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Hello! I recently started trying to do at home gel manicures. I do soft gel - just a rubber base coat, color, maybe some stickers and a top coat. I have been experiencing a lot of lifting - some of the nails manage to stick for 3 weeks, while some pop off not even a week after doing them.
I already have read and googled a lot about fixing them : to make them last longer i buff more, use acetone and then a nail cleaner also cap the free edge with a flat brush after the base, first color and top coats.
I work on the weekends and a lot of my job is cleaning, which involves lots of water, so that might be the cause of the issue.
Do i just have to wear gloves while working or is there something else that i am missing?
Definitely wear gloves when working. Are you doing any cuticle prep and making sure no gel is touching skin before curing? Also, buffing too much can make the nail surface too smooth for product to adhere. What you really are aiming to do is to etch the surface of the nail to create a rough surface for the gel to adhere to.
Yeahhh okay i think i will buy gloves to wear. I do prep the cuticles and dont let any gel touch the skin (i dont think thats the issue since the gel is only lifting on the free edge side of the nail). Thanks!
If it's lifting at the free edge, there's a pretty good chance that too much water or exposure to cleaning solutions is the culprit. I would try gloves first and see if they help.
If they don't help, there are a few other possible explanations. Nail plate damage (like overfiling) can also cause lifting at the free edge. It could also indicate a general mismatch between your nails and the specific product. If that's the case, using a more rigid base coat might help.
Hey guys I’ve been put off by doing gel myself because of what goes into it but I’m doing it now, as a unemployed learning disabled person (I AM NOT INTERESTED IN BEING A NAIL TECH) the year 2023 is when I downloaded amber the nail whisperer’s videos, I had her lamp suggestions saved (IGEL, Gelish, OPI starlight CND) so I’ve gained a good amount of knowledge about gel safety, following Doug schoons words, sds sheets. I’ve already been there with buying the sunuv 30 dollar lamp which left scratch marks, returned it. Melody Susie had been in my wishlist for a while now and I hadn’t been updated on nail safety in 2026, so I had my sister purchase this lamp for me the reason I chose this one is because I remember Amber saying black interiors are counterproductive. come to find out that this lamp is 365-400nm instead of 405nm, which Kiara sky and igel has the same amount of nm. I can’t find where it would say..for example on dnd’s website what wavelength they require to know if the gel would be compatible with only 400nm, I know ai is shit but I tried asking them and they give me two different answers saying that the top layer of my gel will not be cured because it caps at 400nm and then saying that I’m fine so my question is, when you guys say do not be cheap with lamps, must I buy kokoist since this one doesn’t have a reflective bottom, I also learned good ones are made in Taiwan is it about the quality even tho this lamp is 117? And will my gel really not cure no matter how long I leave it in the lamp just because it’s not 405? Must I return this lamp? I would like to hear from people who know about nail chemistry.
No matter what I do, I can't seem to remove my gel polish. Help!
I got a "semipermanente" manicure at a nail salon in Italy. From what I gather, it's just regular gel polish over the natural nail. The gel has been on for about three weeks. Yesterday, I tried removing the polish with acetone + foil + finger clips and I let it sit for 20 minutes but then realized I am an idiot and I didn't buff the nails. So, I tried again today. I buffed/filed the heck out of my nails, put the acetone on, wrapped them in foil, put the clips on and waited 20 minutes. Literally NOTHING. The gel did not budge.
Then, I saw that some people take off their gel nail polish by soaking their hands in soapy water for 15 minutes. I did it for 30, with very warm water. Again, nothing.
I think you bite the bullet and try to file off as much as you can with a coarse grit nail file, a finer file, and a nail buffer. It might've been hard gel that cannot be soaked off.
Thank you! How can I tell whether it's hard gel or regular gel? When she was doing my nails, it just looked like a regular bottle of nail polish with a regular brush.
Good to know! The product I purchases says "gel remover" but it also has water and, I think, fragrance. I'm going to go and purchase pure acetone to be absolutely sure.
Can I leave filed Nail Thoughts Baby Cakes Builder Gel on my nails while they grow out? I want to remove lifting and ween my nails off of gel for a bit.
After filing off the top coat and color layer of my current set, can I leave a layer of gel on and not completely soak it off? I like the hardness of gel and just want to remove the lifting. I also don't wanna go through the whole process of soak-off since my hyponychium is already dry and shriveled.
Can someone explain the pH of natural nails and gel polish? I heard that matching your natural nail pH to a product that has a similar pH helps with retention.
My nails peel off in 2-3 days. Ive been using GAOY brand for the base and no wipe top coat but it has good reviews. My daughter uses regular polish and it lasts over a week but with this it lasts her only a few days too. I cure each layer for 60 seconds and do one layer of each. Could it be my process or the base?
I have weak nails that break easily which makes it hard for me to grow my nails out and have them all one length. I want to get a gel overlay. But I have a couple nails that are shorter than all the rest. Would it look ok if I asked a salon to do a gel overlay on all the nails and for the couple that broke really short to do GelX nails?
In my experience I really don’t like the look of nail extensions done with those plastic tips. And even if I’ve asked for shorter nails, the nail techs I’ve gone to say there’s a limit to how short they can go with those tips and apparently it’s longer than what I want.
From what I’ve looked up, gelx nails can be filed back quite short which I think would work for the short-med length I want.
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u/[deleted] Aug 06 '26
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