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Monday 7 January 2013

How to do UV-gel Nails with Tips

I purchased a pack of coloured nail tips via eBay from China, and my friend Anniina wanted to try doing nails, so I volunteered! It was easy to take pictures when someone else was working on the nails, so here's a tutorial.

With purple glitter tips.
This tutorial is for gel nails with tips, meaning the little plastic things that look also like the false nails you can buy at dollar stores, but tips only cover a part of your natural nail. They come in many colours and shapes and can be cut and filed. I usually buy my nail tips through eBay from UK or China.
You need:
UV-gel (pink or clear if you have coloured tips)
UV-gel top coat (optional, you can also just polish the finished nail)
UV-oven
Cleanser (acetone, don't use nailpolish removers with added oils. Pure acetone is the best)
A brush
A nailfile
Lint-free wipes

Superglue (or nail glue, usually the same stuff)
Nail tips (coloured or pre-painted ones if you don't want to finish off with regular nailpolish, or natural or clear if you want to add polish on top)


1. Cut your own nails short. You can keep nails longer if you want, but you can feel the nail edge on the underside of the gel nails and it might be harder keep your nails clean.

My natural nails cut short.
2. File the nail surface rough to give the gel something to hold on to. I use sandpaper (400 grit) but rough nail files work well also. I like how you can easily fold the sandpaper to the shape you need at the moment!

Nail surface is filed to give it texture.
3. Choose the right size tips for each nail and glue them on. You want the tips to to be rather a bit too large than too small, because you can easily file off the extra from the edges. Depending on how you want the nails to look, position the tip to start anywhere between 3 mm - 8 mm from the natural nail tip. With natural or clear tips you don't have to be so careful, because you will be putting nailpolish on top anyways, so the edge doesn't show. (You can see an example on Anniina's nails below, she has natural coloured tips with no polish on yet)

Add glue (I use regular superglue) carefully.

4. Check that each tip is positioned right, if not, dissolve the glue with nailpolish remover or UV cleanser and re-glue it. Cut the tips to the desired length and finish with a nail file to get the edges neat.


Uncut tips, this is how long you can make your nails with these ones!
I didn't want very long nails, so they were cut shorter.
5. Add the UV-gel on top. Carefully paint the part of your natural nail that shows and the whole tip. You should do 2-3 thin layers to to make sure each one cures. Doing more than one layer also helps if there are any gaps left, you can easily fix them with the next layer. UV-gel is fairly strong, so your nails don't need to be very thick.

Add the UV-gel with a brush.
6. If you want to add an UV-gel top coat, this is the time. Wipe the residue from the nails and check the shape, file off any bumps and snags if there are some left. Usually the nails are ready at this point with not much filing. If you wish, you can add regular nailpolish on top and treat them like natural nails. I recommend putting some lotion on your hands and using cuticle oil, if your skin feels dry!


Finished nails! Mine have ready-made purple glitter tips.


Edit: I've had to shut down comments due to large amounts of spam. Please feel free to send me any questions to other posts or via email :)

19 comments:

  1. What a great tutorial! I have always wanted nail tips like this! I didn't know you can buy them! But I don't know about that cutting tool,though, it looks like something I could accidentally cut my finger off with, I am very clumsy.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! There's tons of styles on eBay, I'm sure there's something for everyone! The cutting too actually has only a small slit for the nail, so there's no danger of cutting off limbs ;P It does look pretty intimidating!

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  2. Mäkin olen tässä innostunut tekemään itselleni tipillisiä uv-geelikynsiä. Tästä tutorialista olisi ollut hyötyä, kun olin ihan neitsykäinen asian suhteen. Itse tein sellaset vähän paksummat, että tippiä ei erota. Täytyypä pitää mielessä, että noita värillisiä tippejä käytetään näin. Kiitti!

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    Replies
    1. Tipit on kyllä näppäriä, mä oon kokeillut muitakin tekniikoita mutta tää on ehdottomasti nopein ja helpoin. Netissä oli jotenkin aika huonosti tutoriaaleja kun mä itseäni koulutin, niin ajattelin olla hyödyllinen ratas koneistossa ja tarjota sellasen. Erityisesti siksi että mun mielestä geelisysteemivalmistajien omat kynsikurssit tuntuu aika rahastukselta!

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. Hi thought superglue can damage the nail bed ?

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    Replies
    1. Superglue and nail glue are basically the same stuff, with the same active ingredients. The only way the glue could affect damagingly to your natural nails is if you bang or twist the fake nails so that they rip your natural nail, but that can happen with any type of glue. So I'd advice you to just be careful when wearing fake nails and not to use them as tools, and you are pretty much safe :)

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  5. do you put gel over the tips or just up to the tips?

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    Replies
    1. Over the tips too, to make them hard and durable and have a smooth silhouette on the nails :)

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  6. Do you need to lightly file over the fake nail tip in order for the gel to adhere? I read on another totorial that you had to do this but I'm worried about ruining colored or predesigned tips.

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    Replies
    1. I've had no problems with not filing the tip. For a natural tip I'd suggest filing just to be sure, but the pre-painted ones would be ruined and mine have stayed looking nice even with no filing. Hope this helps!

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  7. Hi when did you put nail polish before or after the uv top coat polish?

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    1. These nails don't have nail polish on them, but if I use it with UV gel, I always put it on last. This way I can take the polish off and change to another colour if I want to. On gel nails the polish rarely chips, since they are so hard.

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  8. Just wondering why you didn't use a PH bond?

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    Replies
    1. Didn't come with the set ;P It would be a good addition!

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  9. Just wondering after you put on all the layers of uv gel can you then put on a uv gel colour ?
    can you use both ? and then put on a uv top coat ?
    thanks

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    Replies
    1. I've used both! The coloured gels I have are fairly sheer, so I put on a coat or two of the transparent gel, then two coats of coloured gel and then the UV top coat :)

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  10. Your tutorial seem fairly straight forward. Just wondering if you need to use the UV light to dry the gel or just air dry them?

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    Replies
    1. Theoretically you could dry UV-gel in sunlight, but it would take long, hours I think. The gel reacts to UV-light, as the name says, and that's what it needs to harden. I'd say you could do these nails with just regular nail polish, but they would not last very well. The gel adds strength to the nail.

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