Starting out - advice please?

[Fran_a89]

Hi there,

I am now about to start out just offering manicures and pedicures (mainly gel polish) I feel i have got a bit stuck with all of my deliberations on products and need to start making decisions as I actually want to make a go of this and in the long term have a total career change.

I've been doing my own gel nail polish for a while and have also done accredited courses for manicure, pedicure and gel polish.

It started mainly as a hobby so have several Red Carpet Manicure polishes but I'm trying to decide on a gel polish brand that is more commercial such as Geleration or Gelish. I have tried one of each myself and find both good- I've searched a lot on here but wondered if anyone has any thoughts on these two products and what you think is better? It's such a minefield and I will continue to read old posts!

I also tried OPI as I love their normal polishes but I really found it the gel version hard to get off!

I feel that rather than go and buy loads of things I need to pick a brand and really master it. (Id also plan to then do their training)

Any advice please?

 

[KimH90]

I use CND Shellac and love it, so do my customers. Great range of products, easy to remove and looks fab!

 

[Fran_a89]

I use CND Shellac and love it, so do my customers. Great range of products, easy to remove and looks fab!

Thank you- I Have noticed a lot of people on here use it, will have to research it further as I hadn't consider e it as thought it's quite different to other gels?

 

[JERSEY JOCK]

I don't think you can go wrong starting out with Shellac, that's what I did & so glad I did

 

[Fran_a89]

That's interesting thank you. What is the best CND lamp for it?

I already have a small LED lamp but from a quick bit of research it looks as though you need a CND lamp? How does it compare with other gel polishes?

Is there any lamp that I could use with shellac and my existing gel polishes too if I bought a new one?

 

[Anna Ljungberg]

For a full cure, shellac must be used with the accompanying lamp, I've tried using another brand's LED lamp and it really didn't work very well.
Unfortunately it's hard evaluating products without the whole kit, however there is no brand that suits all of us, and any of the brand you are considering would be great, there are a lot of successful techs using gelish, generation, shellac or opi, it just boils down to personal preference. I'd recommend picking up a colour of shellac and try it out on some colour pops, just to get a feel for the consistency, brush etc, before you tare the plunge and buy the whole kit.

Another thing to consider is education, would you want to do a conversion course, and does the chosen brand tick the boxes in this area?

 

[wurlyz18]

I have honestly not got a bad word say about Shellac, its a fantastic product. The only con I found was that there wasn't really a big colour range. I currently use IBD Just gel and the GEL bottle inc, there is a massive choice of colours

 

[Fran_a89]

Thank you, it's so hard to know where to start!

I am leaning towards Gelish but just terrified to take the plunge as I want to do it right from the start. I will have to buy a new lamp at some point too and it's soon all adding up.