First attempt at Gel - help!!

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julieanne27uk

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Hi,

I had my first attempt at french gel nails last night. I bought a trial kit to give it a go as I usually do L&P. I was brimming with enthusiasm and I managed clear nails with out too much difficulty, but the white tip gel caused me no end of problems.

Everytime I tried to shape the smile line, then pull the brush away, the gel stretched into pointy bits and most of it came away with the brush. Is it always that difficult or am I doing something drastically wrong!? Is there a certain technique of brush use I need to master? The white tip gel was alot thicker than the builder and basecoat gels, is it meant to be? I realise it is my first attempt and cannot expect to master it without a huge amount of practice. Any advice would be appreciated as I now feel disheartened:|

Thanks

Julie
 
julieanne27uk said:
I had my first attempt at french gel nails last night. I bought a trial kit to give it a go as I usually do L&P. I was brimming with enthusiasm and I managed clear nails with out too much difficulty, but the white tip gel caused me no end of problems.

Everytime I tried to shape the smile line, then pull the brush away, the gel stretched into pointy bits and most of it came away with the brush. Is it always that difficult or am I doing something drastically wrong!? Is there a certain technique of brush use I need to master? The white tip gel was alot thicker than the builder and basecoat gels, is it meant to be? I realise it is my first attempt and cannot expect to master it without a huge amount of practice. Any advice would be appreciated as I now feel disheartened:

I don't know what gel you are working with but some are very sticky and do require diferent techniques to produce a successful result. It is not the gel that caused you problems but rather your lack of any training with it ... everyone no matter how experienced has problems with a new system with which they are unfamilliar.

Yes, white gels are thicker than other gels because they have different ingredients in them to make them white!! But they are quite easy to handle when you know how. Did you receive a training video to help you??

You cannot sweep a brush across a gel and expect it not to move ... and when you lift your brush your product will look like merangues if you do not use an extremely light touch on the surface of the gel. A class would (as always) be beneficial to you. There are ways of making that smile line perfect and a demonstration would benefit you.

There is no need to be disheartened especialy as you acknowledge that you need a llot of practice ... but practice after you have been shown ... this makes much more sense.
 
Thanks for the reply. When I did my training at college, we did touch on clear gel nails for a couple of lessons, but specialised in L&P. It's quite a while ago now so I'm afraid I've forgotten most of the info we learnt because I didn't use gel.

I have an NSI Light Fantastic trial kit, but don't have an instruction video. I think you are right, that I need to do a training course to be shown the correct application method. I am currently doing the essential nails airbrushing course. When I have finished that I will look into gel courses. I have a bad habit of wanting to try everything at once and should really have waited to finish my airbrushing certificate before starting gel. Curiosity got the better of me when my gel trial kit arrived!

Has anyone done a gel training course that they could recommend?
 
julieanne27uk said:
Thanks for the reply. When I did my training at college, we did touch on clear gel nails for a couple of lessons, but specialised in L&P. It's quite a while ago now so I'm afraid I've forgotten most of the info we learnt because I didn't use gel.

I have an NSI Light Fantastic trial kit, but don't have an instruction video. I think you are right, that I need to do a training course to be shown the correct application method. I am currently doing the essential nails airbrushing course. When I have finished that I will look into gel courses. I have a bad habit of wanting to try everything at once and should really have waited to finish my airbrushing certificate before starting gel. Curiosity got the better of me when my gel trial kit arrived!

Has anyone done a gel training course that they could recommend?
Hi there,
Give Tracey Stephenson a call at the Waterside Training acadamy on 01482227775 she will give you loads of info and she is a fab trainer!!! by the way she is having an open day on sunday and she is doing demos so if you can get through it would really benefit you!!! (she is based in hull)
Amanda
 
Hi Julie,
If it's any help, try a much lighter, almost frosting action with gel, then it should stay where you put it (hopefully!!! :) ).

