Creating a Natural Gel Colour Mix for Nail Bed Extension.

I really enjoyed using the STAEDTLER Karat soft pastel chalks with my acrylic nails. The colours were so intense when mixed with my acrylic powders that I started wondering about mixing the colours together to match my nail bed. Then I started to wonder if they would mix as perfectly with my UV gels as they did my acrylics....... Well, it worked like a dream. Here are the results for those of you that want to lengthen your own nail beds using UV gels. An opaque perfectly matching, easily mixed colour.

Here I'm assuming you already know how to apply and use UV Gels. These instructions are to help you create an opaque matching nail bed colour to suit you.


Things you'll need:

STAEDTLER Karat soft pastel chalks in a range of flesh tones that suit you
Clear UV Gel
UV lamp for curing gel
Nail foil forms
Nail files of different grits and buffers
flat brush for gel application
Gel cleaner
freshly prepped and primed nails

I chose four colours that seemed to match my nail bed colour.

I used my nail file to finely grind some of each colour onto a clean white sheet of paper. I started with the lightest colour and collected each colour in a small reusable plastic container.

The colours don't look very similar here, but when mixed together they should make a pretty close match to my nail bed colour.

In a small light safe container half full of clear building gel start pouring small amounts of powder until you have achieved a colour that you are happy with. Test the colour now and then by dabbing it onto your nail to compare the colour with your natural nail bed. Make sure to add some white to help make the colour more opaque. Let the gel sit for a while after mixing. Gel gets all thick and gloopy after you muck around with it and It needs to rest before you use it.

Here is the finished nail with the extended nail bed. The colour is really a perfect match! I used some white and cream coloured chalk powder to dust over my nail free edge to create a white tip that looks almost natural. I also dusted some of this whitish powder onto the moon of my nail. I'm pretty pleased with this little experiment.

I decorated my nails by sketching some pine needles on them using STAEDTLER Ergo soft triangular colour pencils and some glass beads. I also added some red nail polish dots. I put a good layer of gel over top of the artwork. I think I'll have to experiment a little more with this idea too.


I have added a companion video to my youtube page to help you see exactly how I did the colour mix and the nail art. Please check it out.

Creating a Natural Gel Colour Mix for Nail Bed Extensions