Gel polish brands?

SalonGeek

Help Support SalonGeek:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Bails9

New Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2018
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Location
Michigan
I am just starting to build up my collections and need help finding a good brand of gel polish. I am in the US. I have tried various colors of CND shellac and am not the biggest fan. Any one have other ideas? I don't have a ton of money to put towards it but I still want a quality product. Thanks for any advice!
 
Hey hun, I am a huge fan of IBD Just Gel polishes, great pricing & amazing range of colours! I find they cover great and last well on clients too xx
 
I second ibd Just GEL, I love it, gorgeous range of colours and it’s affordable. I’ve not been doing it long about a year, but the small client base I have get three weeks no chip wear, I normally prefer to remove after two weeks just because most have quite a bit of growth by then.
 
Hiya! I’m just starting out too, I was going to try shellac but trained with gel two. I’m having chipping problems, so need to trouble shoot ASAP.
What is it you don’t like about shellac? Good luck finding a brand best for you, I’m going to shop around a bit too! Xx
 
The most important way to prevent problems is education. Whatever brand you choose, look into the education and support they have to offer. Otherwise you may not maximise your investment. Best of luck!
 
Hiya! I’m just starting out too, I was going to try shellac but trained with gel two. I’m having chipping problems, so need to trouble shoot ASAP.
What is it you don’t like about shellac? Good luck finding a brand best for you, I’m going to shop around a bit too! Xx

For me personally, I am not overly excited about Shellac's colours, and it's mainly good for healthy natural nails. I use CND Brisa gels and Creative Play, but saw no reason to use Shellac over any other brand except the short soak off time - but I only do enhancements (topped with gel polish often) anyway, so I wouldn't be soaking it off anyway, rather I am filing it off.

If you are having chipping problems it could be down to a number of reasons. I will try to list a few things to keep in mind. Hope it helps, let me know if it could be anything like this? :)
Is the natural nail healthy?
Did you buff the natural nail? This will usually lead to chipping because it weakens the nail.
Did you remember to dehydrate, properly cleanse?
Base coat not too thick? Capped the free edge?
Thin coats, not thick? Sealed with topcoat of the same brand?
Cured correctly? As in, you are curing with the correct lamp to the brand you are using? If you are not, then that is maybe the culprit.
Client has her or his hands in water a lot? This would do it, too. Water is such an enemy! I hate it when a few select clients come back with 3-4 nails missing, and I'm wracking my brain trying to figure it out because they insist "it just popped off". Right? Well no. Last time during the service, she accidentally let slip that she had been away and had gone swimming in a chlorine pool every day... and she had told me plainly "no" when I earlier asked whether she'd been exposed to water a lot, since there was no damage on the naked nails. Clients will lie, and they do lie a lot. So it's useful for us to deduce what's going wrong. ;)
 
For me personally, I am not overly excited about Shellac's colours, and it's mainly good for healthy natural nails. I use CND Brisa gels and Creative Play, but saw no reason to use Shellac over any other brand except the short soak off time - but I only do enhancements (topped with gel polish often) anyway, so I wouldn't be soaking it off anyway, rather I am filing it off.

If you are having chipping problems it could be down to a number of reasons. I will try to list a few things to keep in mind. Hope it helps, let me know if it could be anything like this? :)
Is the natural nail healthy?
Did you buff the natural nail? This will usually lead to chipping because it weakens the nail.
Did you remember to dehydrate, properly cleanse?
Base coat not too thick? Capped the free edge?
Thin coats, not thick? Sealed with topcoat of the same brand?
Cured correctly? As in, you are curing with the correct lamp to the brand you are using? If you are not, then that is maybe the culprit.
Client has her or his hands in water a lot? This would do it, too. Water is such an enemy! I hate it when a few select clients come back with 3-4 nails missing, and I'm wracking my brain trying to figure it out because they insist "it just popped off". Right? Well no. Last time during the service, she accidentally let slip that she had been away and had gone swimming in a chlorine pool every day... and she had told me plainly "no" when I earlier asked whether she'd been exposed to water a lot, since there was no damage on the naked nails. Clients will lie, and they do lie a lot. So it's useful for us to deduce what's going wrong. ;)

So so sorry I only just saw this reply! Thank you for taking the time to send me over a few pointers it really means a lot! And also thanks for the insight into shellac. My nail tech uses only shellac and frowns upon me using gel II (rivalry) we joke about it.
I bet you sit there baffled as to why you’re getting a service break down, but once you hear the full story from the client you can breathe a sigh of relief [emoji23]

In response to your trouble shooting questions;

I use all the gel II products, lamp included. On the gel II site it actually recommends buffing the nail and applying French pink as a base coat for better adhesion and prevention of chipping. So I tried it out and it seemed to work. I always keep my coats as thin as possible. With curing times exactly as I was trained to do! I’m trying to be super rigorous and anal with my technique ahah. Also try to be as thorough as possible with cleansing the nail plate.
One thing I may have not been doing thoroughly was rolling/mixing the colours before use. I do try to stir them with a fresh wood stick if they’ve been sat for a while.

I’m getting better the more I use them!

Thanks again for your response. It’s most appreciated. [emoji1317]
 

Latest posts

Back
Top