In October of last year, I got my first dip powder manicure at a salon in Washington D.C. I was on an extended trip and wanted something that would last longer than regular polish. I’ve always done my own nails, but since I didn’t have supplies for a home dip manicure, I paid $40 to sit in a chair for an hour and a half. While it was worth it, I definitely realized I’d need to get resourceful to keep it up.
Enter, this beginner home dip manicure kit. Consider it the basic model – a cheap version, if you will. It’s not bad, but after 8 months of doing my own, I’ve honed my supplies to my favorites from a couple of brands.
Home Dip Manicure Best-Of Supplies List
Y’all, I’ve probably spent a few hundred bucks at this point testing out different liquids and picking different shades of powder. So, here is my best-of list so you don’t have to do the trial and error.
- Nail Buffers: this is an essential tool that you need both to prep the nail, and to smooth out the dip powder after application. These aren’t a super high quality, but until I can get to my salon supply store in Denver, they’ll do.
- Nail Clippers: only if you want to trim your nails – I like to keep mine short, personally.
- Nail Brush: I honestly just got a makeup powder brush from Ulta, but you should have one dedicated for this – not one you would later use on your face as the dip power will cling to the brush a bit.
- Revel Nail Pro Base: I’ve tried four brands of pro-base and this is my favorite.
- Revel Nail Activator: Again, my fav.
- Triple Vitamin Top Coat: For whatever reason, I love the Triple Vitamin brand top coat. The Revel is still great, but a little trickier to work with – I’ll explain this later!
- Revel Nail Clear Dip Powder: Yes, you do a base and top coat for a home dip manicure, just as you would with a standard polish.
- Revel Nail Dip Powder: As you’re starting out, I highly recommend sticking with the .5 oz jars. These are reasonably priced and will last a good, long time. It’s sometimes hard to tell the colors from the computer screen or even by looking at the loose powder, so until you find a color you love, I’d stick to the smaller sizes. I’ll share a list of my favorite colors at the end of the post.
- Nail File: This is farther down on the list because of where it comes in the process. You do not need to file your nails before you begin your home dip manicure.
- Nail Clips: This is for the dip powder removal process just to make your life easier. Dip powder, like gel, needs to soak in acetone to remove. Rather than wrapping your nails in tin foil, these clips are easy and reusable.
Supplies in your house or local drugstore: cotton balls, 100% acetone, paper-towels – lint free are recommended, but my good, old-fashioned Bounty do just fine.
All in, you’re looking at right around $100 – or the cost of less than three professional manicures! The kit I talked about above is under $40, but you’ll still need some of the buffing and filing supplies.
Home Dip Manicure Step-By-Step Video
Okay – I did my best to create a video for all you visual learners of doing my own manicure. You’ll have to forgive my unsavvy camera skills, but here you go!
Home Dip Manicure Step-By-Step Written Instructions
Step One
Prep your nails by removing any previous polish and washing and drying your nails. Clip to just longer than your desired length (since you’ll file later) and lightly buff the surface of your nails. Once done, brush any dust off.
Note: The reason nails get damaged with a salon dip manicure and gel is because the professionals file nails down with a drill. Buffing your nail instead helps protect your own natural nails, but full disclosure, your manicure won’t stay on for the full two weeks like a salon – I usually get a week and a half out of mine.
Step Two
Base coat. The pro-base polish will be used for every round of powder – 4 in total. You apply it like regular nail polish, dipping after each nail. So, paint your thumb with a THIN coat of pro-base and then dip in the clear powder and tap off excess on the side of the jar. Do this to all 10 fingers, then brush off excess with the makeup brush.
Step Three
Do the same process with pro-base twice more, this time using your colored powder. Brush off in between so your nails stay un-gunked. With the pro-base, my best advice is to use a thin coat while still covering the powder and really make sure you get all the way to the edge or your powder won’t stick there.
Step Four
Top coat! One more round of pro-base but back into the clear powder instead of the colored. Brush off excess again. This helps protect the color during the buffing process in step seven.
Step Five
Apply a generous coat of activator to all nails. Make sure to cap your tips to make the manicure last longer!
Step Six
File all nails to smooth out the tips.
Step Seven
Buff all nails thoroughly to smooth out the polish. This is an important step to ensure your home dip manicure is nice and shiny!
Step Eight
Apply another coat of activator to all nails. This is where it gets a little tricky depending on your top coat. Make sure you let the activator air out for a few minutes and then rub each nail with a paper towel. You can even rinse your hands with water and dry them off to be extra safe. If you don’t, the top coat will make the nail surface rough and / or dull.
Step Nine
Paint a thin, quick layer of top coat wiping the polish brush off on a paper towel between each nail. Since the top coat solidifies when it’s in contact with the activator this helps protect your liquid and keeps your home dip manicure polished. Once done with the first layer of top coat on all fingers, go through again with a thicker layer and take more time to get the sides.
Step Ten
Wait one to two minutes for your home dip manicure to dry. That’s it. After 2 minutes, your nails will be solid and will be very difficult to mess up. No sheet marks, no chips, no smudges!
Home Dip Manicure Notes
While it might seem daunting, I actually find this process easier than standard polish and it lasts so much longer. The process takes me about 30 minutes from start to finish, with no extra time needed to dry. When I was first starting out it took a bit longer, so be patient as you learn.
After 9-10 ish days, I’ll sit in bed watching TV with a cotton ball soaked in acetone on under the nail clips. After 20-30 minutes, the dip will completely wipe off. Since acetone is very drying, I usually slather my nails in solar oil and lotion and repaint them the next day.
Home Dip Manicure My Favorite Colors!
Picking a powder is hard work, y’all! Colors are distorted on computer screens and even the powder tends to be a pretty different color on the jar vs. in a finished mani. Here are some of my favorite colors.
Home Dip Manicure FAQs
I know there is probably a ton I didn’t cover here, but if you’re still reading, kudos to you. Next week, I’ll be back with a full FAQ of the questions I get often about the home dip manicure process. If you have any questions, be sure to include them in the comments and I’ll either answer here or include in next week’s post!
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