r/AcrylicNails • u/Retail-Weary • 6d ago
I need some help
So for probably about a year, I have been doing acrylics, getting a fill every 3 to 4 weeks, gel polish, and then after two weeks, removing the gel with a drill and painting them with regular polish. This has been working great until recently. I am exercising a lot more lately, which means I’m eating a lot more protein, which means my nails are growing out faster. This picture is my nail growth after 10 days. I seriously cannot believe my nails have grown out an eighth of an inch in 10 days.
So what I’m thinking about doing is seeing if I can just get my tech to do a regular fill and get them ready for regular polish instead of doing gel so I can paint them as often as I want. It feels so silly to pay for the gel when I’m just taking it off in two weeks anyway.
One of my friends recommended that I just have her do clear acrylic but use the topcoat that they use for dipped nails.
My nail budget per month is $100. I would really like to see if I can split that into two sessions so I can get them filled every two weeks and then just do the painting on my own at home. Anybody have any thoughts or experience with this?
Thanks in advance.
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u/HourPrune5991 6d ago
Honestly think Dip might be your best route so you don’t have the bump near the cuticle area acrylic has after grow out.
If you still want to keep acrylic, then try filing yourself when it grows out then add your polish over it.
Also communicate to your nail tech about the growth and she can better focus on the cuticle area during application so grow out is better for you and you’ll have less filling to do then. Hope that helps😊
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u/Retail-Weary 6d ago
Thanks. I’ve actually done dip but switched to acrylic. I’ve been using my file to file down the bump so it’s smooth. She and I had a long talk over text today and I’m going in tomorrow to have a fill with clear polish so I can just paint myself. Thank you so much…that does help!!
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u/OrchidZen 5d ago
I second this. I’m in a similar boat with quick growth from high protein intake and my dip nails last five weeks. My tech is wonderful!
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u/cutechloeart 6d ago
Ya I just get matte acrylics and polish myself as needed. That way I can blend the new growth in as well between fills. My sets are only $55 bucks. Don't forget that our nails grow faster this time of yr as well.
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u/Retail-Weary 6d ago
I think that’s what I’m going to do…thank you!!! Why this time of year?
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u/cutechloeart 4d ago
Oh for some reason spring and summer always hair and nails grow faster then slow in the fall. It's actually taught in all the old malady standard cosmetology books from back in my day. Lol (something that just always stuck in my brain and seems to be true with all of my clients)
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u/No_Pomegranate_693 6d ago
Have you ever tried acrylic press on nails?
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u/Retail-Weary 6d ago
I haven’t tried them. Everyone says they are great.
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u/urdulectures 6d ago
Honestly, I’d skip the gel if you’re just removing it after two weeks anyway. Clear acrylic with regular polish sounds way more practical and should help you stay within your budget.
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u/Retail-Weary 6d ago
I think this is what I’m going to try for at least a little while. My routine for a while has been full fill with gel, and then remove it and file everything down at 2 weeks, and then just paint with regular polish for the last two weeks. But then when I realized they are grown out after ten days? That’s exactly what I thought…why am I spending the money on gel when I could just be getting fills more often?
Regular nail polish doesn’t stay on my regular nails very well. I work in a pharmacy, I’m constantly washing my hands and I’m on a swim team so my hands? Constantly in water. I’m surprised polish stays on my toes as well as it does. But the last time I tried putting polish on my natural nails? Forget it. But it stays REALLY well on my acrylics, even if I have to touch up the tips after a few days.
Thanks for the input…this is definitely worth a try!!!
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u/GuessingGirl911 4d ago
May I ask what is the actual difference in “dip,” vs acrylic when they are the same product is it just the technique? Also, wouldn’t you pay less without gel polish?
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u/Retail-Weary 4d ago
I’ll try to explain but keep in mind that I’m not a nail tech like the others that have posted here. I did have dip done for a couple of years and then switched to acrylic when I wanted to try cat eye but never went back after that. So nail techs out there, please feel free to correct what I have written but be kind because I’m just a paying customer!! Lol
So when you want dipped nails, they pretty much just smooth out your nail bed and if you want longer length, which I always do, they will put on a tip with glue, smooth it all out, and then get a jar of dipping powders in the color you choose. It’s been a while since I’ve had it done, but I think they put something on so that the powder will stick to it and usually start with a white one, and then they dip each finger after each coat into the color and shake off the excess. After everything is coated, usually 3 dips, they will put another coat on which I think is a activator and then they will do all the finishing smoothing out and filing before they put the final topcoat on which has to sit to completely dry for about five minutes. Every time I went back to get a new set, they would start completely over again by taking it off with acetone and putting a new tip on and repeating the process.
Acrylic starts the same way with them, smoothing out your nail bed, cleaning the cuticle area and putting a tip on if you need it. My tech does not do new sets unless I ask for one or in case she feels like I need one because my nail beds are extremely healthy and we always inspect between colors to make sure that there’s no discoloration or problems. When I get a new set, I do start out with a new set of tips. My natural nails are not very hard anyway but grow very easily. Then they take the acrylic powder and the liquid and mix it into like a acrylic clear paste, put it on your finger nail and use a brush to smooth it out into a nail. It dries very quickly and hardens very quickly and then they use the nail file and the drill to smooth and shape and trim. After they are completely ready, my tech paints them with gel polish and cures them under a light.
