Acrylic Nail Extensions!

Ever look at your nails and think 'I wish they were longer' or think about going to a salon and getting acrylics done professionally but don't have the money to spend? 

Why not buy your own kit! It's dead simple and a fraction of the price! 

Last year, I went down to Argos and purchased Rio Quick Dip Acrylic Nail Extensions for £19.99, whereas if you go on the Rio website to purchase items separately they're priced at around £5. The pack comes with the acrylic powder, 40 natural extensions, 3  stage buffer files, grit file, sanding block, resin, a spray activator, 2 in 1 topcoat, nail glue, 2 extra resin brushes and a hoof stick as well as instructions and step-by-step DVD. 

       

To maintain the shine the nails have I would recommend moisturising regularly and applying an extra coat of the 2-IN-1 varnish every few days. As for moisturising, I would recommend Soap & Glory's Hand food! found in Boots, £5 for a 125ml and £2.50 for 50ml. 

I apologise for not having all the items in the pack. 

To make your nails look even more professional, I recommend these White tips for 99p from Savers, they come in a pack of 100 with 10 different nail sizes. 

To give the extensions a more natural look, after dipping the nail into the acrylic powder I recommend brushing off the excess powder with a basic brush, I use a blending brush (made for eye shadow but it works just as well for this too!) also from savers for just 99p! 

When cutting the extensions down to the length you want, I bought these professional nail clippers made especially for cutting nail extensions, I got these off of eBay, when buying from eBay it's easier and mostly cheaper to buy from Buy it now sellers, always check the sellers feedback, found to the right of the screen when you click on an item. I usually only buy from them if they have a 97%+ rating. These are pretty easy to get a hold of on eBay and mine were only £1.40 with free post and packaging! 

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of nails after using this kit, one good thing about these acrylics is that you can use normal nail polish to paint them any colour you wish and remove it and change the colour whenever you like! 

But when it comes to removing them, instead of going to a salon and paying to have them removed professionally, I recommend soaking the nails in this MAVALA nail polish remover I'm unsure of the price of this but I brought it at my local beauty salon (Top to Toe), it contains acetate which is the vital ingredient when removing false nails. Keep soaking the nails in the solution (mixed with warm water) until the acrylic begins to soften, then slowly peel the acrylic off carefully. 

With all acrylics you will get some damage to your natural nail, so don't be alarmed if your nails are thin and delicate. Just be sure to apply a coat of nail hardener on to your natural nail after removal. I recommend Sally Hansen, found in Superdrug for £4.75 (a bit pricey but worth every penny!) I use Sally Hansen's Maximum Growth Nailcare (partly because my nails are naturally short but it still does the job!) I love this nail polish because it also makes a great under coat or top coat when applying nail polish as well as looking great on it's own! This is also £4.75 and it is my favourite purchase this year as I use it 24/7 as you can see in the picture below! 

When shopping in Boots and Superdrug be sure to pick up one of their advantage cards to get points on everything you buy that you could use to purchase items in the future!

I think that's enough for my first post! 

I'll be sure to post pictures of my nails after using this acrylic nail kit asap! 

Thanks for reading!

Emilie xxx