I have been discussing with a friend today about the advantages and disadvantages of having gel nails. I have had gel nails for a couple of times, but it is not necessarily the optimal way to decorate your nails. It lasts long, that is for sure, it does last even aikido training (see my review on gel nails endurance here). However it is quite difficult to remove them, you can see my tutorial for removal. In addition your nails cannot really breathe if a coat of gel nail polish is covering them for a week or even longer. You also need a lot of tools to make it work and special products like nail primers, brushes, UV lamp and so on. Here is a picture of some of the things you need to get in order to prepare some home made gel nails.
Nowadays however I prefer normal nail polished and I am also trying hard to actually maintain my nails. You can paint them and decorate them, but if you don't give your nails the proper attention and don't take care of them as you should, you will always have chopped and frail nails. I am also trying to take care of my nails by using hand and nail creams, taking vitamins (I started my spring multivitamin magnesium complex treatment this week), pushing back cuticles and so on. I have also seen a reasonably good nail care collection on this website. I like to give attention to maintaining my nails because I believe in the widespread motto that beauty and health are strongly connected. So you cannot have beautiful nails unless they are healthy and properly cared for.
I am also looking forward to try out the new nail polish I got from the swap with Sakura. The video of my opening the swap package is coming soon! Can't wait to post it. And the pictures and reviews of the products Saku has sent me also! Hope to see the stuff I send her reviewed on her blog pretty soon!
