Gel polish manicure

Gellux gel polish is a gel that is applied like a polish over your natural nail length. They set under a UV light, so no waiting time for them to dry. These advertise as 15 days no chip or peel on average, so fab for a holiday or wedding. I have a lot of clients who manage one month without chipping them.

There are a small number of people who just don’t suit gel polish. It’s a porous product, so not as strong as the hard gels on the market. If you have an oily nail bed for example or have damaged your nail bed due to poor removal of gel/acrylic in the past the gel just doesn’t bond as well. Also if you have a high impact job that involves you using your hands and nails regularly and/or contacts with chemicals you may suit the hard gel overlays instead.

I don’t believe in buffing your natural nail bed in order to make the surface gritty. The Gellux fast bond is so effective this isn’t needed and means no damage is done to your natural nail. I use alcohol (Gellux prep/wipe) to prep the nail bed, which removes any oils and allows better bonding. Alcohol also removes any bacteria from getting trapped under the gel polish which may cause an infection.

It’s important to always follow my after-care advice carefully. Never use your nails as tools and wear gloves while using detergents. As it’s a soft gel, and porous, chemicals can penetrate the gel polish causing it to lift. Which is great when you come to remove them as it can take as little as 15 minutes to take them off. It’s extremely important for them to be removed correctly as it can damage your nail if they are picked off. I use acetone to remove the gel polish in my beauty salon, however gently buffering off the colour and leaving the base coat to naturally grow out is the ideal way. Never buff your natural nail.

There are a number of different gel polishes on the market like Harmony Gelish, Salon System Gellux, Orly, SensatioNail, Shellac, OPI, Sally Hansen, Mally, ibd. They are all the same type of product and applied the same way or very similarly, just different brands.

Norwich based beauty salon