DIP POWDER NAILS....GAVE IT TRY & HERE'S THE DEETS!

It's the new trend in manicures, and I FINALLY gave it a go. Read all the details below to find out how it went and to see my new manicure!

I'm spoiled I know. A few times a month I get to spend some one on one girl time with my mom. We get our Starbucks on, we hit the nail salon, we get our nails did and we spill a little Tea if we have any. A tradition I FINALLY got an invite to almost a year ago and I've loved it! After probably a solid 3-4 months of bringing up my getting acrylic nails to my mom, she finally gave in. She's cool like that.

For almost a year, I've gone to the salon in Utah, where we were living and gotten traditional acrylic nails. Over that time, I've tried a lot of different art sets, shapes, colors and lengths, but had yet to try out the new dip powder nails trend.

To be honest it seems to be a trend that hasn't caught on in Utah yet. None of the salons we went to EVER brought it up and really we hadn't heard a ton about it other than on Instagram.

Fast forward to the here and now...after some life changes with the parents, new jobs meant moving back to Texas and let's just say that the nail game in Texas was a different ball park. After calling a few local nail salons, who all said the ONLY did the dip powder nails, my mom finally found a place that said they did EVERYTHING and could do our "old school" nails the traditional acrylic way. We were set on going this route after Google assured us that dip nails were 1. More expensive, and 2. Less strong than the traditional acrylics.

"Dip Nails are More Healthy and She's Too Young..."

That was the semi-judgmental song the nail tech was singing to my mom when we finally made it out to the nail salon in Texas (Skyline Nails & Spa). Cue the eye rolls....wasn't digging her harshness, and neither was my mom, but she was SO passionate about the dip nails & assured us they'd be "Just as strong...even stronger" that we decided to give it a try.

“The Process, Was Actually Pretty Cool to Watch..."

You still choose your color-they give you the color swatches like they normally do, but instead of picking a polish you're picking your powder shade. Same idea just a different technique. As I started realizing what it meant, I thought how cool it is that you don't have to worry about color chipping because it's not a polish that can chip off, which blew my mind a little. But in a good way. Another cool side benefit-no smell. I actually like the nail salon acrylic smell-I guess it's a nostalgic kind of a thing, but I can't imagine how much healthier it must be for the techs-which softened my heart a little to the harshness from earlier. Good for her for standing up for her health! The process itself was the same for the most part until you get to the powder application, which I might add was faster. Once the nails were prepped it was brushing on the base, dipping, brushing off excess and repeating. Now, I'm not sure what the norm is...we hadn't really done a lot of reading up on it, but our tech repeated the brush, dip, wipe process like 4-5 times. Once we had a good base, it was top coat and finish.

My Chosen Style

Since I didn't really know what I was getting into and it was a new process, I opted to stay classic, and did get too adventurous on my nails this go round. Tried out the square style in a pearly baby pink and kept my nails a little on the shorter side in case they weren't as strong I'd lessen the chance for damage. Being a newbie at blogging about all the things...I didn't get the color-BUT-no worried your girl will get cha next time!

The Inside Scoop...

"All in all we were in about $100 for two full sets of dip nails with tips... "

Ouch, sorry momma! That included the tip to our techs. So...

1. PRICE: YES, it was a little pricier than we were used to, traditional way, with gel polish in Utah, with tip was about $80 for the two of us.

2. STRENGTH: The truth is that they don't feel stronger, but they do feel as strong as our traditional acrylics. Not at all weaker and two weeks in-still holding strong, and no chips or breaks.

3. AESTHETICS: I actually really dig the dip powder nails better than the traditional acrylics for a few reasons.

• They are just as shiny as the gel polish nails, and hold their shine for weeks, but don't chip or discolor

• The nails themselves, while just as strong are thinner and more natural looking

• The nails stay straight and don't do that curvy thing that nails do sometimes that make them look bulky and unnatural Cue pic below to see my reference

Curved Acrylics

Maybe it's more of a preference thing, but I never really liked the curved acrylic look. In fact, usually with a fresh set they'd be more straight and as I got them filled more and more it was like they almost got weighed down or something because they'd start to curve more and more. With the dip sets, I don't seem to have that issue since each set is fresh.

Straight Acrylics

My nails always be straight and on point. Again this may just be a preference thing, but I'm all about the straight. That brings me to my next point.

• Fills are a thing of the past with dip nails. The nature of the technique is so that you have to get a new set each time you go in if you're wanting to change colors...which I do....EVERY. TIME. Every time.

All in All....

We loved how our nails turned out, the experience was nice, the salon was beautiful and very classy, and the techs although not shy to share their thoughts, were sweet and did an AMAZING Job!

We'll have to adjust our budgets a bit, but I think we'll stick with the dip nail trend until something cooler comes along... and then we'll probably do that.