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I have an embarrassingly full drawer of nail colors, products, and potions promising to make my nails durable and chip-free for weeks, because I’m a sucker for the prospect of a shiny manicure that will hold up to my day-to-day life. Unfortunately, I am also a busy mom managing four kids, a household, and a full-time job … a busy mom whose nails tend to be on the dry, weak side no matter what I do. And between typing and laundry and dishes and all the other things I subject my hands to on a daily basis, it takes approximately half a day — and that’s being very, veeeery careful — before chips happen.
But like most moms, I spend the majority of my money on my kids, so forking over extra for regular salon manicures just isn’t a realistic option for me. (Although honestly, if you add up all the money I’ve spent on products that failed to live up to their promises over the years, it’s probably enough to pay for pro manicures for the rest of my life.)
I’m still perpetually in search of the perfect durable polish that will actually stand up to real life — and even better, something I can do at home. Which is why Nailboo caught my eye.
It looks so simple in the videos (but so do those “quick and easy dinners” I find on TikTok that end up taking an hour and dirtying half the pots and pans in my kitchen). I’m notoriously bad about falling for the hype and ending up with a product that doesn’t exactly live up to its promises (read: I’m a sucka), so I went into this with a healthy dose of skepticism. This is a real Nailboo review, from my authentic experience, not sponsored in any way — Nailboo did provide me with a kit, but I honestly would’ve bought one anyway because I was so curious. And as someone who’s always looking for brutally honest reviews myself, I’m not going to give you anything but.
Let me preface my review by saying that I have zero professional (or even semi-professional) nail skills; I didn’t go to manicurist school or anything, so it’s not like I started out with some sort of hefty skill advantage. I’ve never gone to the salon and had dip nails done … or even seen them done before I tried them myself. I’m just a typical girl on an endless quest for nails that’ll look decent and stay decent.
When I first received the Nailboo dip powder kit, I have to admit I was a little overwhelmed because there was a lot. The kit comes with the base coat, activator, top coat, build powder, six different colors of your choice, a fluffy brush, and a big ol’ nail file. And when I watched the tutorial (which I definitely recommend doing), my confidence level didn’t exactly peak — it seemed like a lot of steps, which to me translates into a lot of ways to go wrong.
Still, I wanted durable, chip-free nails so badly that I was willing to do whatever, so I soldiered on. Let me reiterate: my natural nails were bad, y’all. Bad bad.
They’re prone to breakage and peeling, and barely grow past my fingertips, despite endlessly coddling them with strengthening potions and vitamins, so I clipped them all down. So this goes to show you that you do not have to have long nails to use Nailboo, because starting out, mine were most definitely quite the opposite.
It drives me nuts when my nails don’t match my clothes, so I typically gravitate toward barely-there nude polishes, basically my-nails-but-better. (Think the cult-favorite OPI Nail Lacquer in Bubble Bath, which is my absolute go-to when it comes to regular nail polish.) This is why for my first time using the Nailboo dip powder kit I chose the shade Wedding Cake: a milky, translucent pink that doesn’t stand out a whole lot on my fair skin. (Later on I bought shade Nail-flex and Chill, which I like even better.)
Armed with the contents of my kit, I set up my workstation. First, as recommended, I prepped my nails by taking care of my raggedy cuticles (I use Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover to make short work of it) and then kinda scuffing up the surface of my nails with the file, to give them a good base for everything to adhere to. I cleaned them off with a cotton pad dipped in acetone to make sure they were completely free of oil, residue, and any other gunk.
Then I dove into the dipping process. Unbeknownst to me, I was also diving into what would become an obsession. If you’re in a hurry, here’s a TL;DR — after watching a ton of various tutorials on TikTok and YouTube, and trying my own dip manicure a handful of times (no pun intended!), I am sold. Sold, sold, sold. Forever a dip nail girlie now. That being said, it took me some time, patience, and plenty of mistakes before I really had the process down, so if you’re in this for some advice, keep reading.
(Not-so) pro tip: If you’re launching yourself into a dip nail manicure, make sure you’ve set aside plenty of time, because you want to do it right. It’s worth doing right. If you have to bribe someone to watch your kids for a solid hour, do it, because this is not a short process … especially if you’ve only done it once or twice (or never!) and don’t have it down quite yet.