luv Sarah x
 
One technique you can try is scoop a generous amount of the white gel onto your brush and paint the tip as if simply painting a french manicure with nail enamel. Cure this for 30 seconds or so just to stop it running then apply the blush or clear gel - this usually works for me! :green:
 
i trained with star nails ages ago and i had the opposite problem, i found their gel too slimey, it just seemed to slip off my brush, since changing to another brand which is a completely different texture i find that if i roll the product off my brush instead of sort of brushing or patting it helps...i also put a blob of gel in place on the nail then i give my brush a quick clean up before doing anything with it as i find if there is too much gel on the brush it just seems to be too sticky

stanleyann
 
I do nearly all of my work with gels and the white is always a little tricky to perfect. In my own experience i find that if i try to paint the white as though it were a regular french polish, the smile line doesn't end up straight. What i do is put a more generous amount of white gel on the tip then with my brush perpendicular to the smile line i nudge the gel forward but the actual brush never touches the smile line. In other words, the gel creates the line, this way it is not "wiggly". Then i remove the excess white so that the gel dries completely. With extreme whites, they rarely end up even on the first go so i usually do a second coat this time using hardly any gel so that it doesn't run all over the place and ruin the smile line. If it's still not perfect, before curing i clean my brush and swipe it above the smile line to clean up any unwanted gel.
 
hiya
i'm a die hard l&p gal, & have been for 14 yrs!
so when i recently attended the creative global training, i was excited but sceptical about learning the new brisa gel.
for the 1st day, i ploughed on using my l&p techniques...
& i made merangues-r-us!
it wasn't until i realised that the brush action was almost reverse in a lot of the techniques, that i was able to make decent smile lines.
i.e when using l&p, to smarten up the smile line, a dry brush can b swiped down the smile line & up the other side. it doesn't matter which direction u go in as the product sits still (so to speak!)
with gel u have to start the brush in the centre of the smile & DRAG the brush up gently encouraging the product to cling to the brush & the place the end of the smile line where required. this is repeated bothsides, & after wiping of the excess gel on a lint free pad with some scrub fresh on it, sharpen up the smile.
some of the words that as educators we learnt to assocciate with gel are:

float over the top of.... don't push.
much lighter touch.
drag backwards .... not nudge into.

if u r, like me, very solid with your l&p techniques, u will need to take on board the different "touch" when working with gels.

hope this makes sense!
liza xxx
 
julieanne27uk said:
Hi,

I had my first attempt at french gel nails last night. I bought a trial kit to give it a go as I usually do L&P. I was brimming with enthusiasm and I managed clear nails with out too much difficulty, but the white tip gel caused me no end of problems.

Everytime I tried to shape the smile line, then pull the brush away, the gel stretched into pointy bits and most of it came away with the brush. Is it always that difficult or am I doing something drastically wrong!? Is there a certain technique of brush use I need to master? The white tip gel was alot thicker than the builder and basecoat gels, is it meant to be? I realise it is my first attempt and cannot expect to master it without a huge amount of practice. Any advice would be appreciated as I now feel disheartened:|

Thanks

Julie

Julie, I have a CD-rom with a class I did on sculpting with white gels (sculpting and working with gels in general)
The quality of the cd-rom is not the best and it is in POlish (LOL) but it might be useful to you.
Email me at [email protected]

It does get easier! I LOVE working with gels :)
 
I have a four points which may help.

First: Forget L& P - it is not from the same planet and talks in a different language. Working gel like l&p is like getting a man to ask for directions when he is lost - it won't work!

Second: Remember gel will stick to gel, it will not stick to something that is shiny. So how does this help? OK on a practice tip try getting the gel to stick to an unbuffed tip with your brush all covered in gel - which does it want to stick to? Now try with a buffed tip? Now try applying a very thin coat of gel first and then work your product over the top having wiped your brush first. Understand how to make it work for you. Try prssing onto a bead of gel and then lifting into a string and placing down onto a tackky area - see the line it makes. Twist the brush off not lift.


Three: when you brush over gel, try to brush so the the brush does not spread out - we call this floating your brush over and helps to identify the correct amount of pressure.

Four: Don't panic - gel is not to be rushed. Breathe, stop, turn the hand over to prevent gel running into sidewalls and think for a moment.

This will help you get to know the product.

Hope these points help
 
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