New Years Manicure ringing in 2017

Happy New Years Eve ,  I wish everyone a wonderful 2017 full of love and happiness.  I don't know what happened our what I might have done wrong , but shortly after I did my Christmas gel set they began to break.   After the repair of my thumb nail on my right hand , my thumb on my left hand broke off .   I putting up my pea coat and it feel on my thumb taking off the tip of my left nail.  I did not have time to repair it properly so I clued it back on for a while .   It irritated me that my nails were breaking , I was also begining to notice every imperfection .   I noticed that where I had applied my tips gaps were beginning to show .   Then I started to pick at them and ended up taking them off.  I think I may have applied the extension tips incorrectly.   My natural nails are extremely short and there is not a nail tip for an extension to adhere to .   My other thought was I may have not built up the nail enough on the apex.   

While I was out to dinner with my husband he notice that I took off all of my nails and said I was not allowed to do gel nails for a while .   He gave me a six month window,  He said I could paint them , but not do the gel.   My nails are in bad shape right now , brittle and snagging on everything.  In conducting my research of gel nails on Utube .   I am talking about countless hours of me watching tons of videos for endless hours .   I came across some tutorials where people have put gel on their natural nails to help grow them out.   I decided to give it a try and keep my nails short , meaning not adding any type of extension.   I think I tried this before , however it was prior to my apple cider vinegar treatment .  

Now that I have my natural nails somewhat back and have gotten rid of that pesky fungus (Yay) I want to try to keep my nails as strong and healthy as possible , however I do like having them done once in a while and I plan on figuring out the proper way to do extensions.  However for the next six months as a dare from my husband I can't do them.  Life with short nails to start 2017 it is.

For this manicure I started out by doing a try manicure , pushed back cuticle and file the shine from my natural nails.   I did something different this time , which I have notice in the utube videos that I watched . I cleaned my nails after filing with a wipe with nail polish remover.  Nail polish remover dehydrates the nail plate , which allows products like gel and acrylic adhere better.   I added the IBD bonder to my nails and cured for the required time .   I then applied a thin layer of IBD builder gel in pink to my natural nail making sure that gel did not get on my skin.   I cured my nails for the required time of one minute.   After this cure I applied a thicker layer of gel to my natural nail ,  to get a good amount of gel with this product you must dip your brush in the gel pot and lift up creating a string of gel .  I rotate my brush which helps create a little bit of a ball.   I unload the ball in the middle of my nail and with a circular motion I disperse the gel on my natural nail and use the string technique to build out a decent looking nail . Once I am satisfied with the shape of my nail I cure my nail for the required 3 minutes .  

I clean the sticky layer of gel off my nail with an alcohol wipe ( paper towel with alcohol on it) .  At this point I take the 100 side of my nail file and lightly file over the nails to get rid of any ridges.   I used the 180 side of my file and shape out my nail following the natural shape.  I think my natural shape might be round , because that it the shape that my nails followed .   after filing I clean my nails with my alcohol wipe and apply IBD intense seal and cure for the required time of 3 minutes.   I then lightly buff my nails with a white block and again clean my nails with an alcohol wipe.   I could leave nails clear as they look like a pair of healthy natural nails .  However I love to paint my nails and add some type of fun design .

Because it is New Years Eve I decided to so something a little festive.  I have this awesome glittery silver color from Sally Hansen called Guilty Party .  Which I think is perfect to ring in the new year with .   I than chose a festive full cover nail stamp in black pearl from my Konad nail stamp collection.   

It usually takes two weeks for gel nails to grow out needing fills.  We will see how these nails hold up , also I am excited to see if my theory of having gel on the bottom of regular nail polish will allow the color to last longer .   For some reason I having issues with gel color and think that clear gel or natural gel colors as a base are better.   If I want to change the color of my nails tomorrow I can without having to file the color off of my nail.   Time for me to clean up the house now and take down all of my Christmas decorations.  Happy New Years !!!