ESSENCE GEL NAILS AT HOME TUTORIAL & REVIEW

Hi guys! How are you all? 

Todays post is all about the Essencce Gel Nails At Home System. I picked up the Gel Effect Top Coat* from the bloggers event but didn't pick up any other gel products which I kinda needed to use the top coat, what can I say? I must have been having a blonde moment! 

Anywho I ordered the Cleanser, Primer and Peel Off Base Coat from Wilko's online (they still have a 3 for 2 offer on so now is a good time to stock up) and LED Lamp* came from the PR Company. 

So I thought I'd put a little tutorial together for you and also a little review, I haven't seen any other Gel systems for home so I was really excited to try this out. 

I haven't had gel nails myself because I change my polish too often so the thing that really appealed to me about this Gel System is that it comes with a Peel Off Base Coat so you can remove it whenever you want which suits me perfectly :)

Without further ado...

What you will need: 

(I have included clickable links to buy all of these products online) 

Essence Gel Nails At Home Cleanser £2.50 

Essence Gel Nails At Home Primer £2.50

Essence Gel Nails At Home Peel Off Gel Base £3.00

Essence Gel Nails At Home Effect Gel Top Coat in 05 Polka Dots* £3.50

Essence Gel Nails At Home Mini LED Lamp* £19.90

Any nail polish of your choice (not pictured) I used Essence Color Viva Brasil in 02 Everybody Salsa 

This is what comes in the LED Lamp box. There is a small(ish) lamp, USB lead and an instruction manual. 

STEP 1 - Wipe your nails with the Cleanser to remove any oils/residue on your nails 

STEP 2 - Apply a coat of Primer  

STEP 3 - Apply a layer of the Peel Off Gel Base to the entire nail, don't forget to wrap your tips.  

STEP 4 - Place finger under the LED Lamp for 10 seconds to cure the base coat. You don't need to count the lamp will automatically turn itself off after 10 seconds.

STEP 5 - Wipe the nail with the Cleanser to remove any residue.  

STEP 6 - Apply a coat of your desired nail polish/nail art.  

STEP 7 - Once the nail polish is dry apply a coat of the Gel Top Coat. I'm using the Effects Top Coat but there is also a clear top coat available.  

STEP 7 - Place finger under the LED Lamp for 10 seconds again to cure the top coat. 

STEP 8 - Finally wipe the nail again with the Cleanser to remove the sticky residue.  

This is the finished nail !  

To remove, take an Orange Wood Stick, starting from the cuticle just peel the polish off, it should lift in one layer but if it doesn't it's still fine. Remove any excess nail polish etc from the nail with acetone or nail polish remover. 

Ok, so that's the tutorial, I know there are quite a few steps but it's really easy to do and it doesn't take as long as you'd think. 

So Pros and Cons.

 Let's begin with the Cons shall we: 

Actually there's only 1 con which is also the most annoying thing for me was that curing the base coat and top coat under the lamp caused the base coat/ top coat to shrink and pull away from the edges of nail. I don't know why it did that, I made sure my nail was completely clean and I applied the layer all the way to the cuticle and wrapped the tips, I just don't know why it did that?! If you have experience with gel nails and you might know why this happened please leave a comment! 

The Pros: 

It's a lot cheaper investing in this set and doing your own gel nails than going to a salon ever few weeks.

It's very easy to do, there are several steps but you very quickly get into the swing of things so you don't even have to think about what the next step is.

I love that you can apply any colour or any nail art, it doesn't have to be an Essence polish. I also tried it out with a Morgan Taylor nail polish.

The Peel Off Base Coat is amazing! It makes the removal so easy and it means I change my nails as often as I want and still have the 'gel look'. Removal is not damaging to the nails either.

It wears well, Essence claim it lasts up to 10 days however I removed it after 4 days so I can't comment on the 10 day claim, but when I removed it I didn't have any chipping or lifting or anything of that sort. 

The lamp is small and comes a USB lead which means you can take this on holiday if you want! 

Overall do I recommend the Gel Nails At Home System? Absolutely, I really like it and I know that I will use this a lot! Actually my non swatching hand will make the most use of this because I won't end of removing my nail polish on my right hand when swatching anymore! \o/ 

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