How To Apply a Gel Manicure at Home

Follow these ten easy steps to create a salon-quality manicure from home.

1. Push your cuticles

Using our cuticle pusher, gently push down your cuticles.

2. Trim cuticles

Taking our cuticle nipper, carefully trim any excess cuticles. A good tip is to tape the nipper and lay it against the fold of the skin, pinch and then let go. 

3. Shape your nails

Using our glass nail file, file to your desired shape. Our glass nail file is designed to be gentle on your nails and reduce breakage and although you can use it to file in a back and forth motion, we still recommend that you get into the habit of only filing in one direction. 

4. Buff the natural nail plate

Lighten roughen up the surface of your nails using our buffer block to remove shine and any excess oils. This will create a surface for the gel to adhere to. Take care to not buff too much as this will cause thin and brittle nails.

5. Clean your nails

After buffing you will find that there will be dust on your nail plate and sidewalls, use the cleaning brush and run this through each nail to remove the dust. If you have an alcohol wipe, you may use this as an additional step but it this is optional.

6. Prime

Using our primer, start with the first hand and apply to each nail. This should only take a few seconds to dry and you do not need to use our UV/LED lamp to cure it. This creates a sticky layer for the gel nail polish to stick to.

7. Base Coat

Take a thin layer of base coat and apply it to the nail. Start from the middle of the nail and push the nail polish downwards towards the cuticle, leaving a hairline gap. Take extra with this step as this is the most important layer. If any base coat leaks onto the sidewalls of your nails, the gel polish colour you apply on afterwards will likely follow it. If you do happen to get any on your side walls, carefully wipe it off before curing for 60 seconds.

8. Gel Polish Colour

Once your base coat has cured, you can start applying the gel polish colour. Again, starting from the middle of the nail and pushing downwards towards the cuticle, leaving a hairline gap. Place your hand under the lamp and cure for 60 seconds. This step can be repeated a few times until you reach your desired coverage or strength. For example, if you have weak nails, you may wish to apply more layers as your nails will feel stronger.

9. Top Coat

Next, you will want to apply a thin layer of top coat and cure for 60 seconds. Our top coat does not have an inhibition layer so you do not need to wipe your nail with an alcohol wipe once the curing process has finished.

10. Moisturise

Finish your manicure by placing a drop of cuticle oil on each finger tip and massage into the cuticles. Repeat this step daily so that your cuticles always look nourished!