Patent ID: 8534299

Claim:
A method of applying prefabricated gel nails to the finger nails of a human hand, the method comprising: providing a mold comprising a pair of mold members that have respective portions of a mold cavity, the mold members being assembled to a closed orientation in which they form a mold cavity and an open orientation in which they are separated in a manner that enables a plurality of the prefabricated gel nails to be removed from the mold cavity, a first of the mold members comprising a material that transmits UV radiation, the mold cavity configured to define a mold with a plurality of nail cavities for producing the prefabricated gel nails and a conduit system through which UV curable material injected into the mold cavity is directed into the nail cavities to form the prefabricated gel nails; assembling the mold cavity to the closed orientation; injecting a UV curable material into the mold cavity to form the prefabricated gel nails, the UV curable material comprising a gel; curing the prefabricated gel nails in the mold cavity by directing UV radiation through the first mold member; opening the mold members and removing the prefabricated gel nails; and applying the prefabricated gel nails to the finger nails by prepping the surfaces of the finger nail plates, cleaning the surfaces of the finger nail plates, applying a UV curable bonding agent to the surfaces of the finger nail plates, positioning the prefabricated gel nails on the finger nail plates over the bonding agent, and applying UV radiation through the prefabricated gel nails onto the bonding agent to attach the prefabricated gel nails to the finger nail plates by UV cure.