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How to Get Healthy Nails After a Gel Manicure: At-Home Tips

After Years of Gel Manicures, These 6 At-Home Treatments Brought My Nails Back to Life

How to Get Healthy Nails After a Gel Manicure: At-Home Tips
Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography / Aviel Kanter

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Before the pandemic, I was one of those people who religiously got a manicure once a month — or more specifically, a gel manicure. Nothing fancy, mind you, I'm just truly hopeless at doing my own nails. So when everything shut down in March and it became clear that I wouldn't be getting a mani anytime soon, I was faced with the challenge of dealing with them sans gel polish for the first time in, um, a long time.

Lo and behold, after finally taking off the remnants of my last in-salon manicure, my nails were a mess (as you can see above). They were paper-thin and breaking, my cuticles and skin were gross, and my nails themselves were riddled with ridges. Not my finest beauty moment. So I decided to spend some time giving my hands and nails the TLC they desperately needed. Keep reading for the 6 essential treatments and tools I used to bring my nails back to life.

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