What to expect when you get an O.P.I Gel Polish

O.P.I Gel polish 

Hey everyone, heres a step by step guide on what to expect when you get a GelColour by O.P.I treatment done at a nail salon.

First let me explain what exactly is a GelColour. 

GelColour by O.P.I is a Gel treatment design for your natural nails, a chip prove, long lasting nail Varnish made out of Gel. It doesn't need any sanding down of the natural nails, apply on like nail lacquer but lasts up to 14 days or more! It is made out of TRUE Gel, so they will not dry out as you are having it done and will keep its shine longer.

There are a lot of Brands out there, like CND shellac and Harmony nails Gelish, but I use GelColour by O.P.I, my reason is because it has most of their nail lacquer colour collections in Gel polish,.

I will try not to be bias, because i do like O.P.I brand a lot but I will post about all the brands and do a review on them to let you decide what brand you like.

Here are the products and equipment that will be used in the treatment.

O.P.I LED Lamp

1. O.P.I NAS 99

2. O.P.I Swiss blue hand soap

3. O.P.I Swiss Hand guard

 1. O.P.I Bond aid

2.  GelColour Base

3. GelColour colour-Lincoln Park After Dark

4. GelColour top Coat

5. O.P.I Avoplex Cuticle oil

 1. The Regular Manicure file by Lena white

2. Cuticle pusher

3. O.P.I Flex buffer file 220/280 grit

4. The fluffy by O.P.I

   O.P.I Ling Free Wipes

Step 1. Sanitising 

The first thing is to sanitise your hands, so you will either wash your hands using the Swiss blue hand soap at the sink, or the technician will put some on your hands at the table, spray some water, and after you rub your hands together, give you a towel to wash it off. Depending on how the salon do things, either way is fine, me personally I find washing it at the sink is better.

Now the technician will put some of the O.P.I Swiss Hand guard on your hands as well as hers/his hands, and rub together until hands feels dry.

Step 2. Prepping the Nail bed

Using the Regular Manicure File, they will shape what ever shape you would like you nails to be, I have square, although I like round, my nails are too short for it.

After, they will push your cuticles up using the cuticle pusher. There are different cuticle pushers, the reusable ones i use, the one in the photos, or there're metal ones, and also disposable orange sticks. All are just as good.

Just before I push the cuticle up, I normally apply some cuticle softener to the cuticle, if they are quite bad.

 The final prep is to clean the nail bed to get rid of all dirt and oils on it. Now I spray O.P.I NAS 99 on The Fluffy and brush it on every nail, but some people spray it on a lint free pad and wipe each nail, both ways are fine, but i find the fluffy grabs the dust better.



Step 3. Applying the GelColour
Now that the nail is all nice and clean, we apply the O.P.I Bond aid, it does exactly what it says on the tin; help aid the bond between your natural nails and the GelColour.

1st coat will be the GelColour Base, pay attention to the technician, they will just run the brush along the edge of each nail just to cap it, so it will last longer.
30 seconds under the LED lamp, it should turn on when you slid your hands in and off when 30 seconds is up.

2nd coat will the first layer of GelColour, this should be applied thinly and it probably won't look like the colour you wanted, just a bit lighter. Another 30 seconds under lamp.

3rd coat, Second layer of GelColour, now that the second coat is on, it should look like the colour you chose. 30 seconds again.

Last coat, will be the GelColour Topcoat, this helps seal everything together.
Nail technician should cap every layer that they put on, if they forget, remind them. Final 30 seconds!

After the last 30 seconds under the lamp is finish, taking a Lint Free wipe, apply some O.P.I NAS 99 on it and wipe away the excess gel on top of the nails.
Technician should wipe downward to avoid contact with skin, some people are allergic to the Gel.

Final Step. Finishing Touch

Last but not least, we apply the Avoplex Cuticle Oil over the cuticle and rub it in. Helps moisturise the cuticle and a shiny finish.

Applying cuticle oil everyday will help pro long the GelColour, moisturise cuticles means no brittle or dry nails, nice nails = GelColour will last longer!

The salon will sell cuticle oil, which you can buy or you can go to Boots, they also sell it there, but are probably more expensive than the salon.

So here is the finishing product, I've done it on my left hand because I use it less, and because I can't do the other hand.

I am a nail technician and use my hands a lot, but I will check back and let you know how long it stays on my left hand.

09/06/2014