True Sculpt Hypoallergenic HEMA Free Tutorial

Join our Head of Education as she takes you through the step-by-step process of applying HONA's Hypoallergenic Hard Gel. Whether you're working with overlays, tips, or forms, this tutorial will guide you through each technique, ensuring a flawless application every time. Perfect for beginners and seasoned nail techs alike, this in-depth tutorial will help you master the art of hard gel with confidence.

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Transcript 

Hello guys. Welcome back to another home of nail art tutorial. We're starting off with fully prepped nails, and the prep is exactly the same as pure foundation and pure build. Jumping straight into it. We're starting off with hard gel extensions with tips, making sure that we've selected the right tip that fits the natural nail plate from edge to edge. It's better for the tip to be a little bit larger and file it down than to be too small. Once we've selected the right tip, we are going to apply our nail glue and secure that to the natural nail plate. It's important to use just the right amount of glue. Too much will flood everywhere, and too little won't secure the tip to the nail. So just make sure there's enough to coat the inner well of that tip, then apply enough pressure to secure that tip to the natural nail plate. And I also like to then press those little corners down, like I am here in the video, just to make sure everything is really secured down to the nail. At this stage, we should be discussing shape and length, because I can cut down the length and also the corners, if my client wanted round or almond, and this is going to save us time when it comes to filing. Later on, I'm going to cut mine down short and keep them square, but if I wanted to, I could cut those corners off and save myself some time. Once we're happy with the length and shape, we can use a 180 grit buffer to buff the tip, and this is just going to help with adhesion. Later on, once I've dusted off, I'm going to use a 240 grit file just to take in the edges of that tip a little bit, and also to file down the corners of the tip as well. You can see where that smile line is. There's some sharper corners. So I just like to blend those in a little bit before we go in with any product. Once I'm happy with the blend, I'm going to dust off and go in with my pure bond application. I'm taking my pure bond onto the natural nail plate all the way down onto the extension tip as well. So we want to make sure the whole thing's coated, and then we can cure that in the lamp for 30 seconds. I'm using core, which is perfect for medium to long extensions or overlays. I'm using my flat gel brush, and I'm starting off just as I would with any other enhancement. I'm going to begin with my paper layer. So I'm just going to brush a thin layer of core all over the natural nail plate and the tip, and then cure that in the lamp for 60 seconds. Once we've cured our paper layer, we can go in with our slip layer. A slip layer is quite important with hard gel, because it's slower moving in comparison to pure foundation or pure build. So a slip layer is really going to help that product move. And it's quite important to make sure you put your slip layer wherever you want your stretcher bead to go. So making sure that the whole area of that nail plate and the nail tip is covered. Make sure you leave your slip layer uncured. The whole purpose of a slip layer is to help the product move. I've grabbed my stretcher bead, and I'm just manipulating that up towards the cuticle area before floating it down the nail plate. I am focusing that float in the centre of the nail plate. Because of the slip layer, all the product will naturally fall to the side wall, so I don't really need to move that product into the side wall area. It will just flow there naturally. It's important to make sure that the gel on your brush is What's touching the gel on the nail plate. So really, we don't need any pressure. We don't want to create any divots or dips or dents in that product, because although it will self level, it will take a little bit longer, because it's not a builder gel, the viscosity is much thicker, so we want to make sure our pressure is really minimal. By the time I'd finished floating, I realised there wasn't quite enough product to fully cover the whole nail plate, so I've added another bead into the centre of the nail, and I'm just letting it flow naturally. And you can see I have sped it up, but you can see how quickly it self levels and just flows where it needs to flow. This is why, with hard gel, we recommend doing more than one nail at a time. If you are doing a full set, you can literally do your stretcher bead on, say, three or four nails, rather than the traditional one at a time that you would do with a builder gel. And then once I'm happy, I can cure that in the lamp for 60 seconds and then wipe the nail down with isopropyl alcohol. Another way that hard gel differs from builder gel is that refining with a file after application is generally a very standard step. It isn't something that you have to do, of course, if your application was fine, you can just go straight ahead and apply your color, your nail art, your top coat, whatever it might be. But I'm going in with a 180 grit file, just to narrow those side walls down, because my free edge tapers naturally, and also just to perfect the shape and make sure the free edge isn't too thick. And then going in with a 180 grit buffer, just to smooth everything out. And then you can see the final result is much more polished. Once you're happy with your shape, you can go in with your color, your nail art, or your top coat. When it comes to applying hard gel using a form, is a completely different cut of fish in comparison to using tips, and there is a lot of Knack needed to get it right, and there will be a little bit of a learning curve for. It, but once you know how it's fine. So I'm