After prepping with a base coat, apply one to two coats of a sheer, jelly polish to each nail. Allow time to dry.
Congratulations, you have just created your very own custom jelly nail polish. Apply two to three coats of the stuff atop your base coat before finishing off with a thin layer of top coat for a subtle glassy sheen.
3 thin coats is better than 2 thick ones.
This is especially true when working with gel polish. The thicker the application, the less the LED or UV light can travel through it to cure it properly. Resulting in premature peeling and all that hard work of yours will have gone to waste.
Nail technicians recommend at least two coats of color, but the more you do, the more opaque your application. Don't worry if the first one looks streaky -- thin layers will do the job better than thick uneven ones. Cure your polish in between each coat, placing your nails under the lamp for at least 30 seconds each.
Jin Soon, a NYC-based manicurist, recommends up to three coats of nail polish for full color coverage and a smooth, finished look. "If you apply more than three coats in one sitting, the application will be prone to clumping off in one piece, almost like a shell" she says.
We strongly advise against double top coating as with the non-wipe nature of the top coats; a second layer will peel off due to having no tacky layer to adhere too.
Although gel manicures can be beautiful and long-lasting, they can be tough on nails. Gel manicures can cause nail brittleness, peeling and cracking, and repeated use can increase the risk for skin cancer and premature skin aging on the hands.
If the gel polish has been applied too thick, it makes it difficult for your UV lamp to fully penetrate the colour and thus cannot effectively cure the polish in all of its layers. This results in a top layer of gel polish that appears wrinkled, bubbled, or lumpy.
However, if you over-cure this layer of polish, its stickiness decreases and becomes brittle. Even worse is that the hard surface won't be affected by acetone when you try removing the product from your nails. To avoid over-curing your gel base coat, only expose it to the LED lamp for 45 seconds.
Dr. Summe also advised limiting polish wear to 1 or 2 weeks max, and taking breaks in between applications. "Any more [than the 1-2 weeks] and you may get white marks on the nails called keratin granulations," she said.
To air-dry nail polish, there are many fast-dry nail polish formulas and topcoats that enable drying within minutes. But depending on how many coats of nail polish are applied (one coat will dry faster than two to three or more), it can take up to two hours for nails to completely air dry.
It's recommended that you give your nails at least two weeks between each gel manicure or switch up the type of manicure you get, like regular polish or dip powder. If you begin to experience discoloration, brittleness, or pain around the nail beds, it's time for a break, so it doesn't lead to nail damage long term.
Waiting for your nails to dry can feel like forever and we get it, you have things to do. But the good news is, you'll only need a 2-minute drying time between coats. This works perfectly every time. These 120 seconds are crucial for your manicure so that the coats dry perfectly.
My gel polish is tacky, is this normal? Yes, your gel will be slightly tacky to the touch after you have cured each coat. This is so that the next coat can properly adhere to the previous one. Once you have applied your Top Coat, you will need to wipe with cleanser to remove the tacky layer to finish your manicure.
Sometimes this is a top coat formula and lamp compatibility issue - or that you just need to cure the top coat for longer. Another possibility is that you've wiped the first layer of liquid gel polish with alcohol - which reduces the adhesion of the top coat to the previous coat.
Gel polish tends to be sticky after curing due to the presence of a sticky layer, also known as the inhibition layer. This layer is created during the curing process to help the gel properly adhere to your nails. To remove the sticky residue, you need to wipe your nails with a gel nail cleanser or isopropyl alcohol.
When you don't cap the free edge of your nails when applying gel polish, it can lead to peeling. This is because the uncapped edges of your nail become exposed to air and quickly break down. As they dry out, they will start to chip away at the polish, causing it to come off in patches and strips.
“We highly recommend using shellac polish versus your typical gel polish because they soak off easier and are less damaging to the nails during the soak-off process,” Dunne says.
One of the most obvious problems you'll notice is that the polished surface of the nail will come out uneven. This generally happens if you apply too much of the base gel. If you lay too much onto your nail, it will glob up in certain parts of the nail, and it will be impossible to fully smooth out.
While people can safely have gel nails every few weeks, dermatologists recommend keeping the nails bare for at least 1–2 weeks in between manicures. This helps to strengthen, repair, and rehydrate the nails.
In the first week of a gel manicure, you probably won't notice much of a gap between your nail bed and the bottom of your gels, as your nail growth will be minimal (in some cases, less than a millimetre). By week two, however, it may be time to get your manicure touched up.
To quickly remove gel polish, most nail salons applying acetone-soaked cotton balls directly to your nails and wrap them in aluminum foil. If residual polish isn't easily removable after a 10 minute waiting period, your local nail salon may also opt to use professional tools, like a nail drill, for a clean finish.