Have you tried artificial nails before? How did it go? Did you ever go back to natural?
Nope, I have never tried them!
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I was a bridesmaid once and the bride forced me into getting acrylics because my nails are always so beat up from sports and art.
I got them the day of the wedding and broke two off the next day. oops.
Yes, for my prom and graduation two years ago. My left thumb started breaking right at the quick and I had to cut it all the way down (still have this problem, although the breaks are less frequent), and wanted my nails to be long as usual for those occasions! I used nails by Terrific Tips and glue by IBD, both bought at Sally Beauty, and they worked wonderfully.
I haven’t! I’d, generally, rather spend my money elsewhere, but every now and again I get very tempted by someone with a fancy manicure!
Me too never dared to try them.. though i loved them on others.. May be one day I will give them a shot just to have a feel.. 😉
I’ve never used artificial nails myself either. My nails unfortunately tend not to grow much beyond a certain length as they seem to be a bit weaker than many people’s. I spend much of my time typing (for work, Uni & more) – long nails would be more of a hassle than an asset for me, I imagine!
I have fairly long nail beds, so I can still wear nail lacquer & manage to feel “feminine”. This hasn’t stopped people from trying to encourage me to experiment with acrylic nails. I enjoy going to the beauty salon more than most – but I don’t think artificial nails are really for me 😉
Never tried yet. I bought some but forget to try them.
This feature just reminds me to try them ! Lol !
Xoxo
Michelle
I used to be a nail tech, so yes. We all practiced on each other while in school. I did gorgeous nails, if I do say so myself. I prefer a fairly short dark nail so I don’t do acrylics now, but I do gel nails on myself sometimes. Not usually, though, because I like to change my color more often.
I have before. I find them to be a little easy to break though. I prefer getting a gel overlay on my natural nails instead.
I have not, and I doubt I ever will. I hate the idea of ruining my natural nails… I’d rather keep my nails healthy.
Yes indeed – acrylic, gel, Biosculpture and fibreglass for like 20 years. I like my nails to look perfect all all the same length all the time. My natural nails are nice but I was constantly polishing them and I don’t like fussing with them all the time, I can go a month with artificial nails without having to touch them. I recently switched to gel manicures and so far that’s working well for me too. Christine your nails are always SO STUNNING!!!! I’m amazed – they are always long and strong and gorgeous.
Yes, I wore them on and off from 16 to about 35. I have long nail beds so it appears as if I have artificial nails. I don’t think they are necessary with gel and long-wearing nail polishes.
I kept up with acrylic nails for a good year back in college and they completely ruined my nails! I had deep scarring and my nails were always breaking off and chipping, it was awful. Took several months to get them back to normal, and ever since then I never did it again lol. I now get gel manicures which are amazing!!
Yeah, I’ve worn acrylics for a long time. I love having longer nails that never chip and it makes me happy everytime I look at my hands,I don’t care if people think they’re tacky. I just switched to a pointy tip from a square tip and they look awesome.
I had my friend do one of those at-home gel nail manicures on me and I really loved them! Until it was time to take them off and I saw the state that my nails were in underneath…. Never again.
Never. I’m lucky enough to have long, reasonably healthy natural nails and a vast nail polish collection. People do sometimes ask me if they’re fake though…
Me too.
A very long time ago, it’s been at least 15 years. I wore acrylics for a very short time.
Once, for my wedding in 2006. They looked beautiful, but they were such a pain to remove that I decided I’d rather just paint my nails or do Jamberry nail wraps instead.
I’ve tried almost every type of artificial nail I could find. I’m not crazy about gel or acrylic nails, although I’ve had them done several times. I prefer good ol’ press-on nails, which I’ve been wearing for 35 years or so. I started with the Lee press-ons back in the late 70s, and eventually found the Kiss Active Oval brand, which I’ve stuck with for probably close to 10 years (and they’re cheap, less than $2/set). I usually buy enough at one time to give me 10-15 sets, and I take a few hours to lay them out and paint them all. Then, every 5-7 days, I remove the set I’m wearing, give my nails a day to breathe, and apply a new set. I like the speed and convenience of just sticking on a new set and going about my day – no waiting for polish to dry, or smudging it.
Nooo; Never, and I am not even curious to try them.
I had fake nails from age 18 till 43. I don’t know how I dressed my sons. Now I keep them square and short. I’d never do it again.
No. I’m over long nails, fancy nails. I now prefer my nails very short and natural, so I’m ready at all times to get into garden projects etc without being concerned about whether it will ruin my manicure. I do like polish on toes however for a finished look, a classy look, or sometimes just a fun look like turquoise.
Saddly, yes. I got acrylic nails at a nail salon once and I liked them BUT I got a SEVERE allergic reaction to one of the powders they used. It looked like I had mild psoriasis on my thighs and on my arms. It was terrible! …and I found they damaged my natural nail a lot. They file them down too thin; it takes months for them to grow back thick and healthy.
Yes, and I won’t give them up. I’m a nail-biter, and even when I manage not to, my nails are thin and start tearing across when they get past my finger tips. Which makes them uneven, and then I want to bite them. It doesn’t matter what I eat, use on them, vitamins, etc. they do this. Acrylics not only keep me from nibbling, but the nail underneath is actually a bit thicker now and grows.
I keep them a little bit past the fingertips, in a rounded square shape, and I no problems with breakage. I wear non-latex gloves when I do dishes, etc.
