You won't benefit if you practise with a different product! I just completed my CND training and had bought INKs acrylink trial kit to test but I didn't try it till after I'd finished my course. Each systems products are different and have their own pros and cons but if you're training with NSI then you need to get to grips with ratios, consistency, set times etc with that in order to fully understand and grasp the acrylic process, which isn't easy. No good quality brand is cheap, but then we're not training to be cheap nail techs! Stick with it and before long you will reap the benefits (and the cost!) x