Salon Manicure Choices – What’s the Difference? Gel Nail Polish

There are so many amazing nail treatments available now! In this series we’ll review the professional manicure systems for use on natural nails on the market today. Here we continue our series on selecting the perfect natural nail manicure system for your needs, exploring the pros and cons of gel nail polish.

Gel Nail Polish

But first – did you know that gel nail enhancements have been around since the 1980’s, but just didn’t have the break out success back then that they were in the early 2000’s?

“At the time, the manufacturers of gel lights and the gel itself had not joined forces, not yet recognizing the need to precisely match the intensity of the light to the photoinitiators in the gel… ­using the wrong light or applying too much gel caused a burning sensation on the client’s fingertips. ­Additionally, education on gel application was limited, leaving nail techs in the dark about the product, and home-use ­systems were introduced around the same time, damaging the reputation of salon-use systems by ­association. By the end of the ‘80s, many companies had pulled their gel products from the market.”

Then, in the late 1990’s and early 2000s, the gels that we think of today, with improved formulas over what was available in the previous decade, began to emerge. About 20 years later, it’s hard to imagine a nail services menu without gel services on the list. According to the 2018-2019 Nail Big Book, 90% of salons responding to the survey offered gel polish services. The only other service offered as frequently among respondents was manicuring, also at 90%.

Some of my most enjoyable moments as a nail tech have come from seeing the amazement on clients’ faces when they pull their hands out of the lamp for the first time, and I begin wiping the inhibition layer from their fully cured gel polish manicure. With big eyes, they usually ask something like “Are they already dry?” and I tell them that they are free to do whatever they need to do. They can hardly believe that it’s OK to reach for their keys and walk out of the salon without sitting for awhile to let their manicure finish drying.

Besides this revolutionary speed in finishing a manicure, I love how long gel polish stays on clients’ nails. Even clients who are really hard on their hands typically get more than a week out of their manicure.  Personally, my nails have grown out to the point that it’s bothersome before my nails begin to chip or peel.

Unfortunately, gel polish’s greatest strengths are also a cause for it’s greatest weakness (in some clients’ eyes): the soak off process for removal. And, since it takes so long to remove, clients who get tired of their polish color in less than a week might find the wear time and soak-off to be a negative.

While gel polish might not be for everyone, it certainly fills a need for many people. Ready to try for yourself?

Some professional brands to find in the salon are:

• Gelish – If you’re a regular reader, you already know I highly recommend Gelish brand products. I’ve been using these products in the salon and personally for almost a decade now with nearly flawless results.
• OPI Gel Color – Many techs love this gel polish from a trusted brand.
• CND Shellac – this may be the quintessential gel polish now due to genericization, though gel polish should be called by the correct name and brand used should be obvious to clients.  Using inferior products can lead to service breakdown and, if it happens frequently enough, a downgrading of the professional service.

Easy-to-find beauty store brands are:

• Gelish Mini – the same great formula as the full-size Gelish, but in smaller amounts for personal use (fewer manicures)
• China Glaze Gelaze – to make things even easier, this brand requires no base coat; only top coat.
• FingerPaints – this is the Sally Beauty house brand, and has been around for several years.

You can also find one-step, no-cleanse gel polishes (no base or top coats required), and the latest development in gel polish systems – peelable base coat. I can’t vouch for any of these products personally yet, though I would be willing to test them out:

• Gelish UNO – By Gelish MINI, this is a is a DIY, instant manicure. Brush on polish and cure – no basecoat, topcoat or cleansing is required.
• Maniology Peelable Gel Base Coat – intended to be a temporary, peel-off coating for natural nails, to be painted on and removed easily later.

I personally love gel polish.  It’s one of the greatest inventions ever, in my opinion. What about you? Leave a comment below! Is this your favorite natural nail manicure product?

 

Salon Manicure Choices – What’s the Difference? Hybrid Nail Polish

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There are so many amazing nail treatments out there! In this series we’ll review the professional manicure systems for use on natural nails on the market today. Here we continue our series on selecting the perfect natural nail manicure system for your needs, looking at “hybrid” nail polish.

Hybrid Nail Polish

Hybrid nail polish is also called long-lasting or long-wear nail polish, and it attempts “borrow some of the best qualities from both gel and lacquer without needing to be cured” .  It seems the goal in developing hybrid polish was to create a polish that would last as long as UV-cured gel polishes, but applies easily and could be removed as quickly as traditional nail polish. Some brands take this a step further by incorporating oligomers into their top coats that cure in ambient UV light, and become harder over the course of a day or so.

Hybrid polishes were introduced a few years ago, after the gel polish craze evened out, and seem to have been going steady ever since. Like traditional polish, they’re easy to apply in the salon or at home. Some brands make it even easier by requiring no base coat for their systems. However, it’s important to use the correct base (if required) and top coat for the system to achieve the result for these polishes.