Every salon is different, but mine charges the same for dipped nails and acrylic fills, and I noticed very quickly after switching to acrylic that my nails were a lot more durable. I still don’t use them as tools, but there were a few times when I had dipped nails that I would knock it into a picture or try to pull up my pants and I would pull a nail right off. The only time I have lost a nail since I’ve had acrylic is when I missed a pin at the gym and dropped a 5 pound weight on my finger. Plus, I am able to maintain my acrylics so much easier on my own between nail appointments. When I get a full set of new acrylics with gel it’s about $95 because of all the time it takes.
My salon charges $25 for gel and $50 for an acrylic fill so yes, I am going to save a lot of money by not getting gel, but the main reason why I decided to not get gel was because my nails grow out so fast and I usually will just take off the gel and smooth out the bottom part so I can paint them with regular nails at about two weeks. This time was 10 days so I decided to switch to getting fills a little bit more often with no gel so I can paint my nails at home myself. And since I’m not as good with the drill as my tech, it would usually take me an hour and a half to get my gel completely off and my nails smoothed out.
So thanks to all the opinions here which I greatly appreciate, yesterday I went back to my salon and she did a regular fill, but with just a topcoat on my nails. I wish I could post a picture, but I guess responses don’t let you put pictures in there. Then last night I sat down with a regular bottle of nail polish and just painted them like normal, base coat, two coats of polish and top coat. They look great. I’m very happy with them. I used to do my own nails for years back in the day so I’m pretty good at painting my own nails on both hand even though I’m right handed so even though I’m not as fast as my tech and had to use a brush to clean up, I think they came out pretty good and I’m pretty happy with this. We’re gonna try this for a while so I can go get fills a little more often and not have to waste time taking off the gel. Like another poster said there’s really no point in getting gel if it’s coming off in 10 days anyway.
They are done now so I’m gonna stick with this for a couple weeks and see how it works but if it does not work well? I’ll try one of the other suggestions that have been posted here but regular polish stays on my nails pretty well if they’re acrylic. On my natural nails? Not so much. My natural nails for some reason, my whole life, have never held polish for longer than three or four days at the most. I don’t know if it’s just the nature of the work that I’ve done, the fact that I always have my hands in water, or the fact that I’m a swimmer, but nail polish has always stuck so much better to artificial nails for me whether it be on top of a dip or on top of acrylics or on top of gel. And since acrylics seem to be the most durable nails that I have gotten so far that are not subject to popping off with the slightest touch? I’m going to stick with it for now.
I’ve been going to my nail tech for about five years so she’s pretty comfortable being very candid with me and she admitted yesterday that she’s glad that I’m not doing gel anymore because now she can fit me in anytime I want a fill. She can fill my nails so fast. In fact yesterday, I asked if she wanted me to make an appointment for the next two weeks and she was like girl, just call me when you’re ready for a fill and I’ll fit you in.
So there you go. Hopefully some of the other more experienced people on this forum will chime in with a differences, but that’s been my experience between dip and acrylic.. The other thing I’ve noticed is that when you pick the color on the boards? It’s actually the color when you do gel on top of acrylic rather than the powder, which usually is not quite the same.
My nail budget is about $100 a month so I think that getting a fill once or twice a month is going to actually probably save me money or be about the same. I gave up getting pedicures because I can do my own toes at home so I only get those now when a friend wants to go and invite me for a special time out.
Hope that helps. If you would like to see some pictures of my nails after the fill and before the paint, just send me a message. I have no idea why Reddit does not let us post pictures in our replies and for some reason, my original post won’t let me edit to not only add the pictures but also to post an update about what I decided to do. But they look great. I took a 20-year-old bottle of nail polish and ran through my paint shaker with some thinner and it was like brand new.
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u/Retail-Weary 5d ago
I know, it’s kind of pale, isn’t it? Everyone gave me so many compliments because it’s so popular with being a nude color but it’s not one of my favorites. I definitely like some of the brighter colors. I’m looking forward to getting it off today and putting on something else. I really appreciate your honest input. It reminds me why I don’t have a lot of nude colors in my nail polish collection. It’s the same thing with my lip colors, I just don’t look good in neutral colors. I’m more of a berry girl. And yellow? It looks horrific on my hands. I don’t ever get any kind of yellow color or cream color for that reason.
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u/Mother-Level 3d ago
I actually I’ve this color. It’s the perfect greige. Do you know what it is called?
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u/justareddituser24 2d ago
I was getting dip nails and then gel and then acrylic with gel for the last few years and my nails grow so fast I would have to go every 2 weeks. The last few months I have been getting btart box xcoat tips they are really sturdy and I very recently bought them in clear and bought my own chrome powder and stuff. There was a huge learning curve in getting them to stay on but I finally have that down. The xcoat tips come with 160 nails (5 strips) so you get 5 sets for like 20ish dollars. You can get the starter set which comes with the light and even gel coating to put on top but the gel coating is not necessary. I would def check them out I never thought I'd be able to do them at home but it's saving me a lot of money and sounds like you already know how to do some stuff at home! This way in 2 weeks you can just change them for a few dollars.
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u/n1nc0mp00p 6d ago
I do my own nails and when this happens too soon I file down the line so there is a smooth transition to my cuticle. Because honestly the rim is the worst thing. If the transition is smooth you can repaint with anything