I also find that you really have to shake the bottles well especially the darker colours.
Sometimes we say we shake or prep well but like tommo said when you really watch what you are doing you realise perhaps you could do it better.
I findmthe first coat does shrink very slightly the second coat covers fine.
Keep going Hun xxx:hug:
i'm glad this problem has been brought up. The salon where I work uses OPI Gel color exclusively. I had previously used Gelish for two years and never experienced shrinkage, even on dark colors such as black shadow or bella's vamp.
The first OPI Gel manicure I did was big apple red - as soon as I applied the first thin coat I saw it creep back from the tip. I made sure to cap the free edge first with color before doing the whole nail as well. It made no difference. I thought, ok, I'll cure it and perhaps the second coat won't shrink back. It did. I also apply my coats very thin and will usually end up applying three to four coats color. I also noticed that the streakiness you get from the first thin coat was hard to cover with additional coats, if that makes sense. I could still see darker parts and lighter parts of color on the nail.
Now with the gelish system you can dry brush the foundation or base coat which helps any shrinkage (however even if I didn't dry brush the base, I never got shrink back with gelish)... with the OPI Gel Base coat, it doesn't dry tacky, so you can't even try dry brushing.
I tried Vampsterdam on another client. I watched it shrink back before my eyes. The shrinking is occuring prior to cure, by the way. We use the OPI Gel lamp. It is supposed to take 30 seconds to cure each coat of color. Well, it wasn't curing in 30 seconds.. so OPI told our salon chain to cure each coat for 60 seconds, not 30.
Yesterday I did an OPI Gel wine color, muluga wine or something like that. I prepped the nail extremely well (in fact I had to do a gel color removal - which removed like a dream on client first. The client was returning after 5 days due to lifting and peeling, she had been done by another staff member of our salon.
I gently buffed off any shine from the nail plate (gently!). I scrubbed with 99, applied bond aid.. let it dry for about 30 seconds. applied base coat, careful to cap tips and get close to sides without going on skin. All appeared well after cure. Unfortunately when I applied the color coat... it shrunk back! The only way I can explain the way it looks, it was as if the client were wearing nail tips and the tips had not been buffed, so the color wasn't adhering correctly.
I see above that someone mentioned using gelish base and still shrinkage with OPI color. I was getting ready to try that myself. Our salon manager is hard to convince, so I'm thinking of showing her what happens when you apply gelish & gelish color.. and OPI base with OPI color, so she can see the difference for herself. And yes, my clients are noticing that their tips are not being covered. I mean, it's a very very small part..that's shrinking back.. as if you were getting a bit of wear on the tips..
So, I'm not a happy camper right now since we're stuck only using OPI Gel for the manicures. After writing all this, the only thing I can think of, that I have not tried.. is taking a real good look at the tips after the base is cured. It could be the tips are shrinking back w the base coat as well. I wonder if buffing the tips gently.. wiping with alcohol.. and either going ahead with color, or.. putting more base on the tips and curing before the color might help???
I also have problems with the OPI cure times, which is a different topic all together, so if someone can direct me to a link for that, I would appreciate it. I didn't feel the colors were curing (LED) in 30 seconds, so then we were told use 60 seconds for each coat. I did four coats of color, curing each for 60 seconds (or more since I just left the client's hand under the LED light while I did the other hand. I know it was more than 60 seconds since I was able to glance at the digital countdown on top of the lamp...
When I applied the top coat, the brush turned to the color of the polish.. which to me meant.. color coat not cured. I also leave the top coat on for 2 min instead of 60 or 30 seconds, as when I wipe the tacky of the top coat.. the nail is dull.. until I rub in some cuticle oil.
Thanks for reading my agony of the nails, any suggestions would be appreciated - oh and I shake those bottles like crazy.