I already did a video tutorial on my youtube channel : BeautyIra about the gel nail polish application so you can check it out and I’m not going to talk about it now I’m going to share with you my tips.   1. Use the nail buffer before applying the nail polish ( working for both gel and regular product ). And I know what you think, but actually it’s not bad for your nails if you are doing it very gently. Nail buffer design to remove just the top layer of oils from our nail plate so that’s way the product will stick better to our nail and you will wear your manicure longer.   2. Stay away from the cuticle! If you want to wear your manicure longer make sure you are applying your color 1mm away from the skin which is 0.04 inch just leave a small line between your color and the skin. Doesn’t matter which one you are using : gel or regular nail polish it will work great for both. Since the skin got a lot of oils the area of the nail around it is more oily and it hard to get there with your buffer so if you are not a professional try not to apply your product very close.   3. Use the products from one brand and line. I know it’s very hard to do so, cause we are buying nail polishes by shades and it’s always different brands but if you was in the professional salon they are using the same brands and lines and they didn’t combine the top coat from one brand with the nail polish from other ( at least they not supposed to ). Nail products are design to work together cause every brand has their own formulas and ingredients in the product which when they are mixed together ( primer, base coat, nail polish and top coat ) makes a perfect combination and stays longer on your nails. I was trying to save money and I used different products from different brands and it’s just do not work. No matter if you are combining expensive or cheap products. In some cases some products are works good together but if you are not sure which ones are they don’t do it cause you will spend more at the end trust me. All other products such as cuticle remover, cuticle oil, etc you can have from different brands and it will not make any difference.   4. Clean your house using gloves! Yes! It’s not only good for your skin it’s also will save your manicure.   5. Do a research and buy products from brands which are well known and are professional. It will actually save your time and money. Even if they are more pricy ( For example the bottle of CND ( or shellac ) gel nail color is around 16$ and the cheap gel nail color you can buy for 1-2$ ) they will work better. I like to save money and I have tried to buy cheap polishes on ebay but they will peels of next day or in few days. But the whole purpose of wearing gel nail polish is that it works 2-3 weeks or even longer. With the professional brand you will achieve that result ( when you use products from one brand) . As for me I have tried a lot of famous brand and OPI works better then others.   6. Buy products online. It is mostly cheaper to do that then buy them in the store. And it is time and money saving tip, cause some times in the stores we are buying a lot of products we are wasn’t even thinking to buy… oh girls! ☺   7. Don’t cut off your cuticle if it’s not necessary cause next time it will grow even more! Believe me the more you are cutting it off the more faster and bigger it growth (it’s working the same way everywhere you don’t need that…I know) . I do cut my cuticle off every time I’m doing my manicure cause I’m doing it for a while but I did find out that a lot of my friends, clients who are not doing that ( they just use to push it away from the nail plate ) they are have it smaller or even it’s not noticeable at all.