OPI gel polish

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littlemoo95

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Hi All,

I was wondering what your professional opinions are on the Brand OPI and what you think of the nails polishes and gel polishes?

Many thanks!
 
OPI is probably the second best brand after CND, but I only say that because of good marketing. There's no way to know if their products cure properly unlike CND.
 
Personally I’ve used opi gels in the past but wasn’t left wow’d by it. It was ok. I did like some of the top coat shimmer/glitter effect bottles but for standard colours was never really left feeling impressed tho I do know they are still popular. I have a lot of their normal polishes though. I was always a big fan of their glitters
 
I used OPI nail lacquer for many years and always liked their iconic colours. I now use primarily OPI GelColors and I like it very much. The colors are excellent, very stable, and buildable. They have a number of interesting topcoat special effects. The base coat is hybrid and that makes for easy removal, especially if you use Expert Touch remover. Wear time is also very good - I usually get 2-3 weeks on my own nails and I am very hard on my nails. They also have very good customer service and training/education - second only to CND on this point. But it is not hypoallergenic like CND Shellac - although hypoallergenic does not have a legal definition.

BTW, disregard what tuan has to say about this - OPI's R&D division alone is bigger than all of CND and the product is well researched and leapfrogged over CND when it was introduced (largely because CND was so slow in developing an LED cured polish). Of course they cure properly - and their lamps are quite good. That said, OPI nail polishes are one of the most counterfeited products worldwide, so make sure you buy from a reputable source.
 
BTW, disregard what tuan has to say about this - OPI's R&D division alone is bigger than all of CND and the product is well researched and leapfrogged over CND when it was introduced (largely because CND was so slow in developing an LED cured polish). Of course they cure properly - and their lamps are quite good. That said, OPI nail polishes are one of the most counterfeited products worldwide, so make sure you buy from a reputable source.

OPI does have a good research department. I agree on that. But is it better and larger than CND? I would say no. One of the employees who worked for CND went to work for OPI and became head researcher.

I don't know exactly who came out with their gel polish first but I will say this, Shellac is a hybrid. Its half gel half polish which makes removal easier. OPI is a true gel. That makes it harder to remove. If Shellac came second after OPI gel color, its because of that product development time. CND takes not damaging the clients nails very seriously. And if you want true gels, Creative play is a true gel and its alot stronger than OPI Gel Color but removal time is 20 minutes.

And as for OPI lamp. Its a very nice lamp. But sadly it does not cure their product well. If you don't believe me, I actually spoke to them about this and they said that they have been working on a fix. There was also a ton of reviews by techs complaining about the cure.
 
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But sadly it does not cure their product well. If you don't believe me, I actually spoke to them about this and they said that they have been working on a fix.

You've mentioned this a couple of times now, I'd be interested in seeing actual evidence of this claim, both that their lamp doesn't cure properly and/or they are working on a fix.

Im not interested in on-line tech chatter, or googling for evidence of unhappy techs, I'd like to see links to OPI responses and/or screen shots of emails/messages/whatever method this conversation took.
 
You've mentioned this a couple of times now, I'd be interested in seeing actual evidence of this claim, both that their lamp doesn't cure properly and/or they are working on a fix.

Im not interested in on-line tech chatter, or googling for evidence of unhappy techs, I'd like to see links to OPI responses and/or screen shots of emails/messages/whatever method this conversation took.
Link to the reviews. https://www.opi.com/shop-products/pro-tools/led-light. This was about 2 years ago and I even left a review.

I bought the lamp when it first came out and had high hopes for the OPI brand. But I ended up giving it away and stuck to CND. I spoke to them on the phone about this problem and they even admit that their lamps were not curing correctly and that they were hiring someone to fix it. It wasn't OPI directly but a third part company that took calls for OPI. I don't have recording of that convo so you'll just have to take my word for it. I don't believe they have fixed the problem because it would simply be too expensive for them. Their proposed way to fix it was to raise the thumb closer but I think its much more complicated than that.
 
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It seems it may have been a design issue?

There was never any issues with the OPI Studio LED lamp curing. However they did upgrade that lamp to include a fan as they were quite warm, which would have been more expense to remodel but I think it’s unfair to say OPI don’t listen to their clients in this respect.
 
Link to the reviews. https://www.opi.com/shop-products/pro-tools/led-light. This was about 2 years ago and I even left a review.

