Dip Powder Nails…Worth It?

Dip powder nails have been all the rage & it has taken me way too long to try them out! At the beginning of December, I finally booked an appointment and I’ve been dying to share the good, the bad, and the ugly with you ever since! 😉

Let me preface by saying that I had been hearing a lot of amazing things about dip…

• They’re so MUCH better than gel
• They’re hard as acrylics
• One mani lasts forever (averaging 3-4 weeks)
• They don’t damage your nails
• They DO NOT lift (piqued my interest here)
• No UV lamp
• Essentially zero dry time

I also heard a couple of negative things…

• There is SO much filing during application
• Can be unsanitary
• Some techs can be really rough & damage the cuticle/skin around the nail
• They can be a nightmare to remove

Overall, it sounded pretty great and I wanted to see for myself, so I booked an appointment. I prefer to do my own nails at home, but I knew that before I invested in a dip powder system, I wanted to first see how a professional does them.

So I did my research to find a decent salon & tech (thank you all so much for your suggestions) and I went in a couple of weeks before Christmas (with the intent of removing them right before the holiday)!

My appointment was on a Saturday morning and the salon was packed. I kid you not, every woman there was having a dip manicure done! I should have thought about what color I wanted ahead of time because once I sat down I was given a huge ring of swatches & immediately overwhelmed. She kept reaching for my hand, I could tell she wanted to get the nail prep going, but I was still trying to choose a shade. I settled on a neutral grey/purple powder which reminded me of one of my favorite Gelish polishes “I Orchid You Not”.

Before I knew it, she was going to town! To be honest, it felt like there were a million steps and I can’t recall the entire process, but it went something like this…

1. Prep nail
2. Clear coat of polish
3. Dip into powder
4. Clear coat of polish
5. Dip into powder
6. Buff, file, buff, file, buff, file (for quite a while)
7. Clear coat of polish

I swear there was much more mixed in there, but that was the gist. She was pretty gentle with the files, I didn’t have any damage to the cuticle or skin around the nail. She used both regular files/buffing cubes as well as an e-file.

She did dip my nails directly into the powder container which some people find very unsanitary. I understand the concern but am not sure how else it can be done. If you pour it into a separate container, you’re going to waste a ton of powder. If you sprinkle it over the nail, I don’t think you’d achieve the same results. The way I figure it is everyone is having their nails prepped and cleaned (with sanitized tools), so unless they’re servicing people with horrible open wounds, I’m not sure this would concern me too much.

After all was said and done, she added a clear top coat and we let the nails dry for maybe five minutes. When finished, my nails were very hard (LOVE), pretty flat (LOVE…since they usually tend to curl inwards), a bit thick (did NOT love), and semi-glossy (indifferent, but prefer more of a shine).

I snapped this photo immediately after I left the salon and have to say, I wasn’t mad at this mani!

So how well/long did they hold up & what do I think about them…

They held up incredible! Really, I was very impressed with their thickness, durability, and lifetime. I had the manicure for exactly 2 weeks and 2 days and to be honest, I could have gone much longer. After 1 week, I noticed a little bit of lifting on my index finger.

Do you see it on the bottom right hand side? It was very tolerable and didn’t snag my hair nearly as much as lifting gel usually does, but it was frustrating. I had heard there would be ZERO lifting, so I was hoping I’d see none of that.

The other let down was this cracked thumb…

I had gone ice skating and when I was removing my skates, my thumb got stuck and cracked. Had this been a normal manicure or even gel it may have very well broken then entire nail. Luckily, the polish was the only thing that had cracked. Honestly, the dip probably saved my nail from a terrible break.

Aside from the minor lifting on the index & the crack on the thumb, they were in very good shape. I didn’t notice any additional cracks or lifting for the duration of the manicure…

Above is a quick snap before I removed them myself (not as bad of a process as I thought). They were just over two weeks old, a bit grown out, but still holding on. I wish I timed things differently so I knew how long they could last. I’m sure they would have been perfect for at least another week!

Overall, I was VERY happy and am excited to try and do them myself.

If you’re not subscribed to my YouTube channel, you may not know that I started a new series this year where I’ll be filming some of my manicures. The first one, a DIY gel manicure, went up a couple of weeks ago.

I have a DIY gel removal video going up next week, and a review of a DIY dip powder system right behind it. I love nail care, polish, and products and am excited to begin trying/sharing sharing more of them with you via these fun & casual videos!

Let me know if you’ve ever gotten a dip powder manicure & what you think about them! Also! Let me know if you have any must-try nail systems, products, etc.

XOXO