I’m with Rachel. My Mom and sister were blessed with thick hair and long, natural nails. Not me. Mine have been thin as long as I remember and despite what I try. Plus, I am rough on my nails. I type a lot, work in health care, and have a large, rough dog. I’ve tried gel nail polish and it chips within a day on me. I keep them very short, due to my profession and I also wear contacts. I do not get french manicures, because I like to change my polish often and feel weird without color on.
I get refills every two to three weeks. And I have them removed a new set on about every six weeks. That is when my natural nail grows out too long underneath. My natural nails grow longer and thicker underneath.
Yes. I wore them for almost 20 years. I never had a problem with them. Never had either a bacterial or fungal infection. They never broke or lifted. The person I went to was very picky and very clean. I really enjoyed having my nails always look great. But, out of the blue one day I decided I was tired of being a slave to my nails. Over the next few months as my nails grew I kept filing them down. Eventually they were completely gone. When I see acrylic or gel nails now, I’m not the least bit tempted to go back to them.
I had them twice, and it is on the top 10 list of dumbest things I ever did. Now that I am studying toward a career in healthcare, I realize just how unsanitary they are. I would never, ever do it knowing what I know now. It’s not the maintenance factor that would make me shun them. It is literally the critters and whatnot that grow underneath. Ewww.
I have tried every kind of artificial nails there is, the glue on kind, silk wraps, tips with an acrylic overlay, acrylic sculpted nails, you name it I have tried it. Being a hairstylist you know about the newest in nail products about as quickly as you find out about the newest hair products.. I started getting my nails done when I was 14 or 15 and had artificial nails done on and off for about 15 years, then I got tired of getting fills on a regular basis and the damage to my natural nails if I decided to take them off was awful. My naturals nails were so damaged that it seemed like the only option I had was to keep getting artificial nails. When I finally decided to stop doing artificial nails it took a while to get my nails strong and healthy enough to where they didn’t just peel but I kept them short for a while and just let them be and after 8 or 9 months my nails started growing in strong. Now they will actually grow to close to the length I had them when they were artificial. I get gel manicures now, as lung as I take care of them; my nails grow in nicely and stay strong.
Heck no! I’ve seen too many friends nail beds post artificial nails and the state of their nail beds were eeuw! Also I caved in to my daughter getting her nails done for a ball last year and the dents left in her nail bed after the falsies were taken off, took months to grow out.
No. I had seen enough of friend’s nails that were destroyed after they had them on and then either tried to take them off themselves or had them removed, to know I was never going to go that route.
yes I have and it trashed my nails took a year to grow off the damage, while they are pretty I vowed I would never do them again
I’ve only worn the “press on” styles from the drugstore. They work great for a special event that will only last one evening, but I’m way too hard on my nails to wear them any longer than that.
No – I just couldn’t!! They creep me out a little bit, if I’m totally honest. I have no idea why, and I see people rocking them, but they give me a little shudder as I walk past them in the store. Maybe it’s a disembodied fingernail thing… 😀 Either that or it’s the fact that they stand always a little proud of the natural nail (obviously), and it jars with my reality somehow…
I started about 14 years ago with acrylics and switched to silk wraps about 10 years ago. Still doing it. I’d never have nails otherwise!
yes, I have. I will get them occasionally, but I dont really like the upkeep. If anything, I prefer a gel overlay on my real nails, but even that I dont do often because I also dont like the damage to my nails.
I have tried silk wraps and acrylic with tips, I loved it. I had the misfortune of getting a fungal infection under one of them, and had all the acrylics taken off. My own nails were paperthin and was really hard to keep in an OK state until they had completely grown out.
This was a very, very long time ago.
More recently I tried gelmanicure, I loved the look, and my nalis grew quite long and looked lovely. The first time the nails lasted for more than 5 week, nothing had budged when I went back to get new gel. Very strangely the second time the gel started peeling off from my nails within a week. We tried another kind and the same thing happened.
Now I have natural nails and when one break, and I have peeling nails, that also break easily, I just cut and file all of them and start anew.
Yes. I’ve had acrylic nails for five years. I had to do something because my nails were so flaky and the nail bed had shrunk and shrunk. I have them redone every three week. Acrylic nails done properly and hygienically do not ruin your nails. (Generally, the advice is to avoid any salon where the technicians wear masks: if they’re wearing masks, it means the acrylic they are using is probably illegal. These salons tend to be Chinese run, so I’m told). Since wearing acrylic nails, my nail bed has actually improved to the extent it now ends beyond by finger, which was unheard of before, and my nails are smooth and intact and not a flake in sight. They won’t ever be strong…nothing on the universe strengthens nails, but they are a good deal healthier than they were. I love my nails and have great fun with colour and design. In the UK, the advice is to ensure your nail technician is NVQ trained and to research the acrylic they use before going ahead. My salon is anal with hygiene. Best thing I ever did for my nails.
I can’t even bear having long nails, let alone some plasticky ones stuck on them. I just only manage to accept nail polish on them in the past year. Ideally, I’d apply nail polish in the morning and have them off by the end of the day, just before shower.
I had acrylics for several years and I loved it. They were done at my hair salon and I was blonde, so I was a regular visitor.
To recover I used a brand called Qtica that was genius. It used to be associated with Zoya but I have not been able to find it for ages. Best nail care (they didn’t do colour) for hands and feet I have ever discovered.