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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Nailene Deluxe Salon Acrylic Kit Review: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

I did it folks. I tried acrylic nails. The pictures that I am going to show you are of my second attempt. The first time I tried the kit was this past Saturday and let me tell you, that was not pretty. I figured out what I didn't like about the kit and what I could improve the next go around. Now this second attempt is still not perfect, but I promise you its better than the first time. You don't want to see that, trust me. *shudders* On with the review!

First, let me show you the kit.

This is how it looks all nice and new in the packaging. You can find it any almost any drugstore, Wal-Mart, Target or online places like Amazon.
Here is my kit, opened and the additional tools I bought. I will explain later why I bought the extra stuff.

Contents: Clear acrylic powder, acrylic liquid, ultra quick nail glue, primer, buffing block, nail file (not pictured), dappen dish, manicure stick.

The back of the kit where you can store nails:
It came with 20 clear tips and 20 white tips.

The additional tools I bought:

L to R: Oversize nail cutter for acrylic nails, flat acrylic brush, extra white nails tips.
I thought it was really hard to clip those long acrylic nail tips with regular fingernail clippers,so I had to get the oversized ones like you see in the salon. It made the process so much easier the second time around because it eliminated trying to cut the nail in a straight line and excessive filing. You still have to file your nails with the oversize clippers but not as much. When I used the regular sized fingernail clippers on the nails, my nails looked like a crooked picket fence, no lie! I also bought another nail brush because I thought that the brush that was included was small, so the new one was bigger, flatter and wider. I thought that helped with application of the acrylic. Not pictured was nail glue I used because the glue in the kit was horrible. When the nails weren't busy sticking to my skin, they were coming off my natural nails.

Okay on to the nails. Here's the finished product. Again, not perfect! Left hand:


Right hand:
Can you tell that this hand's nails are a little shorter?

Side view:
Blurry pic of both hands:

My overall experience with this kit was good. Once I figured out what I needed to change, the application went smoother. Once thing I do highly recommend is those oversize nail clippers, they shaved 30 minutes off of the total application time, it went from a two hour ordeal to a hour and a half. I must say though, expect to to spend some time buffing your nails once you finish applying the acrylic. Some of my nails I applied a bit too much acrylic and it takes some time to buff out the uneven lumps, although I didn't get them smooth as I would have liked it. The truth was I was little tired so I just decided they would do. Also, I found that Seche Vite doesn't work as well on these nails as my natural nails, it didn't give me the shine that I wanted so I used Zoya Armour. There were some really good, detailed instructions included in the kit that I think would help anyone who is a beginner (like me) that wouldn't know what to do.

Bottom line,I would recommend this kit. It gets a thumbs up from me! Anyone else ever try to do their own acrylics? Or do you want to try your hand at acrylics but haven't? Let me know!

8 comments:

  1. for your second attempt - this is great - Practice makes perfect!

    do you have one of those little electric grinder things.... I was so relieved when I finally bought one. I also found my bits for.99 cents at Sally's which is rad.....Mine is called a salon shaper and I found it at Walamrt like 5 yrs ago... any one you can get your hands on will help save you the manual filing and buffing.

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  2. I don't think that you did a bad job! I know that I would completely fail at it!

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  3. I think you did a great job, darling. I've never tried my own acrylics. Haven't had them in awhile.

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  4. Why did you try the acrylics? I've never attempted it. Pretty good for a second attempt! When the kits came out to make your own nails they didn't have tips. I don't know what I used but they nails I made were hideous. If it had been Halloween I would've painted my nails green for witches claws. They were so horribly lumpy and thick. The instructions said for removal just cut them down the middle with nail clippers. They will come right off. Well they didn't. I had to chop all my nails off so short. Plus I had to file and chip away at the top of my nails. I really ruined my nails. I just took so many layers off of my natural nails. It took quite some time for my nails to grow back decently. I never tried it again. You were really brave to do your own.

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  5. You're a brave soul! I'm so scared to try and do my own acrylics! You did a good job, Miss! :)

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  6. Hey girl, I nominated you for a blog ward! you can check it out here naturalendlessbeauty.blogspot.com

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  7. Girl, what are you talking about??? They came out very good, better then alot of others that i have seen try. You should make a tutorial on youtube.

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