Gel building is a popular procedure in a nail salon. With its help, you can not only lengthen the nails, but also repair the chipped edge, strengthen the nails and grow a natural length.
Materials for modeling nails are different from design gels. Mostly colored gels have a lacquer component, which makes them soluble. In some cases, this is convenient, but if, together with the design, nail strengthening is required, it does not play a role at all.
The recently appeared gel base, which is part of the gel polish system, takes the middle place between hard gels and soft gel polishes. With it, you can wear strong nails that grow to medium length and even more. But it does not allow elongation, therefore, the previous materials for gel nail extensions are still in demand.
Apply gel with a brush, usually a red sable. The amount of material that it takes depends on the number of the brush. Large brushes - the sixth and eighth number - are used for long lengths. The fourth number is considered the most convenient for building medium length. Thick gels are distributed with a thin brush, barely touching the surface, using the property of the gel to reach for the brush.
Features of gels
Those who consider gel and acrylic to be different materials are mistaken. And one and the other belong to acrylates. Only one polymerizes in air, and the other under the influence of ultraviolet radiation. The introduction of a pigment into the gel reduces its polymerization rate, so white gels usually keep in the lamp for a longer time.
The gel is convenient in that it does not require such a speed as acrylic. Therefore, there is a great variety of them. In addition to hard gels, designed to simulate the free edge of the nail, there are soft ones that achieve excellent wear without chips. This is the rubber gel base: it is not afraid of detachment due to micromotion of the nail.
The technology of gel building is constantly undergoing changes in accordance with the emergence of new materials. But this does not affect the basic methods of calculation. Due to the different consistency, the gels are liquid, medium and high viscosity and very thick. There are self-leveling gels that are convenient to apply on the nail.
The fastest gel nail extension
Many will agree that laying out the material, polymerizing several layers and sawdust takes a lot of time. It can be reduced if you use the technology of the upper forms. These are transparent plates that copy the shape of the nail. There are several sizes, which is very convenient. After polymerization of the material, you don’t need to file anything, the surface of artificial nails is glossy and even.
The hardest part of this gel-building technique is to place the top form on the nail correctly. There are tricks that are best worked out with an instructor. Important for a good result is the correct selection of the form. Since this is not tips, the material that will fill it should be considered. The classic method of selection is considered a form that, when fully adhered to the sides of the nail, has a small gap that can accommodate the tips of manicure scissors.
The layout of the material in the form is also special: first the upper layers, then the middle (often at this stage lay the piece design) and, finally, the layer in contact with the nail.
Extension without tips and shapes
To lengthen the nails a little, it is not necessary to use special devices in the form of nail tips and shapes. There is an interesting technique for lengthening the nail plate with biogel using silk. This type of gel building can be done at home.
To do this, you need silk for repairing nails (fireberglass, fiberglass) and a bio gel base. After standard preparation of the nails, a base layer is applied, a cut piece of silk is applied to the nail and it is sunk into the material. This is done in order to strengthen the stress zone - that part of the nail that is subject to increased stress. After polymerization, the nail is sawn and excess material is removed, including silk.
You can apply biogel several times, forming an apex. After the work is covered with top gel. You can use a color coating (there are also colored biogels), apply various design options.
This material is soluble, so if desired, it can be removed by simply soaking in a nail polish remover. This is convenient if you are not planning to visit the salon to perform a correction or manicure.
Liquid tips and ordinary - which ones to choose?
In gel nail extension there is a simple technology with nail tips. These are plastic products that simulate the free edge of a nail. They are white, transparent and natural color (ivory). The minus of plastic tips is the use of glue to fix them on the nail. The composition of manicure glue is cyanoacrylate, although not poisonous, it is also not good for nails.
Manufacturers of liquid tips changed the technology: tips are not glued to the nail, but a gel form is placed, which is removed after polymerization, and the gel lengthens on the nail. Further, the extension technology does not differ from the usual one.
In essence, liquid tips form a substrate on which a white, camouflage or transparent gel is then laid out in accordance with the design. The form with the gel is fixed for no more than ten seconds. At this time, the master holds it in the same way as the plastic tips, but does it under a UV lamp. After that, you can move to the next finger.
Nail preparation
For a classic gel extension, nail preparation is performed, which has become standard:
- The free edge is sawn off.
- The nail plate is cleaned of pterygium.
- The gloss of nails is removed buff 240 grit.
- The nails are degreased and treated with an acid-free primer.
- A base gel is applied to the nails and polymerized for 2 minutes.
After that, they begin to form the architecture of artificial nails. In order for the material to hold well, the thickness of the material in the stress zone should be greater than in other areas. The intersection of the longitudinal and transverse arches - the apex - is located on the lower third of the natural nail plate.
Classical buildup on forms
The gel extension in the classic version involves the use of disposable forms, which allows you to most accurately build the architecture of an artificial nail. The shape can be trimmed, bent and individually adapted to each specific case. For the formation of almond nails or stilettos, they put it down a little. And for “biting nails” and a square shape - a little up. This is done so that the sides are parallel. Having glued two forms in length, they achieve extreme sizes of artificial nails. For very wide nail plates, the shapes are glued wide.
