I have had a little bit of a play with polygel and doing nail extensions with them. I feel like I quickly gained my confidence with polygel and I jumped into doing 3D sculpted nails really quickly. I started off with two white gel nail bases, one I sprinkled with pink and iridescent glitter then the other I sprinkled with pink and iridescent. The white base helps give the glitter a chance to stand out, and also gives some depth to the 3D sculpt to come.

On top of the glitter, I then used a very small amount of clear polygel and used slip solution in order to shape the gel into something which resembles a shell. Curing that after shaping, then a very thin layer of clear top coat to give the shine I was looking for. Again, I love these designs which remind me of mermaids. 

I think the photo above doesn't do the nail on the left enough justice; I started with a while gel nail, then put a few dashes of red, orange and pink. After curing, I added another clear coat and some tiny pieces of foil then cured. Again another clear coat, added some glitter strands of various colours with a little more foil and cured. The next layer was a pearly transparent gel, cured and another clear top coat. In person you can really see the depth of layers and details in the nail, each layer of glitter and foils catching the light.

The nail on the right is my first attempt at doing 3D flowers, I used a clear polygel with a dash of white gel polish mixed in on a pallet before it even touched the nail. This combination does make the consistency much thinner and runnier than I wanted and unfortunately that meant that the mix would spread fairly quickly. Despite having a thinner mixture, I managed to work with it I do have some 3D modelling gel on the way which should so the job much easier.

Have you ever had a go at 3D sculpted gel nails? What do you think of these designs?

Samantha

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