Brisa not curing?

[alpina]

Hopefully someone can help me with this one, sorry it's a bit long.

I've started having problems with my gel over the last few weeks. I often do a UV top coat over L&P nails and have had a few clients take their nails out of the lamp and found smudges on their nails. At first I assumed they had touched the nails before I applied the UV coat. When this happened I just buffed the smudged nails and reapplied the gel coat, they seemed fine after this.

I did a full set of gel nails last week (It's the first full set I have done in a few months) and they had all fallen off or were lifting severely within a few days. My prep was the same as for L&P and this particular client never has any problems with her L&P nails.

Today I have done a set of L&P on myself with a Gel topcoat and the gel doesn't seem to have cured properly at all. It feels a bit rubber-like, and I can scratch it off in places. It also looks streaky, like it's only on in patches and feels rough.

Does this mean it's time to replace my bulbs, or could the problem be with the actual product? Sorry if this is a really stupid question but I've never had to replace product or bulbs before so I don't really know how to tell:o

 

[soriminah]

Probably the bulbs need replacing by the sound of it.

 

[mrsbrooks34]

Hi, Im new to gel (only did my course this week) but I know the gel has to be a certain temperature to work properly. I know myself that my room is very cold and I have to wait til it's around 23degrees before I'll get my gel to work properly......just a thought.

 

[izzidoll]

Are you using the Brisa lamp? If the bulbs need changing it has an indicator light to tell you.
You do need to use the Brisa lamp with Brisa Gel otherwise you can get service breakdown like this.

 

[alpina]

Sorry my original post wasn't clear, I was typing in a hurry.

I do use a brisa lamp, but the light is still green so that's why I'm not sure. I was reading some old posts about the bulbs needing to be replaced sometimes before the indicator light comes on. My lamp is about a year and a half old, but it only does about two sets per day. Is it possible that the bulbs will need replacing before the indicator light comes on? Or is the problem more likely to be something else?

I've never heard that about the gel needing to be a certain temperature before, but that won't be the problem. 23 degrees is COLD for me. I'm working in 40 degree temperatures.

 

[iam34ouch]

You may not necessarily need to change the bulbs since you obviously don't use it much - try taking your bulbs out and cleaning them with a soft dry cloth and put them back in, then do a test nail on yourself and see if that works. I find with all the filing you do in the presence of your lamp that the bulbs can get very dirty (even if they look clean) and then they start acting as if they need to be replaced when in fact they only need a little cleaning. Hope this helps, good luck - better to try this first before putting out all that money for new bulbs

 

[Carmen]

What are the steps you're doing up until the point you apply your top coat? Are you buffing the l+p? Or, just shaping it with a file? If so, what grit of file are you using?

I know you've been doing nails for a while so I doubt this is it but, I was thinking, maybe the surface is too smooth for the top coat to adhere to.

When you say it's patchy, the first thing I thought of was maybe there were oils or something on the enhancement before you top coated it. I know that would definitely give it a smudgy look and the gel wouldn't adhere.

But, it's strange that your client had a set of gels that were lifting and came off. Has she been ok with gel in the past or have you only done l+p on her?

 

[alpina]

Oil on the nail plate was my first thought when this started happening, but I've ruled this out by testing the gel on my nails too.

When applying finishing gel over L&P I always finish with a 180grit, remove dust then apply gel finishing coat.

I gave my bulbs a good clean today and this has improved the problem but not fixed it entirely. I did some other tests with a brand new bottle of UV finishing gel and possibly my usual finishing gel is spoiled.

I've done a test gel nail on myself with my usual products to see how it lasts, and will be replacing my bulbs tomorrow.

The client with the nails that came off has only ever had L&P before and without a single problem. I know some people aren't able to wear gel successfully, but I'm more inclined to suspect the bulbs or product due to the problems I've had with the finishing gloss too.

My gel products are about a year and a half old also, does anyone know the shelf life of brisa gel? Hopefully with the new bulbs and new finishing gloss I shouldn't have any more problems though.

 

[lilled]

You may not necessarily need to change the bulbs since you obviously don't use it much - try taking your bulbs out and cleaning them with a soft dry cloth and put them back in, then do a test nail on yourself and see if that works. I find with all the filing you do in the presence of your lamp that the bulbs can get very dirty (even if they look clean) and then they start acting as if they need to be replaced when in fact they only need a little cleaning. Hope this helps, good luck - better to try this first before putting out all that money for new bulbs

What do you use for cleaning the bulbs?

I have the exact same problem, and have tried just about everything. It seems that the gel used building the nails cure fine, but when I remove the sticky layer after curing finish with the UV finishing gloss, it seems like I whipe some of the gloss off as well. Some of the nails are just fine, but one some of the nails are filing marks still exposed...
I have tried with a new UV gloss - no change, I have tried with new bulbs in my old lamp (although the indicator light is still green) - no change, I have borrowed another lamp (only been used for 6 months, and with a green indicator lamp)... Both gel and lamps are original Brisa.
The last I can come up with are that ScrubFresh can get old and "change cemistry" or that my pads (also CND) are too coarse...

Any thoughts?
I will try cleaning the bulbs though...