Help! Gel top coat pooling in side walls

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*Carly*

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I did my Nubar Gelicure sog training on Tuesday. The set I did on my model in class went well, however, yesterday I did my own set and encountered some problems!

As I have to manoeuvre my hand about quite a bit to do my own, as I was doing this, the top coat moved and flooded into my side walls. I did manage to get most of it out, but had to file a bit of errant top coat away on a couple of nails when they were finished. I felt like it was a losing battle trying to get it out as the longer I spent with an orange stick and brush and moving my nail, the more it kept pooling! I can't keep my hands flat whilst I paint, as otherwise I can't get a good clean line. To top it off, I used black, which required 3 coats and kept shrinking almost as I was painting. I ended up capping the free edge as the last step before curing because it was literally shrinking in front of my eyes within seconds. I also ended up doing the topcoat a couple of nails at a time to try to avoid it going into the side walls. The whole thing ended up taking forever, what with having to cure for 2 mins each time and desperately battling the shrinking and pooling.

My painting skills are good. I am used to normal lacquer and consider myself pretty skilled at painting and not super slow either. I'm also not using a lot of product or flooding with my brush. When I did my model I didn't have this problem, except on one thumb on her left hand which was only because I painted it first and it pooled when I moved her hand to paint the rest of them. This is the only gel brand I've trained in, but I do have some Megamix and tried it a couple of times with the exact same problem, the top coats are thin, runny and level so quickly that they don't stay where I'm putting them. I've seen 3D work done with topcoat and wonder how on earth it's achieved because the 2 I've tried self level so fast!

my model came out fine but I'm worried about these struggles and the fact it ended up taking forever!

Here's a couple of pics. Overall I'm pleased with the end result but wish I didn't struggle so much to get there.

Please help! I'm feeling really deflated and don't know what I'm doing wrong or how to fix it.



 
The end result looks lovely :)

Dry brushing the basecoat after curing can help stop the colour shrinking, as can really shaking your colour bottle well and also stirring darker colours with an orange stick to get a thorough mix. Apply very thin layers a few nails at a time and flash/freeze cure for 10 seconds before going on to the others and then cure the whole hand for the full amount of time.
My nails have a very dramatic C Curve naturally, so my topcoat can pool when I turn my hand, but I freeze/flash cure the same as when applying colour, and apply very very thin, as some topcoats, like you say are really really runny. Hope that helps x
 
I think your only recourse is to flash cure after each one or two nails.
 
Aw thanks Fee! I love them, just wish I hadn't encountered any issues! Really knocked my confidence.

Thank you both so much. I too have a really dramatic c curve which obviously encourages the pooling. Flash curing seems the way to go! Wish my lamp had a pause button, it's shortest setting is 90 seconds!

I shook the black, stirred it and had it sat upside down for a while before I started. It literally was shrinking within seconds, so frustrating! Def gonna give dry brushing the basecoat a go and get my flash curing on! I have heard the Gelicure black can be a bit tricky and I had no shrinkage at all with the colour my model chose.

I was feeling like a right failure but I think it is the whole c curve and turning my hand so much, which flash curing should fix.

Thanks so much. Now I gotta wait a couple weeks before trying again! Xxx
 

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