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This content originally appeared on Mashable for a US audience and has been adapted for

So much of fashion right now feels disappointing. After years filled with promising pushes for progress — from body positivity to racial justice and wider representation — the post-lockdown industry has failed to demonstrate any real change. There’s been a notable lack of plus-size representation in recent seasons, while major luxury houses continue to be led by white men.

While looking for ways to cut spending on luxuries, consumers have embraced DIY beauty during the cost-of-living crisis. A Currys survey of beauty search terms found that ‘how to do gel nails at home’ was the most in-demand pampering technique with nearly 180,000 searches a year, ahead of fake tanning (101,280) and acrylic nails (85,320). With UV lamps costing around £50 and polishes from top brands like Essie, OPI and Shellac around £10 each, doing your own gel mani is cheaper in the long-run than paying upwards of £20 for every salon visit. But can you replicate a nail technician’s precision and ensure a long-lasting finish? We asked nail pros for their tips on how to master a gel manicure at home… Prep your nails “Good natural nail prep before applying gel polish can be the difference between a polish that lasts weeks and a polish that is likely to chip and peel prematurely,” says manicurist Tinu Bello, senior brand ambassador for Mylee. Start by gently pushing back your cuticles (use cuticle remover gel if they’re very dry or hard) then clipping off the excess. Bello explains: “Cuticles are dead pieces of skin that attach to the nail plate at the base of the nail. Once removed, you will find that gel polish adheres to the nail much more smoothly.” Buff away shine “After shaping your nails in your desired shape, your nail plate should be lightly etched using a soft buffer file,” says Julita Fagan, manicurist and nail expert for 14 Day Manicure. “This helps to remove the natural shine or oils from your nails, assisting in product adhesion.” Avoid moisture With a regular manicure, the technician might soak your fingertips to soften the cuticles, but with gel polish you want to keep your nails dry. “It’s important to avoid using water on the nails or any products that contain moisture or oil prior to applying gel polish, such as hand soap or moisturiser,” says Bello. “Fingernails quickly absorb water and expand, meaning nails that have been painted post-soak will contract once dry and cause polish to chip.” Apply a primer Gel products and kits vary so you must follow the instructions carefully, but if you can use a primer your polish is likely to last longer. “Applying a nail primer before your base coat will act as a bonding element between your natural nails and the product,” says Fagan. “This is particularly useful if you continuously experience chipping or lifting of your gel polish.” Paint precisely When applying polish it’s crucial to only paint the nail, not the cuticle. “A trick in ensuring a seamless polish application is to leave the tiniest gap between your cuticles and the first one or two layers of your gel polish, getting as close as possible to your cuticles on your last layer,” says Fagan. “This will ensure a less bulky finish at the end of your application.” She also recommends ‘capping’ the polish by applying the top coat over the tip of the nail to seal in the colour. Try builder gel As an additional defence against chipping, add a layer of extra-strength builder gel to your mani, which comes in clear or a range of colours. “Builder gel is a stronger consistency than the standard gel polish,” explains Fagan. “Using it at the end of your gel polish application, prior to top coat, will provide even more longevity to your manicure.” 14 Day Manicure Bestseller Gel Polish Starter Kit, £79 (was £164.80) Mylee Pro Salon Series Convex LED Lamp Black, £50 Rio Salon Pro Rechargeable UV and LED Lamp, £50, Argos

McLaren boss Zak Brown has called on Formula One’s governing body to ensure the track-limits fiasco which overshadowed the Austrian Grand Prix never happens again. Drivers were penalised throughout the weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg for crossing the white lines – with the final classification for Sunday’s race only settled five hours after the chequered flag. Eight of the 20-strong grid were dealt post-race sanctions by the FIA, with Lewis Hamilton demoted from seventh to eighth. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz slipped two places to sixth, while Frenchman Esteban Ocon was handed an extraordinary half-a-minute’s worth of combined penalties for track-limit infringements. Earlier in the weekend, world champion Max Verstappen accused race director Niels Wittich of making the grid’s stars look like “amateurs”. In all, more than 100 laps were deleted during Sunday’s race. “It definitely wasn’t ideal what happened, and that’s stating the obvious,” said Brown. “Where we need to do a better job is that we knew this was going to be a problem on Friday and yet we just kind of watched it happen. “We need to make sure it never happens again, and that we do a proper debrief and understand how we could have prevented it in the first place or handled it differently.” McLaren driver Lando Norris benefited from Sainz’s post-race penalty to be promoted to fourth to take his best result of a difficult season for the British team. Brown, speaking at the reveal of a one-off livery for McLaren’s home race at Silverstone this weekend, continued: “I’ll take my hat off to the FIA for addressing the issue and I think it would have been easy to say, ‘this is going to cause a lot of noise, let’s just kind of get it right next time’. “For them to put their hands and say there were some penalties that needed to be addressed, I thought that was a brave decision. “But we can’t have it again. We can’t have a race and then five hours later you have that degree of change in the result.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Lando Norris says Just Stop Oil protest at Silverstone would be ‘stupid’ Don’t put your life in danger – British GP boss has stark warning for protesters Max Verstappen refuses to ponder title hat-trick despite another emphatic win