Please help? What kind of artificial nails?

[Briar]

Ok y'all, here's my hand:

As you can see, my natural nails are strong but the nail beds are so wide that they tend to buckle in the center of the nail as it grows out, I get really tired of trying to keep up my own manicure, and I want to wear polish and because my nails are so flexible it chips off in minutes. So... I'm going to get artificial nails this weekend and can't decide between acrylics and gels. I've had acrylics with tips before but no matter how good my tech is they peel or lift off at the tips so I'm considering gels but know very little about them.

I want to be able to wear polish or go natural, and keep a short length (not much longer than you see my naturals in the pic).

Can anyone help?

 

[chynegal]

what i think you should do it either get an overlay on your nails or get gels. for my the gel nails last long and are more durable and has a higher shine.

 

[MaskedBeauty]

I've never personally gotten gels but I heard that they are much better for your nails than acrylics are. I would give it a try. If you don't like it you can always try somethin different next time ya know?

 

[gildedangel]

Gel nails would probably work best for you. Make sure that you get a higher quality gel so they don't break, and take care of them so they are easier to remove, I would hate for your nails to be damaged from them. If you don't like them, you can just file them away as your nails grow out.

 

[hello_kitty]

I had gel nails for about a year, a few years ago. I definitely liked them over acrylics... which I'd only have when the nail tech would try to sneak in the acrylic and charge for gel... which leads me to...

If you do get them, make sure you're getting actual gel! A lot of salons are trying to pass off acrylic as gel. I had it happen to be at two different salons in two different states (including the day before my wedding... *sigh*). A lot of the times they do the normal acrylic and then use a "gel" as a sealer.

I always paid for LCN. Non-LCN seem to break on me more than LCN, but otherwise I couldn't really tell a difference. I liked how there was no chemical smell like with acrylic, and they just look overall nicer, which is important if you're going for a natural look.

Perhaps the only disadvantage is that they cannot be soaked off, and have to be filed off/grown out. When I finally got sick of mine I sat with a dremel for an hour filed them off, heh. My nails were a little thin for about a month or two, but once the thinner parts grew out there was no evidence that I had the gels.

 

[kittykit]

I had gel nails for a year and I prefer them over acrylics nails. They look more natural and are stronger.

 

[Briar]

You guys were a HUGE help!!! I found the one salon in town that does real gel nails (not gel over cheap acrylic) and the gal had a cancellation this morning so I took it! She talked to me for well over 10 minutes before we even started to make sure gels were a good fit for me and my lifestyle so I feel really confident about her, and she did a fantastic job. I am thrilled with my new nails! They really do look like my own nails, only better. The only drawback at the moment is I chose not to polish the nails and the tips of the gel extend a tad beyond my natural nails, and you can see the break bewteen the natural nail and the gel, but that will grow out... and won't be at all apparent with polish... it's not really obvious now unless I really look at them.

Thanks again!!!