Mixing OPI axxium sculpture gel with axxium soak off gel lacquer..

[Just Stace]

Can you do this to create colorful sculptured gel designs? If yes, how so? I just started using the system and I love it but am very confused at how to create sculptured gel nail designs with color. This is probably a stupid question, but any help would be very much appreciated!!!

 

[Snuggles]

I have done a gel extension before then added the opi colours to the tip and swirled them together then sealed in top coat looked lovely

 

[Paul Bryson]

Can you do this to create colorful sculptured gel designs? If yes, how so? I just started using the system and I love it but am very confused at how to create sculptured gel nail designs with color. This is probably a stupid question, but any help would be very much appreciated!!!

Don't do it.

There is an inescapable tradeoff between making a gel layer thick (eg for sculpting), versus making it highly colored. You can't have both, because the more colorants are added, the more UV light is blocked. Intensely colored gels can ONLY be applied thin -- otherwise the UV light will not penetrate and you'll have undercuring, which can cause product failure and can also expose the customer to the sensitizing effects of uncured acrylates leaching out onto the skin.

So please do NOT mix sculpting gel with colored soakoff gel. It's just as dangerous as mixing gel with nail polish, and for exactly the same reasons.

PS... You can certainly apply colored soakoff gel OVER a sculpted gel, as long as you cure each layer properly in turn. Just don't mix them up before applying.

 

[Just Stace]

Don't do it.

There is an inescapable tradeoff between making a gel layer thick (eg for sculpting), versus making it highly colored. You can't have both, because the more colorants are added, the more UV light is blocked. Intensely colored gels can ONLY be applied thin -- otherwise the UV light will not penetrate and you'll have undercuring, which can cause product failure and can also expose the customer to the sensitizing effects of uncured acrylates leaching out onto the skin.

So please do NOT mix sculpting gel with colored soakoff gel. It's just as dangerous as mixing gel with nail polish, and for exactly the same reasons.

PS... You can certainly apply colored soakoff gel OVER a sculpted gel, as long as you cure each layer properly in turn. Just don't mix them up before applying.

Paul, thank you so much for your help it is very much appreciated. Are your comments just for the Axxium system in general or all? Because I have seen some tutorials where a clear (i'm assuming builder) gel is applied to the natural nail and form, then immediately before curing there is colored gel and glitter gel applied (for design), that entire layer is then cured, and third layer of clear gel is applied and cured. Any thoughts on that?

Also would mixing glitter have the same effect as previously stated with using the soak off color? Again thank you very much.

 

[Paul Bryson]

. Are your comments just for the Axxium system in general or all? Because I have seen some tutorials where a clear (i'm assuming builder) gel is applied to the natural nail and form, then immediately before curing there is colored gel and glitter gel applied (for design), that entire layer is then cured, and third layer of clear gel is applied and cured. Any thoughts on that?

It would be safer to cure one layer at a time. The colored layer will block some of the UV from the clear layer below it, resulting in potential undercure.

. Also would mixing glitter have the same effect as previously stated with using the soak off color? Again thank you very much.

Somewhat less, but still... anything that blocks light can reduce cure. Some glitters are more transparent than others to the naked eye but you'd need lab measurements to determine if the UV was really being blocked or not. Some things that look clear to our eyes, can block UV light, so you can't just go by whether the glitter flakes look clear.

It would be safer to just buy a factory made glitter gel.