Why I’ve given up on gel manicures.

And the products that have rescued my nails.

I’ve almost definitely had my last gel manicure. I say ‘almost’ because never say never, but after finding them to be something I couldn’t do without - a once a month luxury I felt justified to indulge in - they eventually became an inconvenience where the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.

What tipped me over the edge was a gel manicure that left my nails so paper thin they felt rubbery and awkward sticking out of the end of my fingers. I gently removed that gel and I haven’t looked back since.

Back to painting and filing my nails and it’s a lot less hassle.

That was three months ago and I’m only now sharing this because that’s how long it has taken me to rehab my nails and for them to stop splitting, breaking and, the worst of all, bending.

It has been a bitter pill to swallow because of all the salon services, it’s the one I felt was worth delegating to someone who knew what they were doing.

I prefer to do my own blow-dry, do my own fake tanning, dye my own roots and eyebrows but a professional manicure, well, there’s nothing quite like it.

I’m not into nail art, acrylics or anything overly-complicated, I just want trimmed, tidied cuticles, an almond-shaped filing and a beautifully painted, always pinky-nude, nail.

As a recovered nail biter, the fact these gel manicures also allowed me to grow my nails for the first time, to a length that felt glamorous and sophisticated, made the whole enterprise worthwhile.

However, before they were over-filed and left for dead, some things about manicure appointments had started to bother me.

This was two weeks after I removed gels for the last time.

First of all, the proliferation of cash-only nail salons popping up on every high street where the emphasis was on getting you in and getting you out as fast as possible was beginning to niggle at me. It’s an uncomfortable truth that some nail salons are being compared to American candy stores and barbers for their slightly dubious and prolific presence on British high streets. What industry exactly was my untraceable cash payment actually funding?

Then there were the hygiene issues that I often overlooked or accepted because my appointment was a fraction of the cost of a ‘proper’ nail bar.

Even when I did go into Central London to have a highly trained manicurist do my nails in the comfort of a high-end hairdressers or dedicated salon, I sometimes felt that 90 minutes - for removal, cuticle work, filing etc - was just a bit more time than I really felt I had to give to the appointment. Like, seriously, when did I turn into Joan Collins/Alexis Carrington?

Then, of course, there’s regrowth. I’d always try to eke out my time between appointments, hence always getting a nude-pink manicure, but managing the calendar to accommodate the regular trips started to feel like a bit of a chore.

Even though my most recent over-filing was the one that ended my dependency on gel manicures, this is something I’d say I’d come up against at least once a year where an E-file (the whizzy tool that removes gel and roughs up the nail for optimal gel adhesion) would be used a little too enthusiastically, and I’d end up with issues or having to rehab my nails.

I loved how long my nails would grow with the help of the gel, but my cuticles always seemed to be crusty and I felt as though regrowth made them look even tattier.

Incidentally, the only thing that made any difference to my nails at all was the Victoria Health Fulvic Nail Cream, £14. Trust me when I say that everyone would benefit from this regardless of whether your nails have been through the wringer or not. Massage a pin prick sized amount into your nails and watch them flourish and strengthen.

Since my nails have stopped splitting or just breaking off in razor sharp shards, I’ve been keeping it very simple. For the first couple of months, I filed them down to the quick at the end of every day and then a few weeks ago I began to paint them myself.

My base coat is Sally Hansen Hard as Nails, £7, and it is the only thing that gives nails the same feeling pf strength and rigidity as a gel manicure.

On top of that, two coats of Nails Inc Knightsbridge Nights Out from the Super Dew 4-Piece Nail Polish Set, £22. Finally, one coat of Nails Inc 45 Second Quick Dry Top Coat, £15.

I’m really impressed with the quick-dry formulas from Nails Inc.

My DIY job doesn’t really compare to a salon manicure but it’s close enough and I can do it at a time that suits me, while I catch up on reality TV and for a fraction of the cost and, in my mind, that makes the switch entirely worth it.