To fully understand what building gel exactly is, I asked the famous nail artist Julie Kandalec to break it down for us. She said: “The nail gel is a gel product with a thicker consistency, which can be used to lengthen nails as well as create strength at the peak. “I recommend contouring gel for clients who want a little more flexibility improvement than acrylic, it’s a great product but harder. Building gel is like if you take a plastic dish and drop it on the floor it will bounce back compared to an acrylic dish, if you drop it it will crack. Gel builds are good for people with heavy mobility (meaning their nails lift easily) because it’s more flexible.”
Even I have to admit that there are so many different nail gels out there that it can be hard to tell the difference between them or which one is right for your particular nails. Kandalec goes into a little more detail. “Building gels are usually a hard gel,” she says. “A hard gel is a non-porous gel that must be filed. The bulking gel can be a soft gel or a semi-rigid gel or a hard gel. The difference between [builder gel like] Solar Gel and Aprés Nail (a brand of gel tips) is a ready-made full-coverage tip. It is made of gel, but it is bonded to more gel than building gel. Contouring gel that you can sculpt, apply to the tip, or you can simply structure your nails with it to give shape and strength to the tip.”
Now that you have a little more background information, read on for my experience using the building gel for the first time.
