Happy New Year, everyone! I know I've been a little bit quiet over the holidays, but I decided to unplug a little, curl up comfy and try to unwind a little bit from the stress and madness of the holiday season. I've also been dipping my toes into some nail experimenting and I'm pretty excited to share the results. For January, our #CBBxManiMonday theme is all about experimenting and trying new things for the new year, and it was pretty perfect timing for me. After a couple of pretty disastrous nail breaks just before Christmas, it was sort of a perfect excuse for me to finally try out polygel extensions, which Youtube managed to convince me was easy enough even for me to do. So far... results have been mixed!

It was after a few rabbit holes into videos from LongHairPrettyNails on Youtube that convinced me to try out Polygel and since she liked the Gershion Poly Nail Gel Kit from Amazon - and it was available here in Canada - that's what I picked up. I decided to try out the dual forms that came with the kit because they looked really easy and were actually the thing that convinced me that I was capable of applying enhancements to my own nails. 

Keep reading for more!

I started by sizing my dual forms, taking the advice I'd found online and making sure that it fit from side wall to side wall. I did have to file down the ends of a couple of the forms to make sure that they wouldn't be overly big around my cuticles, which was pretty easy to do and definitely helped minimize the filing I needed to do. Next, I went in with a coat of ASP Make It Peelable Base Coat and then immediately went in with the Gershion Base Coat and cured for 30 seconds. (TIP: If you're using the peelable base from ASP, I find you get the best peel if you don't let it dry before you apply your gel base coat.) 

Next came applying the dual forms. I used rubbing alcohol as my slip solution because I was actually out of isopropyl and I think it worked out pretty well. I squeezed some of the polygel into the dual forms and then used the brush from the polygel kit along with some of the alcohol to press and shape and polygel into the form, keeping it thinner at the cuticle, tip and side walls and allowing most of the bulk to stay in the center of the form. Once I applied the dual form to my nail, cleaned up any excess, and smoothed out the underside, I cured each nail individually for 60 seconds.

Once all the nails were on it was time to file... and let me tell you, when they say in the videos that you can do this with a hand file, they aren't lying but they are definitely down playing how much work that is. I ended up doing the bulk of my filing with my MelodySusie Portable Nail Drill and a fine grit sanding band and it worked out much better. Figuring out the right shape, as a complete novice to this kind of thing, was a little bit tricky and time consuming, but I think I did alright considering.

For the nail art, I was sort of inspired by rose quartz but after all of the application of the polygel I didn't quite have it in me to do a bunch of layering and hand painting, so I decided to do a marble stamping design in the color palette that you tend to find in the stone. I started with one coat of ASP Gel Polish in Think Pink to keep it kind of sheer. Next, I went in with my Nicole Diary 076 Stamping Plate and used several of the images along with pink, peach and white stamping polish so that each nail was cohesive but unique. Once I was happy with my stamping, I applied a coat of the Gershion Top Coat from the polygel kit and cured. And... voila?

All Products Used

Gershion Polygel Kit 

ASP Make It Peelable Base Coat

ASP Gel Polish in Think Pink

Born Pretty Store Stamping Polishes in Pink, White, and Peach

Nicole Diary 076 Stamping Plate

NailStuff.ca Clear Stamper*

Dulcii 54W LED Nail Lamp

MelodySusie Portable Electric Nail Drill

I definitely have some things to learn when it comes to using polygel - and I'm pretty determined to figure it out. I'm really happy that I have the ASP Make It Peelable Base Coat because it really does make it peelable, but it doesn't fall off in the same way that I've found Unt Ready For Take Off peels with gel polish, meaning that I can experiment without the fuss of removal or damaging my natural nails. I definitely don't think that I'm going to have trouble putting together 4 experimental mani's this week because me and polygel are on a bit of a journey!

Be sure to head over to Cosmetic Proof (who I just discovered while grabbing her link did actual - and so pretty- rose quartz nails this week! ) and See The World In PINK to check out what they're experimenting with for this week's #CBBxManiMonday!

Thanks for reading!