acrylics by myself. I’m not exaggerating when I say it literally took me 8 hours. It was so awful. You would think after a 20-minute soak in pure acetone they would come off – nope. It was a repeating process of soak, scrape, soak, scrape, soak, and scrape. And not to mention I was breathing in the fumes of the acetone the entire time. After that experience, I never want acrylics again. I’ll stick to my faux glue on nails please!!! And just to add on to the great experience I had with acrylics, after their removal I immediately broke a nail off, because the acrylics leave your nails weak and fragile.
So, really I would say if you want to give acrylics a try, do it, but I personally do not recommend it!