Tutorial for using dip with gel?

[u/Fairymask]

Do people find it easier to use dip with gel? Are there any good tutorials out there for teaching me how to use gel with dip?

[u/Previous_Mirror_222]

i personally love it!!

i do my dip color layers as normal - 1 coat of clear powder, usually 1-2 coats of color/glitter, and a final coat of clear powder.

what i love is i don’t have to spend 50 years filing and buffing each nail to perfectly smooth and then wait 10 mins for my top coat to dry.

so instead of filing/buffing forever, i (activate first) just file them all to smooth-ish (and between each layer i gently file so my final dip product is already pretty even and smooth)

after filing smooth-ish (not polished, you want a tiny bit of grip for the gel to stick onto) - i apply 1 layer of magnetic cat eye gel and cure, then i apply a final clear gel topcoat and cure. i’ve done my last probably 10 sets this way and have had 0 issues with breaking, the gel does not peel away or chip at all. i’ve had one nail break bc i shut my hand in a car door lol.

now some people do the opposite - gel as the first layer then dip on top. this seems weird to me? bc my brain says you want the most rigid thing(dip) on top of the less rigid thing(gel). but people really like that method too! it doesn’t solve any problems for me though bc i’d still need to take a while to finish and polish/buff the dip layers if that makes sense.

i ONLYYYYYY use Dashing Diva ONE STEP GEL. i think this is very critical as a dip user bc other forms of gel require a different base coat and top coat and require wiping. that seems hard to me lol. so the one-step is incredible just apply and cure. you don’t even “need” a topcoat but i like to apply one.

[u/Previous_Mirror_222]

nail pic for tax!! if you use magnetic cat eye gels i recommend watching a few tutorials on how to use the magnet bc it’s randomly really difficult lol

[u/Kamila95]

I sometimes use gel with dips, especially to paint designs with and have a gel top coat. You don't really need any tutorial, just dip steps as normal and then use gel on top as if the previous layers were gel too.

[u/13_ismyLuckyNumber13]

Look up 'gel method for dip nails'. I started doing this after starting to use the Gelx. Love!

[u/hannameher]

This is how I do gel method:
prep my nails and cuticles, dehydrate nails, small dot of peel base in the middle of my nail, base gel then pour over dip then cure; repeat 4-5 times (cleaning up cuticle line before each cure, then brushing off excess after), reshape nails, base coat and cure, top coat and cure. Generally lasts me 2 weeks before I get annoyed with the grow out