Gel Clarity

Robyn Schwartz of Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada, has no problem making these streaky-clean gel art designs on a regular basis, she says. The secret is in the thin layer of uncured clear gel.

Schwartz has been doing nails for 14 years and currently owns Polished & Pampered Hair and Esthetics Salon, and, considering it was not long ago she switched from acrylics to gels, her gel techniques must be good to get such great results.

“I used to do acrylic nails, but I found the smell got to be too much for me to work with. My clients are very happy with gel and don’t miss acrylic at all. I mostly do French nails, but I am slowly working on new clients for nail art. I do more gels than natural nails, and I even have a lot of gel toes for the summer.” So how does Schwartz create these clean gel nail designs? The answer is actually quite “clear.”

“I have found the best way to work with color gels is to start with a very thin layer of uncured natural clear, then work your design on top of that. The natural clear holds the design, allowing you to place the gel where you want and blend the colors without the gel running or blurring together. The gel will stay in place long enough for all the fi ngers on one hand to be done. Then you can cure the hand all at once instead of going back and forth between hands.

The process for this design was:

• Prep the nail. Then put a natural coverage warm pink on the nail bed with a two-minute cure.
• Put the thin layer of natural clear on, and simply streak the design colors and give a two-minute cure on each hand when you’re done. The gels used here were from the Akzéntz Options Colour Gels line, and include the colors Pearlescence, Enchanted Green, Aurora Silver, Precious Ivory, and Gel Art Black.
• File, shape, and finish with a clear top gloss.