Regular nail polish with gel polish top coat?

[DirtySouth]

I think I've seen this discussed on here.  I just bought a gel nail system but want to continue using my regular polishes.  If you do this, do you use a gel base coat or regular base coat?  Do you let the polish completely dry before doing the gel top coat?  How long does the manicure last for you?

[mnvegas]

I use CND shellac with UV light. I have done this a few different ways.

1. Regular base coat (Seche is my preference). 2 coats of regular polish which I let dry maybe 10-15 minutes and then 1 coat of CND shellac top coat.

2. CND shellac base coat, then 1 coat of CND top coat, 2 coats of color with regular polish and seal with either another coat of shellac top coat or regular base coat.

3. shellac base coat, two coats of regular polish with shellac top coat. I only used this way once because I found that putting regular polish over cured tacky shellac base coat caused streaking and polish did not cover as well.

I can usually get a good 10-14 days out of my manicure doing it one of these ways. I spend a lot of time in the pool so could probably get longer if I did not have my hands in water so much.

A full shellac mani can last me up to 3 weeks.

Hope this helps you.

[bunnies]

Jun 23, 2014 10:53:50 GMT -5 mnvegas said:

I use CND shellac with UV light. 

A full shellac mani can last me up to 3 weeks.

I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have the CND shellac w/ CND light and can barely get a week out of my full shellac without it peeling (sometimes it peels after a few days). I can only get about 2 days out of a regular polish manicure before chipping starts.

[mnvegas]

Jun 23, 2014 11:17:06 GMT -5 bunnies said:

Jun 23, 2014 10:53:50 GMT -5 mnvegas said:

I use CND shellac with UV light. 

A full shellac mani can last me up to 3 weeks.

I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have the CND shellac w/ CND light and can barely get a week out of my full shellac without it peeling (sometimes it peels after a few days). I can only get about 2 days out of a regular polish manicure before chipping starts.

Make sure you wipe nails with alcohol or acetone before you put on your base coat.

How long do you cure? I do 3 minutes for color coats then usually 4-5 minutes for top coat. I found an extra minute or two for top coat gives me a harder finish.

Do you run your brush along the tips to seal them?  

[bunnies]

mnvegas Thanks for the reply! I do wipe nails with both alcohol and acetone. I cure the time it says on the bottles (it said 10 seconds for base, and 2 mins for each other coat). I do seal them, as well. I can try the longer cure time and see if that makes a difference.

[bunnies]

mnvegas Resurrecting this thread because I wanted to say that I tried your suggestion of longer cure times and it seems to have helped drastically! I went from 4-7 days before my shellac started massively peeling to my current set, which I've had on for 11 days. It's finally starting to peel just a little bit on a couple of fingers, but overall, still looks really good!

[treedimensional]

I use regular base coat and color. Only the top coat is UV gel.

[mnvegas]

Sept 2, 2014 11:09:44 GMT -5 bunnies said:

mnvegas Resurrecting this thread because I wanted to say that I tried your suggestion of longer cure times and it seems to have helped drastically! I went from 4-7 days before my shellac started massively peeling to my current set, which I've had on for 11 days. It's finally starting to peel just a little bit on a couple of fingers, but overall, still looks really good!

So glad this worked for you!