Let’s face it, looking good takes time and money and as much as I love spoiling myself and getting my nails done, paying at least $70 for salon nails every three weeks is costly. After finding my own solution, I have been doing my own nails for the past five years. I get to change my nails as often as I want without paying salon prices. Doing some quick math, if you get your nails done every two weeks paying $70 each time, it comes out to be around $1,820 and if you get them done every three weeks at $70 it comes out to be roughly $1,200. If we did the same math, spending $150 it would be around $3,900 to get your nails done every two weeks and $2,600 every three weeks annually.
When I was younger I was always into nails but couldn’t get polish to stay on, so my mom switched to shellac, which for those who don’t know, it is a form of gel polish that hardens under a UV nail lamp. After experimenting with that, my mom realized that my nails were just not built for it. During Covid my mom and I dedicated more time to finding what would work for my nails and we eventually stumbled upon dip powder. Dip powder was a whole new world. While it had a whole different application process compared to regular nail polish and shellac, it stayed on for a longer period of time and was more durable.
Over the years my mom and I have collected more than 400 colors and endless stickers and gems to help spruce up our manis. Typically I spend around 3-3.5 hours on a more complex set of nails and around 1-1.5 on a simple one color dip and top coat. Some of my favorite sets that I have done are sunset nails with black trees, light blue nails with white marble accents a black and gold set for prom 2025 and a light pink set with a division of a solid pink with a glitter one .
Most of the time I get inspiration from my own head and think of what will look good and other times I reach out to friends for color combinations and design ideas. If I can’t find something that really catches my attention then I choose a simple color and go with it until I can think of something better. Most of the time I like to keep my nails a bit longer but not too long to where I can’t function. During the late spring and summer I keep my nails somewhat short for softball season and then allow them to grow back out during the fall and winter.
Ultimately doing my own nails has been the best thing for me, allowing me to save money and get out of it exactly what I want instead of trying to explain it to someone else and have them recreate it.
