DIY Gel Manicure Tips – How To Do An At-Home Gel Mani *WITHOUT* UV Lights

I’m usually a gel manicure in a salon kind of gal – it’s the ONE ‘beauty’ thing I do for myself regularly… when we’re not in a pandemic ;). Over the past few months, I’d had to get creative with my nails and I’m happy to share that I’ve discovered a LEGIT DIY gel manicure process (found via Mint Arrow) WITHOUT a UV lamp. Trust, if I can do it, you can do it.

Even when I was able to go to a salon for a manicure, I HATED putting my hands under the UV light, so I’m SUPER happy that these DIY gel nails use no UV light :).

Here are the supplies you’ll need, the steps I follow, and some DIY gel manicure tips:

DIY at Home Gel Manicure Supplies

1. Nail Clippers – I use my kids!
2. Buffer/File
3. Cuticle Pusher
4. Cuticle Trimmer
5. Gelous Base Coat – this is what makes your mani ‘gel’
6. Any REGULAR nail color (not gel!) – my signature is Funny Bunny by OPI (again, regular, not gel)
7. Top Coat – this gives a great shiny finish
8. Nail Polish Remover
9. Nail Polish Remover brush
10. Cotton Rounds

this is my at-home mani dream team 🙂

DIY Gel Nails: Follow My Step-by-Step DIY Gel Nails Tutorial

It’s pretty easy, promise!

Step One – Prep Your Nails

• Remove any polish from your nails – I use a cotton round with this nail polish remover.
• Clip your nails down to the length you want – I always go SHORT!
• Use a file to shape them and smooth them out.
• Buff them to smooth out the nail bed to prep it for polish.
• Soak your nails in warm water and push the cuticles down using a cuticle pusher.
• Trim your cuticles with little trimmer.

here are my nails naked, prepped & ready for paint

Step Two – Paint Your Nails

Painting your nails is actually the easiest part… just alternate:

• one coat Gelous
• one coat polish
• one coat Gelous
• one coat polish
• top coat

I don’t set a timer or anything, I just apply the paint as thinly as possible and move slowly while alternating hands. By the time I’ve painted one hand, the other one is ready for the next coat.

paint is ON but they need the next step…

Step Three – Clean Them Up

Use a tiny brush dipped in nail polish remover to fix anywhere the polish got on your cuticles or fingers. This step really makes a big difference!

voila! a great at-home gel mani

link to my bracelets – use code LOVELYLUCK15 for 15% off

DIY Gel Manicure Tips

• Do your gel mani when you have about 30-45 minutes uninterrupted – AKA when your kids aren’t around ;).
• Go SLOW
• Use suuuuper thin layers of polish and allow about 2 minutes between coats

How to Remove Your Gel Nails at Home

Also love that you don’t have to scrape this gel off your nails like you do at a salon. Just use regular nail polish remover on a cotton round or cotton ball and it comes right off!

That’s it! A typical at-home Gel mani lasts me about 2 weeks, which is pretty great for DIY! Need more quarantine life hacks? Check out this post if you have kids :).

If you want an at-home gel mani with a LED light tutorial, my friend Chrissy has a great one here!

Any questions about how to do your own DIY gel manicure at home? Leave them in the comments!