Let me start by saying I am no nail technician. Just a regular person who likes painting their nails. I mostly have my natural nails, but break them sometimes because I use them like I shouldn't. I KNOW they aren't screwdrivers or scrapers or poptop openers, etc, but I like doing things with my hands, like gardening, painting, moving furniture and have to clean things, so they get used.Anyway, I have tried tips and press-ons and things like that to disguise a broken one and they look like crap. I hate cutting ALL my nails when only one is broken ;( so I have even left an oddball short one there on occasion. Too bad if people don't like it! ha ha!! (sorry Cristine and Suzie!) I have seen the youtube ladies Suzie and Jenna Marbles (love her!) do the powder gel nails, and knew mine would look more like Jenna's than Suzie's, so I didn't even bother buying it.I did try the liquid gel stuff, a roll of nail forms and some inexpensive brushes, and while it works, it is soooooo sticky. It is like trying to form a nail out of caramel topping. I used a brush, I used alcohol, I took my time (which you can't do with powder) but dang I couldn't really get it smooth. So then you have to file the crap out of it. My daughter did ALL her nails with it. It took her like 4 hours. Not fun.Then I saw Suzie use this Polygel, and it looked so easy! I know these beauty guru types can make most things seem easy, but what I liked was that it wasn't super sticky like the liquid gel, it didn't need mixing like powder, and didn't cure in the air (like powder) so you have time to fuss with it. And as a beginner, I need that time!I didn't buy the "slip" stuff they say you need (I am on a budget here!), I just used alcohol and it works fine. I did spring for the Primer and the Bonder after my daugher's 4-hour nails started popping off! She does bite her nails though so she doesn't have a big nail bed to start with. Mine didn't pop off either with or without the primer and bonder.It is so easy to work with. You first put on a form. Then squeeze some out onto a brush or toothpick, it is sort of the consistency of thick gel toothpaste. Then you move it around to get the shape of the nail you want. I wanted mine to mimic my remaining natural nails so I didn't do the hump in the middle, but I think you are supposed to (you can watch youtube videos to see the "correct" shape and some techniques.) I had zero problems with making mine look very much like my other nails. It never pulled or lifted or chipped or anything. I left it on there even between gel color changes (where I had to soak off polish with acetone.) The fake nail stayed. I left it there until my natural nail grew out enough to remove it. You can see your natural nail growing from the underside. I just soaked it a while and filed it thin enough to peel off.You get a lot, I would say you get about 50 nails in a tube. Now of course if you are doing shorter ones, you may get more. And my daughter makes hers thicker than I do, so that takes up some product, too. If you are doing looong ones, you may get a little less. So while the price may seem high, it is much much cheaper than going somewhere to do it.I like the pink so I could see what I was doing. The clear is sometimes hard to see, when it gets thinner. I am not sure of the colors they make as the pink was the only one I saw on amazon. I paint my nails so the color doesn't really show. Even viewed from underneath, the pale pink looks similar to my other nails. You would have to really be looking to notice a difference.I posted a picture of my thumbs (sorry about the polish, it has been over a week since I did the painting!) I broke my thumb nail on the left. I mean all the way down to where it even bled a little. My nail beds aren't tiny, but my fingertips are on the smaller side. So I did have some nailbed to work with. The gel nail on my one thumb has been there two weeks and my natural nail is just beginning to be visible when you look underneath. I broke it while cleaning (yuck!) and wanted to repair it, and not have to cut off my 9 other decent-length nails. The fake one is on my left hand. It is really hard to tell which is which if you are just looking at my hands. You can see a difference if you look at them side by side. Actually, the fake one is a little longer than my real one, I am going to have to even it out. I also showed a profile of my polygel versus natural thumb so you can see I tried to make them match, not do the classic gel "hump" in the middle (since my natural nail doesn't do that.) If you are doing all of them, you can shape them anyway you want.I do realize that it isn't perfect. It is only my second try with this stuff! The shape and placement of the paper form is important. Try to shape it as well as you can, as once you cure this stuff under your UV light, it isn't going to flex. And be careful so your finished nail doesn't point down like a claw. Look at it from the top, the side, and straight on (like you are going to jab yourself in the eye) just so you can see all directions before you cure. I just cured it for one minute with the form still on using my inexpensive LED light). Then I peeled the form off and cured another minute on the underside. My first attempt was much too flipper like, I didn't realize my nails curved/C-curled so much. I did squeeze a little with my other hand while curing the underside. I needed mine curvier than I did my form (it was close though) and squeezing might have helped a little.I also noticed that if you wet your finger with alcohol, you can move this stuff around before it cures with your finger, too! The brush is great for moving it into a nail shape, but for finer work and smoothing the top, I found my fingers worked even better. Sort of like smoothing sillyputty or playdough something. I could feel the thickness better using my fingers than I could with the brush. If you mess it up, just push it back. I did take a thin layer of gel pretty far down my nail bed toward my cuticle. Then sort of faded it thicker toward the tip I was forming. My fingers helped with that fading. Do make sure you have some on your nailbeds. The tip needs something to anchor it, you can't just stick a gob of this crap on the tip only and expect it to stay. Cantilever type of thing, I guess! I had nearly zero filing since I was careful with my form placement and with smoothing the top and edges. Remember, you have all the time you want. Smooth it, look at it from all angles, and simply adjust it if you don't like it. Add more, take some off, scrape it all onto your brush and start over, whatever. It doesn't dry until it is cured. After I peeled the form off, then I cured the underside. I don't know if you need to, but it seemed that it couldn't hurt. Then I just painted it like a normal nail.I hope they never stop selling this as it is the only product I have tried that let me fix one finger and still look okay. My daughter has done all 10 of hers three times with this and is so thrilled to actually have nails for a change. One of hers did come off when she was pulling on jeans, but she just used some nail glue and put it back on. Mine has been holding up fine. Even with washing dishes and scraping price tags and all the other bad stuff I do with my nails. Not one chip or snag after 2 weeks. I know I am not a nail tech, and they would probably faint at the condition of my cuticles and the shape of my nails, but I like them, anyway.I realize this is a long review but I wanted to put in as much as I could as to what worked and didn't work for me and the troubles/successes I had. I hope it helps someone who may be hesitant to get this (especially because it seems a little pricey.) It is so worth it for the ease of it and how well it does indeed work. I hope it is helpful!!!