With the warm winds and sandy beaches of summer come many beauty faux pas. The summertime elements are harsh on our skin, hair and nails but with good advice, beauty blunders can be avoided! One being chipped, broken and ugly nails. Lucky for you, I’ve messed up enough to have learned 3 of the best ways to keep a healthy, beautiful manicure this season that will outlast the sun and heat and won’t budge during a dip in the chlorinated pool or after a hot hook-up sesh in the sand.
1. Salon gel manicure
Your nail technician will first apply a base coat followed by two coats of a soft gel nail polish and finish off with a top coat. Just like your typical manicure, except that between each step, the gel needs to be “cured” under a UV or LED light. Basically what this process does is harden the gel to a finish that will last you a good 2 weeks without chipping or peeling! If you have access to a salon that does a gel manicure, its resilience to outside forces makes it a great option for withstanding summertime elements.
2. At-home gel manicure
For those looking to save money or for the times when you simply can’t hit the salon, Sally Hansen has released a line of at-home, no-light gel manicure sets that are major. By picking up one of the 47 gel polish colors along with the line’s top coat, you can paint for yourself and experience what I found to be an astonishingly lasting manicure. The best part is they require no base coat and no UV or LED light! It sounded almost to good to be true, but I decided I had to try this polish set after hearing my own mother rave about it when her mani lasted her two full weeks without any noticeable chipping. I painted my nails with “Flash-ionista” followed by the top coat and they lasted 10 days without chipping. The only noticeable damage was that they started to wear at the tip, similar to polish on acrylic nails. But they still looked good! These polishes are an incredible option for sun soaked days at the beach or when you need a mani on the go.
3. Acrylic tips
I personally have experience donning acrylic nails in the past, also known as “liquid and powder nails.” Acrylics are not an inexpensive nail option, but with proper care, a good technician and regular fills, they can make you look and feel like a bad-ass bitch. These can be a great option for summertime as polish on them can last forever without chipping. But it’s important to keep in mind, the longer the nail, the easier the damage and no one looks cute with only half a hand of nails. Nicki Minaj and Kylie Jenner do not follow this rule and that is because they have technicians at their side to keep her nails “one hunnid” at all times. I learned this the hard way. Aside from that, they will make you look and feel great whether you’re sipping a mojito by the pool or indoors at your office job, imagining how they would look holding a mojito by the pool.