How to Hide Grown Out Gel Nails

Don’t worry about those grown out gel nails.

I love a good gel manicure but as soon as there is noticeable nail growth I’m out. Sure, it’s great that my nails last long enough to notice grown-out gel nails but it’s not exactly cute right? Plus, the longer you wait to do anything about it, the worse it’s going to get.

This brings us to the incredibly easy fix to hide grown-out gel nails.

This amount of growth is when things start getting annoying for me. I know some people wouldn’t mind this much but we’ve all got our ticks.

I use nail oil regularly throughout the day so starting off the first step is to clean the whole nail area.

This is for everyone, by the way, not just nail oil users. Cleaning off your nails first means the glitter we’re putting on next will actually stick and not chip right off.

Use a lint-free cloth, douse it in a little bit of rubbing alcohol and wipe down your nails and cuticle area. Let your nails dry before moving on to the new polish.

A glitter gradient is the easiest way to hide grown-out nails, plus it looks festive so all around it’s a great plan. Try to use a glitter polish that isn’t too dense. If you swipe it on and it’s a full block of glitter, you’re going to have a hard time making a gradient out of it.

This polish is a limited edition OPI gold flakey glitter. They’re a dime a dozen. This Piggy Polish and this Ella + Mila polish are both pretty similar.

Start off by painting one thin coat of your glitter polish. Make sure to get some glitter in the space where the nail has grown out. Ideally, you’ll want more glitter in the grown-out area and less on the tip of your nail but the less glitter you put down here, the easier.

This is going to make the gradient much easier, plus it gives the glitter something to stick to later. Let this fully dry before moving on.

Load up a makeup sponge with your glitter. I like to keep the glitter on the sponge in a fairly small area so I can be a little more precise with it. Putting the glitter on the sponge soaks up some of the polish that suspends the glitter. This makes it easier to pack on without doing 800 coats of glitter polish.

Stamp the glitter into the base of your nail.

Lift to reveal your almost-ready gradient! I had to do two coats with the sponge to get the base of my nail totally covered in glitter. This effectively removes the space between your finger and your grown-out gel nails. If you need to do multiple coats too, just wait till it dries before going back in again.

Finish it up with a glossy top coat to seal it all in! I use an at-home gel kit so I used a gel top coat to seal it in. This made it super smooth and this glitter effect is going to stick around longer. These home kits start at about $20 and are worth every penny.

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If you don’t have a whole gel set up, use a nice thick regular top coat instead. Keep in mind mixing gel and regular polish may make this quick fix only last a few days.