This is a question any nail artist has asked at least once in the last ten years. The honest, simple and blanket answer is technology in the nail industry is better. The more specific answer is a lot more informative.
Originally, gel polish was exactly that, a hybrid resulting from marrying pure gel product and nail lacquer (polish) to create a longer-lasting polish finished look that would take the average four-to-seven-day wear of regular nail lacquer to an astounding seven to ten or sometimes even fourteen-day chip-free wearability. But when this type of new hybrid product first came out, it was not without---let’s call them limitations.
First of all, there was no stopping the solvents and additives in the lacquer part of the mixture from escaping and evaporating from the bottle. This often left the hybrid polish thickened and hard to work with once you got about halfway through the bottle. Also, this hybrid still had a significant and unmistakable nail polish odor. This was not something that was, shall we say appealing, to the spa environment.
Then, there was, later down the road, a pure gel form of gel polish. This original type of product had many issues. Techs had to deal with the gel not curing. This could have had a number of reasons, making it a difficult problem to solve. First, it was almost impossible to get proper coverage with just two coats because the application had to be paper thin. If it was too thick or if there was too much pigment in the color, like black, the UV light couldn’t penetrate all the way through the product and it wouldn’t cure properly. Proper and exact hand placement in the UV light was also a top requirement and even then a lot of techs had issues with the outside of the pinkie and thumb not curing all the way. That meant you had to remove it and start over on that nail. Then there was the shrinking issue. Every time you would apply a coat of gel polish, no matter how clean the nail, how rough your surface, how much base coat you use, nor how thin you apply it, within seconds of going on the nail the gel polish would start to pull away from all edges and sides towards the center. This not only left the obvious bare hairline around the nail but it also left a slight bump at the edge of the nail and cuticle area. This could lead to the product lifting, not curing properly, peeling, chipping, etc.
And with both types of product, you had to worry about color consistency and over-curing. At the time when this technology was still new, curing the product too long caused it to become brittle leading to cracks and chips. Not to mention that all the top coats had a sticky inhibition layer you had to wipe off and they all yellowed. Sometimes the top coat wouldn’t cure completely and it would be cloudy and rubbery instead of that glass-like, high-gloss, hard, durable shine. It would often dull in addition to the yellowing. The colors would change when they cured or they would change over time with wear over the recommended ten-fourteen days.
This was the way it was for years. Then came Gotti Nails.
All of a sudden there was a gel polish that did what it was supposed to do. Can you believe it? I couldn’t at first. Of course, once I tried the product it was a done deal.
Here I had a product that was a pure gel (no hybrids) with heavy pigmentation that didn’t require stirring it around for three to five minutes with some extra piece of equipment that had no other function. With the need to stir and mix pigment into the gel no longer being a requirement this means there are no air bubbles or contaminates (dust, hair, lint, etc. floating in the air) in my gel polish. With such high pigmentation the coverage factor of this product is a full ten out of ten. Even with the white and black you can get one coat coverage if you need to.
Also, the gel polish cures all the way, even with all that color in the gel. And while applying and curing the gel polish there is absolutely no shrinkage, pulling back, pooling, nothing. Once it’s applied it stays there. It doesn’t run into the sidewalls or cuticle area. It doesn’t bunch up and get thick in the middle of the nail and not cure. And with the crescent shaped applicator brush in the bottle, you can get all the way to the cuticle area and still keep a naturally curved application line plus keeping the layer thin.
In addition to all of the perfection I have already found, this gel polish has a “true-to-color” shade indicator on the top of the cap allowing you to see the exact color of the chosen polish. And if you are going to be doing any kind of nail art you have such a minimal inhibition layer after curing that the gel polish surface can handle any design or dazzle you want to show off.
Finally, after all these years of working with inferior product that never performed the way it was marketed to perform, there is a gel polish that is easy to apply, short curing times and creamy consistent color and a silky almost satin like feel when applying to the nail. The shimmers are sleek. The glitters are smooth. The crèmes are lush and full of pigment. No streaking. No chipping. No peeling. No cracking. None of the headache of trying to justify charging more for a service that wasn’t living up to its price.
Now I have clean, smooth coverage, color consistency, durability in wear and shine and practically any shade I could want because Gotti has colors that other companies just don’t seem to think are important, like the blues and greens of the nail polish spectrum.
And to finish it all off, I have a top coat that cures quickly, has the highest shine available with a non-yellowing formula and it is a no-wipe top coat so I don’t have to worry about any sticky inhibition layer or cloudy half cured product.
Now I have great color and great wearability and it’s all at a great price! How could I pass this up?