The steps are basically this: prep nails. Slap on a thin coat of base layer (thinner is better, as gooping on too much can lead to lumpy nails. I learned from experience. You can use an easy process they call the “apex method” to achieve more strength and a more natural shape). Dip your finger into the build powder and tap off the excess. Repeat this — base coat, then dip; I usually go for two coats of the build powder just to add some extra strength since my natural nails are so flimsy. Then repeat the same with whatever color powder you choose: base, dip, tap. I typically use 3 layers of my colored dip powder.
IMPORTANT (and this is where it gets more time consuming, but it’s a step you definitely don’t want to skip): between dips, after you tap off the excess powder, use a fluffy brush (there’s one included with the Nailboo starter kit) to make sure it’s all really off, and then use something with a fine tip to go around your cuticles and remove any excess that’s gathered there. This is how you get those sharp, clean lines around the nail that make it look like a professional job. You can use a regular orange stick like these, which work just fine; once I got super into the world of dip nails, I bought this fancier glass version off of Amazon (they sell them in packs of one, but I’m glad I got the two-pack because I accidentally dropped one and broke it within seconds of removing it from the box. Oops!). If you skip this cuticle-cleaning step, you’re more likely to have raggedy-looking cuticles and a less professional-looking mani overall.
Once you’re done with the dipping and the cuticle-cleaning, it’s time for the activator! It’s a very thin liquid that cures and hardens your dip powder to give it that staying power. And this is why it’s so important to clean the excess powder out of those cuticles, because if you don’t, the activator will harden that too. Brush on the activator, making sure your nail is completely saturated with it.
After a couple minutes of drying time, this is where you buff and file your nails into the shape you want! I like to file my nails into the general shape I want at the very first during the “nail prep” stage, but during the process of dipping sometimes your nails can get a little misshapen or lumpy-looking. My first time, I made the rookie mistake of trying to buff gently, like my manicure would fall off if I wasn’t careful. But trust me, you don’t have to be gentle! Take that file and go to town until your nails are smooth and shaped the way you want them. This step is exactly why you don’t need to worry too much about what they look like during the dipping process.
Apply one more coat of activator, wait another couple minutes until it’s completely dry (more on this in a minute), then use some rubbing alcohol and a lint free cloth to wipe down each nail and make sure it’s free of excess activator. The rubbing alcohol is optional — but if even one iota of the activator gets on the topcoat brush, the brush will harden, rendering it impossible to use. This is a mistake I made more than any others during the learning process! I highly, highly recommend adding a bottle of Nailboo’s Brush Saver to your purchase. This is one thing I don’t love about the process of doing dip nails: the hardening of the topcoat brush. It happens easily, folks, hence the need for Brush Saver.
But know what I do love?! THE TOPCOAT! It’s the last step of the process — the icing on the cake. And it’s shiny, and durable, and super quick-drying which is an absolute plus for me. Paint it on, praying your brush doesn’t stiffen up in the process; wait for it to dry (for what seems like no time compared to traditional topcoats), then do one more coat, and voilà: your beautiful, glossy manicure is done. (And if you’re like me, you’ll hold up your hand to admire it in different settings and lightings until the other members of your household are like, “What exactly are you doing?”) And unlike every other topcoat I’ve ever tried, it stays shiny, no matter how much I scuff it up.
In the spirit of really testing Nailboo out, I tried to ruin my nails. I did all the things I would normally do that mess up my manicure, and more: I typed all day on the keyboard. I opened letters and packages. I swam. I did dishes. I took hot showers. I picked at my cuticles. I picked my teeth. I opened pull tabs on cans (which is probably still inadvisable, but hey). I pulled weeds. I went camping, the tent kind, for three days. And nothing chipped, flaked, cracked, or smudged. I just had a perfect, pretty, shiny manicure that stayed put — through rigorous use! — until I decided to take it off. And that, my friends, is an absolute game changer.
Since that first nervous application of the dip powder, I have come so far and feel so much more confident. It’s definitely a learning process, but to me, having literally weeks of super-durable wear and not walking around with chipping polish all the time is soooo worth the effort. It really does make me feel a little more pulled together … or at least, feel like I look that way. Plus, I never have to experience the special kind of rage you feel when you mess up a new manicure! You know the feeling.
Also: it’s cost-effective! The upfront cost to buy everything you need might seem a little higher than you’d like, but you get a ton of use out of all of it — and it’s definitely cheaper than always having it done at the salon. With at-home dip nails, one spend and you’re set for quite a while.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, especially not when you first start and the process is unfamiliar. My first manicure was so lumpy and uneven I was embarrassed to even take a picture of it, let alone display said picture for the whole Internet to see. Below is a photo of my second — still a few lumps and they’re a little too thick, but I did a considerably better job:
If you look closely, you can kinda see the ridges in this one — that’s because my topcoat brush had started to harden (thanks, activator!) and I was frantically trying to use it before it turned completely to stone. Bad idea. And we’ve already discussed that: the topcoat hardening so easily is definitely discouraging.
