Getting a regular manicure is an important part of most women’s beauty routine. While having perfectly manicured hands is desirable, getting a manicure too frequently can cause damage to your nail bed, resulting in weak, discolored and brittle nails. Apart from the damage frequent manicures can cause to your nails, there is also the cost of getting your hands and nails preened to be considered. The cost can easily run into hundreds of dollars even if you only get a manicure fortnightly.

As technology has advanced, alternative solutions to acrylic nails have been developed. One of the most significant is UV gel nail polish which is applied like regular nail lacquer, costs half as much as acrylic nails and won’t damage your nail beds the same way acrylic nails can.

Before rushing out to buy UV gel nail polish or get it done at your local salon, it is very important to understand what UV gel nail polish is. First and foremost, UV gel manicures do not make use of nail extensions or tips like acrylic nail extensions do. The gel polish is more or less thick nail polish that protects your natural nail and strengthens it at the same time. A UV gel manicure costs less than acrylic nail extensions because the application time is shorter than the time it takes to apply acrylic nails. Applying UV gel polish such as Shellac can take as little as half an hour to complete and no additional drying time is required. Another reason UV gel manicures are cheaper is because of the materials required to complete the job. Damage to the nail bed can is also avoided as the nail bed doesn’t need to be filed down in order to make the finished look appear natural.

Gel polish requires a curing lamp to set or dry it. Without a curing lamp, gel polish will not dry like regular nail polish and instead remains wet and sticky. After the polish has been cured, a sticky layer remains at the top. This is caused by the oxygen in the air which prevents the UV gel in the upper most layer from linking together to create hard polymers. The UV gel polish has to be applied in thin layers to allow it to cure properly.

At the very end of the process, the sticky layer which is called the inhibition layer can be removed using isopropanol (alcohol).

A big advantage gel polish has over regular nail polish is its durability. Gel polish can last for between two and three weeks without chipping while regular nail polish can be stretched to a week without showing any signs of wear and tear. There’s a lot more flexibility in terms of effects you can achieve using gel nail polish. Gel nail polish can even be combined with regular nail polish. Regular nail polish can be painted over gel polish and can also be removed without damaging the gel nail polish underneath. A non acetone nail polish remover should be used in this instance. When painted over gel nail polish, regular nail lacquer also lasts a lot longer without chipping.

This is an article by Sue Robertson who writes more about how to apply UV gel polish.

This is an article by Sue Robertson who writes more about how to apply UV gel polish at http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-use-uv-gel-nail-polish-at-home

Author Bio: This is an article by Sue Robertson who writes more about how to apply UV gel polish.

Category: Womens Interest
Keywords: uv gel polish, how to apply uv gel polish, shellac, gelish, uv gel nail polish