How To: Use Vinyls With Gel Polish

Posted by Liza Mushamel on

Hi all!

OMG - IT’S MY FIRST BLOG POST! I can’t wait to look back at this blog post in a year and say to myself, “Omg what a noob I was!!” Lol!

Okay, so many many people have been asking us about using our nail vinyls with gel! I get countless inquiries about it and up until now, I really didn’t know what to tell you guys.. until now, that is! (insert sly cat emoji here)


Recently, I received an email from the lovely Krystal telling us that she loves using our vinyls with gel polish. Krystal believes customers will actually get better use out of the vinyls if they use gel polish. I asked her for directions on how she used the vinyls and she sent us the following directions! I hope this answers all your questions about gel polish!


  1. Paint your gel base coat; cure.
  2. Paint whatever base color you want to use.  In the mani shown,  she first painted one coat of a nude color; cure.
  3.  Wipe the nail you are going to place the vinyl on with alcohol to remove the tacky layer, then place your vinyl. (This is the most important step because if you leave the tacky layer on, the sticker will move and lift and you won't get the nice clean edges.)
  4.  Paint over the sticker as you would with regular polish; cure.
  5.  Repeat step 4 as many times as necessary to get the coverage you desire. (For the black nail in the picture, she painted 3 coats)
  6.  Remove the sticker.  I use a pointy pair of tweezers to do this.  It can be a little tough to find the edges because the gel is already hard, but you don't really need to worry about messing the polish up because it is already cured.  Any minor dings or dents will be smoothed over when you put your top coat on.
  7.  Apply your gel top coat and cure.
  8.  Wipe with alcohol to remove final tacky layer and you're done!

How To: Use Vinyls With Gel Polish

← Older Post Newer Post →


Comments


  • I always use your vinyls on gel polish, but I do it a lot differently. I’ll definitely try this method out though :)

    anh on
  • Every color or brand of gel seems to behave differently with vinyls. It definitely takes a few trial runs to figure out if the color will cooperate. Flash curing for 5 – 6 seconds is pretty effective when using straights or chevron that are NOT connected. The ones that are connected like mermaids, are hit or miss. I’ve been using a coat of clear over the vinyl, flash cure, then brush on a pigment powder.
    95% percent of the time, you can get the vinyl off with a great outcome.
    I am definitely going to try Joanne’s (comment above) method. That’s a way I haven’t heard of!!!
    I primarily work with gel polish so being able to create looks that are normally done with regular polish is a must!

    Sandra Richomd on
  • Wow!!! You are literally blog goals. This is perfection in so happy you an use the vinyls with gel polish. I can’t wait for all the big posts to come

    Alexis quinones on
  • Wow!!! You are literally blog goals. This is perfection in so happy you an use the vinyls with gel polish. I can’t wait for all the big posts to come

    Alexis quinones on
  • Through trial and error, this is what I found that works also: Apply gel polish and cure accordingly. Remove tacky residue. Apply vinyl. Apply one coat of gel polish. Let sit for one minute. Apply a second coat of gel polish. Let sit for about one minute then remove vinyl. It should be intact like if using regular polish. Cure as usual.

    Joanne McDonald on
  • Yay on starting the twinkledt blog! But I’m afraid I’ve bad news as you won’t be looking back on this thinking what a noob as its perfect! You’ve almost got me wanting to wear gel polish as it sounds like you can get brilliant results with your vinyIs and gel!

    Claire O'Sullivan on

  • 1
  • 2

Leave a comment