I got really tired of keeping my nails short, so I decided to go back to longer nails. It’s been about a year since I have gotten acrylics on my nails so when I visited my manicurest, she informed me that she applies Hard Gel now instead of the traditional acrylic powder that I used to get. I guess Hard Gel is a new process of gel being used within the nail salons (at least new for me since it’s been a year I haven’t done this). I was very resentful to her using this new process because I guess I didn’t trust it very much, and didn’t think the thin gel would be strong enough. Eventually she convinced me to try it.
So the process starts out with plastic nails glued to your natural nails like before; then instead of building the acrylic with powder she applies a coat of hard gel (which looks very much like the gel they use when doing gel manicure). After the application you insert your fingers into the UV-light which cures the gel in place. Then she repeats the application process 2-3 more times depending on how thin you want your nails. After gel is cured (nail looks kinda bumpy at that point) she buffs the top very quickly which evens out the bumps and then applies polish of your choice. She can also finish it off with gel polish if you prefer but I requested regular nail polish from OPI.
Overall, I love the nice results that I got. My nails turned out to be very thin, and natural looking. The beauty about hard gel is that it doesn’t require a lot of buffing to a high shine due to the glossy nature of the gel. The downside to hard gel is that when you want to remove it, it requires filing off. A lot of damage to the natural nail can occur when the nail tech hasn’t realized the gel has been removed but keeps filing into the natural nail. Hard gel also costs $10-$20 more then the traditional acrylic depending on the salon.
As for the durability I was told by the manicurist that it lasts with the same strength and length of time as the traditional acrylic . I can’t comment on this part until some time passes but my feeling is that it will break or crack faster because it is thinner. I will leave a comment on this part later next week.
Check out video below of how the nails look:
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