hihi, April borns stand up!!!!

Today, I’m talking about Beetles, one of Amazon’s most popular gel nails brand. I have a lot of items from them so this will be a long detailed post (grab a snack). I started building my Beetles collection in April 2022 when I first became interested in doing gel nails at home. These are some of the items I have from them: Nail Lamp( not pictured), Gel polishes, Builder Gel, UV Nail Glue and some accessories.

Swatches of the gel polishes are below

Experience

I started my collection with the Beetles starter Kit– this comes with the lamp, accessories, top & base coats and your choice of colours. I got the nude gel polishes. This kit is excellent value for money because it contains everything you need for a basic gel manicure at home. I decided to get more colours later so I went with a colour bundle which is no longer available but Beetles have a lot of colours bundles on Amazon. The colours come in 2 sizes: 7.5ml and a mini 5ml( this will still last you ages!). I also picked up the gel liner.

In terms of the longevity of the gel polishes, these were very hit and miss but also not unusual for me for manicures on my natural nail. I was able to get about 3/ 4 days wear before I would notice a chip/peel on my manicures but my pedicures would last much much longer. This is not unusual because even salon quality gel manicures would only last 4/5 days before chipping. Only one other brand, has been able to last 7+ days on my natural nail before chipping. Review here. Because of this I would use Beetles exclusively for my pedicures. The gel liner was ok, the brush was long and flexible however I noticed last year the colour had turned blue lol so I had to throw it away. The cuticle oil is nice and light with a subtle scent. I really liked the foam nail file the starter kit came with.

Fast forward to 2023 when I started to do gel x nails at home and this is when I fell in love with Beetles. I got the UV nail glue and the Builder gel and honestly the UV nail glue is one of the best on the market. It’s excellent value for money as it comes in a 2 pack and 15ml each! The longevity is amazing- I can go 2 full weeks without my nails popping off, it starts to lift around day 12/ 13 or so but I always take my nails off after 10 days to 2 weeks for a break then another set a few days later. I have done the full 2 weeks tho because I wanted to test the nail glue. The UV glue can also be used for rhinestones and stickers/chunky glitter and its so great for that. My gems remain intact for the duration I have my nails on and I love using it for stickers too. Infact the nail glue has 5 benefits: base coat, gem glue, nail glue, blooming gel and slip solution- I’ve never used it as the last 2.

My only con for the glue is that the consistency is very runny so it can be very messy for gel x nails. Majority of my nails are short so its a messy application trying to hold the nails in place whilst they cure and having to clean up spillage afterwards. My tip is to flash cure, use cuticle cutter to cut off the spillage before it fully cures then carry on curing. I didn’t have the best start with the builder gel, I first used it for a friend’s manicure and she sent me pictures 2 days later of it fully peeling off! I don’t know if it was my technique or the product but I have since used it in my gel x routine and its been great so far ( where you leave a gap between your cuticle and the nail tip to fill with builder gel).

These are some of my gel x nails designs. For the French manicure (pre made from shein), the builder gel was used before a top coat was added. I got a chip after 6 days on 1 finger only so I think I need to play around with the builder gel more. The gel polish on the nail tips last much longer- no issues with that. In terms of colour pay off, the brighter colours are opaque and vivid, some of the nude colours need a few coats in order to get true colour pay off. The top coats are good. I have both the glossy & matte finish. rhinestones & chunky glitter from Shein

Verdict

I was ready to give all my Beetles stuff away, infact I had packed it all away when I started using Mylee. I decided to give them another try when I started doing gel x and Im glad I did. I really like Beetles although for me I can only use it in my gel x routine and not on my natural nail but this is ok. It’s excellent value for money and the brand has so many colours. I think the colour bundles are great because you get a variety of colours for a good price saving money instead of getting them individually. Although the bundles have the mini sizes, these will still last you ages because you are using a small amount each time. The starter kit is great for your first venture into gel nails and the addition of the nail lamp is amazing. I think they also have a gel x kit too.

Beetles is available from Amazon. I have linked everything I have in the post