Hi there,

I've always had my nails natural and wouldn't want to have fake nails but I've just seen some ads about gel nails and they claim not to damage your own nail and painted like a varnish? How true is this? I am getting married in May and wouldn't mind having this done if they do not damage the natural nails? Any advice will be highly appreciated...many thanks indeed...

Products do not damage natural nails. Technicians that use bad methods damage nails and/or clients that pick off or break their enhancements, damage nails.
OR
Salons that use Acrylic containing MMA that requires the natural nail be etched by an electric file for it to stick. That sort of Acrylic is illegal in some parts of the world, and is cheaper than the good quality variety (hence why it's still used in some salons)
Please use the search facility of this site to find more info on MMA. You want to stay away from that.

UV Gel and 'Acrylic" are both in fact "Acrylics" as they both contain Acrylates. Good quality products are perfectly safe as long as applied properly (and removed, as the case may be)

If you find a qualified and experienced technician, who is conscientious about nail health; then it won't matter what system is used on your nails, neither will damage your nails and both will look nice.

My advice would be to search out a qualified technician (not the cheapest) with experience, and you won't go wrong. Preferably not a nail bar that is super-duper cheap and bangs out nails in 30min as 'most' (not all) are NSS.

hope this helps.