Dip powder nails??

[MsMaizel]

Has anyone tried dip powder nails?? Are they better than gel or shellac? 

I want to strengthen my natural nails, but am worried of letting them stay natural for too long…they’ve grown so much since I stopped biting them 4 years ago, now I’m scared they will break again. 

[Samtian]

@MsMaizel Hello! @RGbrown can probably help you with that!

[RGbrown]

@Samtian 

Thanks for the tag! I actually wrote up quite a few things about natural nail care for @MsMaizel a couple of days ago on another thread 😋 I've never used dip personally though, so I don't have any first hand experience to share, but I can expound a little on the specific question "is dip better?":

Nope, it's no better or worse than gel or acrylic. They are all different, but there's no "best" option, only preferences for the sort of materials you want to handle and application process you want to go through.

With any overlay/enhancement/extension, proper prep is key, and damage can happen very easily if whoever is applying and removing them either isn't skilled or is in a hurry, whether that's yourself or a professional. And all have similar removal processes that are long and involved (or should be, if done properly, as quick removal guarantees more damage to your nails).

Dip is essentially super glue and acrylic powder; layer of glue, sprinkle powder over that, another layer of glue, another sprinkle of powder, perhaps repeat for a third layer, then add an activator on top to melt it all together and smooth it out, then coat with topcoat. Dip nails are generally thinner and lighter weight than doing a standard acrylic overlay or extension, but they can also be more brittle, a bit weaker, due to their thinner profile, unless you build up more layers and try to build an apex. Extensions can be done if desired, but not super long. If prepped properly, and they last well, you might be able to get away with just having them filled instead of removed and replaced, but this is YMMV (and frequent removal/replacement will be murder on your nails over time, but if you're willing to keep it up, I guess it doesn't really matter what they look like underneath, unless they get to a point where they are too thin to hold any enhancements).

You said in your other post that your nails got damaged from gel removal. Swapping over to dip is just moving from the frying pan to the flame, IMHO. If your end goal is pretty, natural nails, you'll have to stop doing any enhancements and let the damage grow out...there's no way around that, unfortunately. But if your goal is uninterrupted longer nails and you don't want to deal with growing out current damage, sure, covering them up with dip instead of gel is an option you might be interested in exploring, as it gets you away from the UV light that gel requires.

[Titian06]

@RGbrown - I wondered what dip powder was.  Yuck...😝...I'll stick to my regular nail polish! 

[Samtian]

@RGbrown You are so smart! Hopefully she see's this one!