Buffing acrylics vs polishing them?

[Penn]

What advice do you all have for making brilliantly shiny acrylic enhancements? Most technicians around me just polish with gel top coat, instead of buffing the enhancements to a shine. It seems preferable to just buff them to me, to avoid the added product, but when I try to buff acrylic enhancements it takes a lot of work, and I tend to end up needing to buff the nail longer than I'd like, creating more heat than I'd like to on a client's hand.

What advice do you all have for buffing acrylics with less work, or should I just give in to the gel trend and start doing it that way?

(Also, thank you all so much. I've learned so much from all of you.)

 

[pure]

I think natural buffed enhancements look beautiful and natural, far more so than gel, even though I use both methods.

The best thing you can do to speed things up it get yourself a quality buffer. Remember to work your way through the grits so the file gets gradually finer and finer until you're at the buffer. When I do this it takes maybe a minute or two at the most longer than a gel top coat so it's not long.

 

[CocoAllure]

Which buffer do you use? I use the CND glossing block and it doesn't take me longer than 30 seconds each nail

 

[Penn]

Which buffer do you use? I use the CND glossing block and it doesn't take me longer than 30 seconds each nail

I use a white block buffer, and then a simple three way one, but it seems to take ages. Maybe I just need to practice more. Probably that.