Rio UV Gel Nails Kit

...presents, and I found a Rio UV nail box hiding under the wrapping paper !! WOW my husband had had such a clever idea ! Now I would be able to enjoy having nice hands without having to end up broke every month. Mind you when I am already broke and I need a bit of pampering, he is the one who ends up paying for me...( Love you honey x ) So I guess he did himself a favour by getting that present for me.

Anyway, with the job I used to ...
...different products offered by the Rio Nail company, and an order form in case you need further supplies.

Altogether, I think it is a great product. It needs a bit of practice at first, but you will get into it very quickly. Also, it has let me experience other things as well... I bought a lot of nail supplies on Ebay, and I also got the Nail Art kit for Christmas, so I have ended up with endless possibilities regarding how I want my ... more

Just before Christmas, I decided to go to my usual hair salon to get my nails done. I just wanted to look nice over Christmas, and felt like I really needed to make my hands look a bit more feminine. We were going to the pub for the Christmas meal with the rest of the family, I just wanted my husband to be really proud of being with a beautiful looking woman, not the girl I usually am... I wanted to look like I had bothered for once, just for him. So I booked an appointment and got my full set of nail extensions for... 50 quid ! But still, it was Christmas, so it was a bit like I had to. But I really got traumatised when the woman told me that I had to get infills (£20) every two weeks, and full set of nails every three months.... I thought... NO WAY !!
So I came to the decision that I would fully enjoy the nails, and once Christmas is over I will get back to my manky fingers... After all I had been like that for 20 odd years !

Anyway, I didn't expect the surprise, when, on Christmas day, I opened my presents, and I found a Rio UV nail box hiding under the wrapping paper !! WOW my husband had had such a clever idea ! Now I would be able to enjoy having nice hands without having to end up broke every month. Mind you when I am already broke and I need a bit of pampering, he is the one who ends up paying for me...( Love you honey x ) So I guess he did himself a favour by getting that present for me.

Anyway, with the job I used to do then, my expensive nails didn't last for very long. A few days after Christmas, the extensions started breaking... So I decided to get them all off and get my kit out of the box.

For once in my life, I actually read the instruction before using something... I had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done, because of me seeing the lady working on my nails, but still the material was different, and I didn't want to mess up. The kit comes with a little booklet with instructions and a video, and they both explain how to care for your nails and use the kit.

After being sure that I know enough to do my first attempt, there I go, buffing, sticking, curing and all the bits... All the preparative bits are fairly easy, and all the steps are as follow:
- I always moisturise my hands and cuticles beforehand, just to make everything soft and easy to work on
- clean your nails, making sure there is no polish left on them.
- Push the cuticles and shape the nails so that they are smooth - but follow the instruction on filing nails - it damages them if you file them in a sawing motion
- Buff the nails slightly
- Choose the extensions that are the right size for your nails, then stick them on... They are quite long so that by holding the tip you can stick them on without sticking your fingers as well.
- Cut the extensions to the length desired, and file down the end so that they are smooth and don't catch.
- With a coton bud and some acetone based nail remover, blend the edge of the tip with your own nail, to make it look as natural as possible... Sometimes I file the tip down to minimise the bump, but you need to be careful if you do that not to file the actual nail, because it would weaken it, and might cause long term abnormality of the nail. When blended properly, I buff the nail and make sure the nail looks like a real one.
- Then I apply the primer... This is to make sure that the gel is actually going to stick with the nail. Make sure you don't apply on the cuticles. Let it dry a few minutes.
- Then, with the brush, apply the gel... My tip there: less is better: it gives better result to do three thin coats (as recommended - but you might want to do an extra one) than two thick ones... The reason is that the gel would get bumpy, and then the nails will look rubbish. When spreading the gel, apply it all over, in long strokes, like you would with nail varnish. If it is not applied uniformly, but looks a bit streaky, it is alright, as long as there is gel all over the nail. It will go when under the UV lamp.
- Once you have finished applying the gel, put the hand under the lamp for three minutes. Make sure the thumb and little fingers get their share of the light, because the thumb is not in the same line as the other finger and sometimes the little finger gets a bit too far from under the lamp. So it might be worth just re-placing those right under the lamp, and let the gel settle.
- Repeat the process three times, so that you get three layers of gel. Do not clean the nail in between.
Now that I have the practice, before I apply the last coat of gel, I put a layer of white on the tips to get french nails. I sometimes stick jewels on my nails, and cure the gel one last time to make sure the nails stick in (not infallible but they seem to stick a few days longer). I tried applying nail varnish in between coats of gel to get it to last, but I didn't find it really great. And it was a real pain trying to get it off afterwards.
- Once you have finished curing the nails, clean them with the finishing solution, which will take of all the gel that hasn't stuck to the nail. The leaflet mentions that sometimes you can get bubbles on the nails, for which you will need to reapply some more gel and cure it until the bubbles go... I haven't seen it happen with me, so I can't say anything about it.
- Apply the cuticle oil, nail varnish if desired, or high gloss transparent varnish for lovely natural look.
When the nail has grown and you want to get them done again, you don't need to do the whole process again. You just file the gel down a bit, or remove most of it with some acetone (be careful not to disolve the tip then otherwise you would have to do it all again), and then reapply the primer and the gel and cure until you get a nice result again.
It is recommended to keep hands out of the water as much as possible, as if the tip is not glued to the nail very well, the water will get it, weaken the rest of the glu, and there is also a chance that the water will get soggy and cause fungal infection of the nail. So ladies don't forget to get your gloves when you are doing the washing up.

When you get the kit, you get the whole stuff you need to get your set of nails:
- video and instruction leaflet
- glu
- hoof stick
- UV lamp
- UV gel 15ml (which does loads of nails believe me)
- Cuticle oil
- Nail primer
- Buffer block
- 100ml acetone solution
- 100ml finishing wipe solution
- 100 extension tips in 10 different sizes
- Professional nail clippers
- Brush
- Grit file
- 3-step file for getting shiny nails (but I personally don't think they work - still I might not be using those properly)
- A brochure listing the different products offered by the Rio Nail company, and an order form in case you need further supplies.

Altogether, I think it is a great product. It needs a bit of practice at first, but you will get into it very quickly. Also, it has let me experience other things as well... I bought a lot of nail supplies on Ebay, and I also got the Nail Art kit for Christmas, so I have ended up with endless possibilities regarding how I want my nails. There is a lot of cheap nail rhinestones, gel nail supplies, and nail art stuff on Ebay, which combines really well with this product.

I think the Rio UV Nail kit retails at around £50, but if you imagine that it would cost you the same to have your nails done ONCE at a beauty salon, and that you can get so much out of this kit, it is definitely great value for money...

The only thing though, before you start doing your first set... think twice about the length you want them to be, because if you are used to short nails then having long nails comes up as a bit of a shock... you get your nails stuck in between the keys of the computer key board, can't peel labels off, can't pick up your fork and knife, or the change left on the counter... but it's great if you have an itch and need a scratch (don't go too hard on it though lol).

 

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