Image from Amazon.com

 

Ready to try for yourself?

Some professional brands are:

• OPI Infinite Shine Primer, Long-Wear Lacquer, and Gloss
• China Glaze EverGlaze Prep, Extended Wear polish, and Active Top Coat
• CND Vinylux Long Wear Polish and Top Coat (no base required)

 

 

Image from Amazon.com

 

Easy-to-find drug and beauty store brands are:

 

• Sally Hansen Miracle Gel polish and Top Coat (no base required)
• FingerPaints Endless Wear Nail Color and Top Coat

 

 

 

I tested the Sally Hansen brand earlier this year. Here’s one of my manis with a color called Shock Wave.

From my perspective, these hybrid polishes felt like a wannabe gel polish – they fell short on delivering on their promises and, overall, my experience with these was a non-starter.  Leave a comment below with your experience! Is this your go-to natural nail product?

Geometric French

 

1 coat of OPI Pink of Hearts with 1 coat of China Glaze White on White + striping tape

 

 

Rare and Radiant

For this design I used one of the holograph polishes from the China Glaze New Bohemian Collection.  It’s called “Rare and Radiant”, and is a beautiful green with a gold aspect to it. On the ends I sponged Brucci “Coco Netty” and then, when that was dry, Wet N Wild “435E” which is a very faint gold color with gold glitter.  (I am 99% sure they no longer manufacture these colors.) Then I stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM-316 and the Konad Special Stamping Polish in “Black”.

Wear test – Gelish Top it off vs. RNP top coat

In response to a co-worker’s question about 1) using gel top coat on RNP and 2) the wear time of that vs. RNP top coat, I conducted a wear test on these products for one week.  Here are the results, and they’re pretty much what you would have expected…

Products:

On my right hand (left hand in the above pic)-

• Beauty Secrets base coat (Sally Beauty Brand)
• OPI “You’re A Doll” on pink, ring and pointer fingers, stamped (I can’t remember what I used to stamp)
• OPI “Brand New Skates” on the middle finger
• Kiss Colors “Soft Gray” topped with China Glaze “Haute Metal” on the thumbs
• Gelish Top it Off

On my left hand-

•  Beauty Secrets base coat (Sally Beauty Brand)
• OPI “You’re A Doll” on pink, ring and pointer fingers, stamped
• OPI “Brand New Skates” on the middle finger
• Kiss Colors “Soft Gray” topped with China Glaze “Haute Metal” on the thumbs
• Palladio Top Coat

Method:

I gave myself a manicure with RNP per the above and allowed it to dry overnight.  Approximately 10-12 hours after the manicure I applied RNP top coat to the nails on my left hand and gel top coat to the right. As you can see, I experienced no crinkling or warping of the RNP under the gel top coat.  I believe application was successful because I allowed the RNP to cure sufficiently before applying gel top coat. I did not do any maintenance to the manicure for 1 week. Note that, early on in the week, I had an unfortunate run-in with a Tupperware container and bent but did not break the pointer and middle finger nails on the right hand. This caused some chipping on the right middle fingernail that otherwise would not have been so pronounced.  Also, I broke the Tupperware container lid!

Results:

As you can see, wear was slightly worse on the nail tips on my right hand, though there was tip wear on both hands. This was to be expected since I am right-handed.  Overall both manicures were durable with minimal tip wear for the 7 day test period.  Gel top coat appears to have performed only slightly better than regular top coat would over RNP.

Final thoughts:

To answer the questions posed at the beginning of this post: 1) Yes, you can apply gel top coat over and RNP manicure, provided that you allow the RNP to cure for several hours first. 2) Gel top coat performed slightly better than regular top coat did (especially if you take into consideration the Tupperware container incident). Gel top coat is also more flexible than RNP top coat.  I wonder if the chipping caused by the incident would have been as bad if the whole manicure on my right hand had been gel.

If you don’t want to stop using RNP or are interested in getting slightly longer wear with your RNP, I would recommend trying a gel top coat with it.  However, you can’t expect it to be as good as the wear time you would get with a gel manicure.  For that reason I would suggest that, if you’re not heavily invested in RNP, start transitioning to gel polish… unless you like changing your RNP every couple days to match your outfit, mood, occasion, etc.  If you’re looking for 1 week+ wear time, gel is the way to go.

Precious Metals

This is Dashing Diva Design FX in Precious Metals on the middle nails + China Glaze Magnetix II Gold Fusion on the others. I used the grid pattern on Magnetix II magnet.

I’m conducting a wear test on the Dashing Diva Design FX, and this is day 1.  On day 1 I did some typing, light cleaning, and cooking/cleanup.  Dashing Diva claims that you can get up to two weeks of wear from these if you use their gel topcoat. I applied the decal then one coat of Gelish Foundation followed by one coat of Top It Off, and I want to see if I can get through at least a week with these.