I bought the lamp when it first came out and had high hopes for the OPI brand. But I ended up giving it away and stuck to CND. I spoke to them on the phone about this problem and they even admit that their lamps were not curing correctly and that they were hiring someone to fix it. It wasn't OPI directly but a third part company that took calls for OPI. I don't have recording of that convo so you'll just have to take my word for it. I don't believe they have fixed the problem because it would simply be too expensive for them. Their proposed way to fix it was to raise the thumb closer but I think its much more complicated than that.

Thanks for the link, certainly some very unhappy people. Last review was 6 months ago, would be interested in new reviews. @Jordon has linked to a newer one from the new lamp which is encouraging.

Incorrect thumb cure is not unusual across many lamps, several times I've seen suggestions of curing thumbs seperately. Can I assume it cured the rest of the fingers correctly?
 
Thanks for the link, certainly some very unhappy people. Last review was 6 months ago, would be interested in new reviews. @Jordon has linked to a newer one from the new lamp which is encouraging.

Incorrect thumb cure is not unusual across many lamps, several times I've seen suggestions of curing thumbs seperately. Can I assume it cured the rest of the fingers correctly?
I believe the fix was a new baseplate which raises the thumb a little bit closer. But one can just tell the client to move their thumb closer, if that is the fix at all. The rest of fingers seem to be fine, but im still on the fence about the entire lineup of products. The thing is that the time when that lamp came out, OPI released OPI Pro health gel, which they discontinued due to so many lifting problems.

I have very high doubts about their engineers who created their lamp because I believe gel lamp engineering is a very niched profession. I might go over to OPI headquarters one of these days and speak to the research facility to see what they are doing. But they are a direct competitor to CND so idk. Its about a 27hr drive from Missouri to California.
 
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OPI does have a good research department. I agree on that. But is it better and larger than CND? I would say no. One of the employees who worked for CND went to work for OPI and became head researcher.

I don't know exactly who came out with their gel polish first but I will say this, Shellac is a hybrid. Its half gel half polish which makes removal easier. OPI is a true gel. That makes it harder to remove. If Shellac came second after OPI gel color, its because of that product development time. CND takes not damaging the clients nails very seriously. And if you want true gels, Creative play is a true gel and its alot stronger than OPI Gel Color but removal time is 20 minutes.

And as for OPI lamp. Its a very nice lamp. But sadly it does not cure their product well. If you don't believe me, I actually spoke to them about this and they said that they have been working on a fix. There was also a ton of reviews by techs complaining about the cure.

You made three statements - all false.
The size of the R&D department is easily verified. OPI's is bigger than CND. OPI in general is a much larger company than CND. CND is professional focused, while OPI has professional and consumer lines

CND came out with Shellac in 2010 as a UV gel lacquer (Gelish was first in 2009). It was a hybrid requiring the evaporation of solvents AND photocuring to harden. In the ensuring years, even as everyone else was moving to LED cured gel polishes, CND did not because it required an overhaul of their unique photoinitiators, which was the basis of their hypoallergenic claim. OPI brought out GelColors in 2012 with an LED cure, leapfrogging over CND. CND Shellac brought out its LED curable Shellac in 2015. All OPI base coats are hybrid. Only the color and top coats are pure gel. Since it is the base coat that is critical in terms of easy removal, OPI GelColors release almost as well as CND Shellac, but have much greater durability, lasting 3 weeks or more.

The lamp you refer to is only one of four lamps that OPI has manufactured and the "fix" such as it was, was merely realigning the thumb. And CND has also had big problems with its lamps, particularly the cords. Neither of these facts indicates that either brand has problems with curing. Both OPI and CND and lots of other brands cure properly in the proper lamp.

All of this to say that both CND and OPI are fantastic companies with excellent products. CND does not need your false statements to promote it. Deal in facts.
 
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Thanks for the link, certainly some very unhappy people. Last review was 6 months ago, would be interested in new reviews. @Jordon has linked to a newer one from the new lamp which is encouraging.

Incorrect thumb cure is not unusual across many lamps, several times I've seen suggestions of curing thumbs seperately. Can I assume it cured the rest of the fingers correctly?

I haven’t personally used the newer lamp, I have two of the Studio LED lamp that are still in perfect working order and I can say that they’ve never caused a curing issue for me.

It’s a pretty big claim that an Industry leader are knowingly selling a product that not only doesn’t work but could be dangerous and cause reactions to uncured products. ‍♀️
 

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