Gel polish: soak off or file off?

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may.flower

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Which way do you prefer? In my country it varies for nail techs if they file most of the gel polish off and then apply the new color or if they soak it off completely. Many of them say that soaking the nails in acetone every 2 weeks is too harmful.
 
Gel Polish is designed to be soaked off. It removes quickly minimising any over exposure risks. Buffing has the potential for causing damage.
 
The preferred method does seem to vary by country :). But my personal preference is to recommend filing for several reasons:
  • As Doug School has stated multiple times, there are a lot of NT who are damaging the nail plate when soaking off. The nail plate absorbs the acetone and becomes much weaker, so someone who uses a metal or wooden tool to scrape remaining gel polish, will damage the nail plate. Part of the reason for this is ignorance, and part is impatience. Recommended soak off times as a minimum!
  • As a engineer, I can't see the logic to remove a protective cover from the nail plate. Filing allows you to leave this.
  • Most NT learn how to file at school, but of all the NT in industry, how many took a soak-off class? I well remember when GP came onto the market and all the problems and questions at the start. I suspect that even now, many buy GP and don't follow the manufacturers recommended application technique (this ties in with Doug's observations).
 
How to edit posts for spelling correction?
 
How to edit posts for spelling correction?
There’s an edit button on the bottom left of your post if you’re viewing the main site.

On the app if you select your post, do you have a spanner symbol at the top of the page? Not sure if that’s just a moderator function I’m afraid but it allows me to edit.
 
Hi Pure, I am not seeing this on my desktop (Mac). Bottom left I have "Report" and on the right side "Like" and "Reply"

When I create the post, I have "Remove Formatting" with an eraser symbol, and a spanner symbol "Use BB code editor". But when the post is posted, these are not visible.
 
Hi Pure, I am not seeing this on my desktop (Mac). Bottom left I have "Report" and on the right side "Like" and "Reply"

When I create the post, I have "Remove Formatting" with an eraser symbol, and a spanner symbol "Use BB code editor". But when the post is posted, these are not visible.
Hmm ok I’ll mention it to the other mods and see if they can work it out.
 
Acetone isn't harmful to the nail when used correctly. It can dry out the nails, but you can always use solar oil to counteract that.

I recommend wrapping. Good gels are designed to release from the nails when exposed to acetone. Problems occur when clients have them on for too long or when NT's improperly cure gels. Low quality gels are also hard to remove.

You shouldn't file gels off because its the same as peeling them off. If the gels them self don't release from the nails, then the only way to remove them would be to mechanically pry, which is what filing does. Not only are you peeling the gels, you are also filing off layers of nails. Removing gels this way will make the nails thinner and thinner.
 
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I file off gel polish but ensure that I always place a thin layer of hard gel on the natural nail first. I file off the color but always leave the hard gel as a protective layer. I found removal much faster for me this way than soaking and it uses less materials saving me some cash. What made me change was that a lot of my gel polish clients were choosing light elegance color and glitter gels as their color. These have to be filed off anyways as they are hard gels. So I made the procedure change to use a hard gel base and to file off soft gels too. That way my procedures are the same for color despite the brand and my clients get the colors they want.
 
When soaking off you are always going to get some dehydration to the nail plate. We are using a solvent after all. Removal wraps are a better option to soaking and using a product with oils already within will help minimise the dehydration. Then of course lot's of cuticle oil both in the salon and when the client goes home. Not only would I worry about damage to the natural nail with filing but I am also conscious that this would not be as pleasant for my client. I use Shellac and it is applied relatively thinly so is it too close to the natural nail for my comfort.
 

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