Another con? The removal. Alas, if you want a manicure with staying power, it’s got to be thick enough to withstand the everyday wear and tear … which means it’s a lot more work to take off than just standard polish. You have to vigorously file off the majority of the layers, then soak your fingernails in acetone for a while to get everything off. The Nailboo kit does include some little clips that will hold an acetone-soaked cotton ball onto your fingers, and that works, though I found this removal method tutorial on TikTok that in my personal experience is quite a bit faster. I also bought an e-file like this one (told you I was obsessed!) which makes filing off the layers a bazillion times easier in my opinion, but is by no means mandatory; a regular file works just fine. Even with the methods I’ve used to make it go faster, it’s still kind of a hassle, and nowhere near as fun as actually dipping. But it’s the price you pay for a durable mani, I guess.
Also: it can be kind of a mess. I tend to get dip powder everywhere. But I also eat like Cookie Monster, so maybe the messiness is just part of who I am as a person.
Is it as simple as it looks in the ads? No. (But nothing ever is.) Is there a learning curve? YES. (Practice truly does make perfect!) Can you truly give yourself a salon-quality manicure at home with the Nailboo dip kit? Absolutely!!
Nailboo dip nails are not a quick dip-and-go process, but if you can carve out one block of time to do them, you’ll save yourself time in the long run because you’ll have a long-lasting manicure that you don’t have to keep redoing over and over. And truly, I find it a fun and relaxing form of self-care. I love knowing that my nails always look nice no matter what, and that I don’t have to worry about them breaking and flaking and chipping all the time. In fact, under the protective “armor” of the dip nails, my natural nails are actually able to grow longer now; where they used to barely grow past my fingertips, they’re now long enough to actually shape into ovals! Woohoo! This is a picture of my third manicure; see how much smoother/non ridgy/better shaped it looks? Progress, people! Don’t give up!
And this is my latest manicure (and also my cat). So much better — I even learned to do this beautiful French ombre thanks to @kayla.kingsberry on TikTok! And my nails? SO much longer! These are indeed the same natural fingernails you saw in that first photo: no tips or anything added. They haven’t been this long in literal decades.
Since no honest review would be complete without tips, I present to you the things I learned the hard way so you don’t have to.
Watch ALL the tutorials! There are tons of good ones on YouTube and TikTok. Some of my best insights have come from watching how other people do their nails. There’s just something about seeing it done as opposed to reading a how-to. Invest the time in learning, and you’ll equip yourself with skills you can use forever. Not to mention feel more confident in your abilities.
Don’t skimp on nail prep. I can’t stress this enough. Make sure your nail bed is properly prepared, and your manicure will last longer and won’t lift or peel up around the edges (I experienced this both the first and second time).
Don’t rush the process. Take your time and go sloooow with each step — it’s lengthy, but worthwhile.
Don’t use a ton of base coat. As someone who tends to use a lot of regular nail polish because I’m impatient and hate to do multiple coats (I get air bubbles all the time), I’m used to gooping it on, so this is something I really had to practice. When it comes to base coat, thinner is better!
Make sure to run an orange stick or something similar along your cuticles to remove excess powder between each coat so you get that nice, clean line.
Watch out for the activator hardening your brush. Seriously, make sure all the activator is removed by wiping down your nails with rubbing alcohol and then take it a step further and wipe your brush on a paper towel before you dip it back into the bottle of top coat each time. (And/or just make sure you have a bottle of Brush Saver on hand to soften those bristles right back up.)
Don’t be afraid to file and buff firmly when you’re trying to get the shape you want. You’re not going to ruin them, I promise! Even before the topcoat, these dip nails are much sturdier than you think.
Light colors and sparkly shades are more forgiving — they hide minor mistakes better until you really get the hang of it.
Since I’ve gotten the process down pat, I’ve actually bought more (and brighter!) colors from Nailboo, and the hardest part now is resisting the urge to change out my nail color every couple of days (which would defeat the purpose of a long-lasting dip mani altogether). Up next: they have a brand new thermal color-change collection I’m gonna try. Then maybe I’ll move on to fancy things like a colorful ombre or a French tip. Aim high, amiright?