How to make a gel extension of a white jacket:
After standard preparation of the nails, they put the mold, taking into account the desired bend. If necessary, the edges are trimmed.
- After formulations, the substrate is made, usually with a transparent structural gel. Cured for 2 minutes.
- After this form is removed. For a french, spread the nail bed with an extension of camouflage gel, polymerize for 2 minutes.
- Remove the dispersion layer, filed the nail bed.
- Spread a white gel on a substrate. Cure for 2-3 minutes.
- The dispersion is removed, the nail is filed, giving it the desired shape of the free edge ..
- Cover with top gel, polymerize for 3 minutes.
- Remove the dispersion, apply oil to the cuticle.
Three phase system
There are three-phase and single-phase gel nail extension systems. Phases are different stages in modeling. The first is the application of material on a natural nail. The gel that is used is called basic. He is responsible for adhesion to keratin nail. It is usually applied in a thin layer and subsequent materials are laid out on its dispersion layer formed after polymerization.
The second phase is a construction gel, very hard, creating the desired nail architecture. It can be of different consistency, color, and from this it is applied differently. After laying out, which can be performed in several layers with the polymerization of each layer, the dispersion is removed from it with alcohol and sawed. When filing form a free edge and remove excess material.
The third phase is the topcoat, which can be with or without a sticky layer, soluble or not. This gel is applied as a varnish, as it is quite liquid. Rhinestones are placed on it, they are covered with paintings and stickers.
Gel technology for nail extension has in its arsenal and single-phase gels, which often perform extensions on tips. They are tough, after removing the dispersion they shine. They are applied in three layers: the first - rubbing the brush of a natural nail with a thin layer of gel, polymerizing. The second - they do modeling, polymerize, filed. The third layer is the top coating with a thin layer. Masters can spread the gel in one drop, which significantly reduces the time.
Tools, materials, equipment
What you need for gel nail extensions:
- UV or LED lamp. Now there are combined options, it is better to purchase them.
- Manicure device with a set of cutters, better professional.
- Files 150 and 180 grit. Buff 240 grit.
- Pusher / scraper for cuticle.
- Manicure tweezers.
- Degreaser and acid free primer.
- Gel brushes numbers 4 and 6.
- Base gel, transparent constructing and camouflage, white gel, top gel.
- Cuticle oil.
- Disposable or top arch forms.
Gel building is often accompanied by gel polish design. You can purchase several primary colors: white, red, blue, bright yellow. From these tones you can make a mix of all the rest, adding white color to get a pastel tone. To draw patterns, you need a number one brush, preferably a synthetic one centimeter long. White gel paint will help to fulfill the service jacket and monogram, black - to perform foil molding.
Extension kit
Gel nail extension kits for sale now, which have a symbolic price, include materials from unidentified firms that are likely to cause harm to health. Every self-respecting seller has a certificate of product certification. Some companies for many years can not get it in our country. At the beginning of the nail extension era, the market was filled with cheap methyl methacrylates, which caused nail bed burns and allergies.
Even if there is no visible harm from cheap products, it is better to play it safe and buy from a domestic manufacturer or distributor of a well-known company. To learn how to do gel building, you will have to master many nuances. This work is not suitable for those who do not like to sit at a table for a long time and scrupulously understand the intricacies of doing exercises. Of course, you need to learn. Any training center will advise how to buy an inexpensive kit for the first time.
Now there are gel polish systems with which you can grow a sufficient length. This is a good alternative to building, and will cost less. If you need a result - it is better to purchase gel polishes. And to get into the secrets of modeling, you have to spend time.
What is the difference between a professional and an amateur
Nails built by a professional are easy to distinguish from a beginner's job. They are beautiful, worn well and do not break. This is achieved by observing certain proportions, the correct construction of the apex, compression in the stress zone. Such nails have no sagging on the cuticle and ridges; during the period of wearing, material detachments do not form. The nail bed is formed with lengthening and extends beyond the borders of the finger. The shape of the nail at the ends is a semicircle, which ensures the creation of stiffeners.
A novice often glues white tips on the entire contact area, as a result, the nail bed decreases ugly. The gel filled with a transparent gel is flat, spade-shaped. The lack of an apex makes it vulnerable to all random hits from which it breaks. The color of the nail plate becomes an unhealthy color, with regrowth a natural free edge is visible. From the very first day, such work leaves an impression of scruffy.
How to remove gel from nails
Gel is an insoluble material, it is removed from the nails by sawing. This will help the manicure device. First, the length is removed, then the material from the stress zone, then the gel is carefully removed at a low speed to the base layer. There is another way to remove gel extensions: use nail files. Gradually, changing them from 150 grit to 180, remove material from the nails. In the process, the files may heat up due to friction. This means that it is time to replace them with new ones.
Gel nail extension is a fascinating work of the artist, sculptor and designer all rolled into one. Starting with nail modeling, some masters discovered the talent of a decorator. With the help of building materials, jewelry is made and objects made out (wedding glasses, bottles, telephones, table lamps, caskets and even shoes). Try to embark on this journey, maybe this is your calling.