going to walk you through the steps of applying a form. First and foremost, I like to start off by taking that little sticker off and popping it on the inside of the tab. And this just adds a little bit of extra support. And then I roll the form between my fingers in order to pre bend the form to mirror the c curve of my client's nail. So if your client's got a really high C curve, then you know you need to roll your form a little bit more in order to match with that C curve. The goal here is to make sure that the form aligns seamlessly with the side walls and the free edge without any gaps. So we need to pay extra attention and make sure the form fits. If it doesn't, you can also trim your form with scissors in order to customize the form to fit your client. So there's always a way. It is a little bit trickier with a client who has a very high hypernicium, because the hypernicium can get in the way of that form sitting underneath the free edge. So if a client does have a really high hypernicium, they could be a good candidate for using tips instead of forms. It's not always a necessity to opt for one on the other. It's nice to have the option of using both, because different clients nails need different things. I'm just going to apply pure bond to all the nails that we're doing our extensions on, and then we can cure that in the lamp for 30 seconds. It is really important to not miss this step, because pure bond will massively help with adhesion. Our pure bond is cured, so it's time to go in with our hard gel. I'm using true sculpt core in the shade. Nude core is going to be perfect for this client, because the client would like medium length extensions, and core is perfect for short to medium extensions and overlays as well. So we're going in with our paper layer, just as we would with any builder gel, we start off with a paper layer, which is a thin layer of hard gel cured for 60 seconds. So I'm applying this on all of the nails, making sure that every single edge is covered. So I'm getting right into the cuticle area down the side walls, and I'm capping the free edge as well. Then, because we don't have a tip already made, we're going to create our tip in this stage as well. So I'm going to pull that product onto the form, slightly thicker than I would with a paper layer, and start to create our extended tip. What we're wanting to do, essentially, is for this to be strong enough to support itself, because we're not building on top of a pre made tip. So we just want to make sure that we are giving it the best chance possible, so that when we do take off that form later on, it's going to have all the support it needs, and the nail is going to be balanced correctly. Then once I finished, all five fingers, they can go in the lamp and cure for the full 60 seconds. Once you've cured your paper layer, you can move on to your structure layer, if you prefer, you can take the form off at this stage, but I like to keep it on, just to make sure everything is supported whilst I'm still building the structure. So I'm starting off with a slip layer. This is a wet layer of product, and this is another way that hard gel differs from builder gel, in that we don't recommend a slip layer when you're working with Hona builder gels, but we do strongly recommend using one when you're working with the hard gel. This is because the viscosity differs and the product does need a little bit of extra help moving around. So having that slip layer and making sure you apply it wherever you need it to be. So the whole nail right up next to the cuticle, right down the side walls, and then you can apply your bead, and your bead is going to flow really easily where you want it to. So you can see, I've applied my slip layer, and I'm applying my structure bead. I'm floating this down, just like I would with any traditional builder gel. This is the way that I like to do it with extensions. So just applying my slip, then floating the bead down, popping the hand upside down, and repeating. So all three fingers have now been cured. I'm pretty happy with the structure, but now we need to shape them. So where you can see they've been on a form, there's lots of jagged edges, I need to refine it and perfect the shape using my files and buffers. So firstly, I'm wiping the tacky layer off with some isopropyl alcohol, and then I'm going in with my 180 grit file, starting off underneath the free edge to get rid of any of those little frilly bits, and then begin to perfect the almond shape. You can see there's a line on the screen at the moment, and that is to show you that when we're working with an almond shape, we should draw an imaginary line from the centre of the cuticle going right down the centre of the nail to the centre of the free edge, and then work our way towards that centre line. So working from left to the centre and then right to the center, until both sides of the nail mirror perfectly. Once I've done the majority of the shaping with the regular hand file, I like to move on to using a 180 grit buffer as well. The great thing. About the buffer is that the buffer is able to sandwich the shape of the natural nail because of its sponge, whereas a normal hand file is much harder, so it has a bit more of a choppier, chunkier finish. So I like to finish off with my buffer, just to smooth everything out, because that sponge shape is able to envelop the shape of the nail a little bit better. Once I'm pretty happy with the shape, I'm just going to dust off and check everything, and then I can move on to the next nail and do exactly the same. Once you finish refining check down the barrel of the nail as well, which means you're looking straight at the free edge, just to make sure the shape isn't too bulky at the free edge, and to make sure the shape and the width is the same across the entire circumference of the nail. And also check the side profile as well to make sure that the apex placement is correct. As we've mentioned before, on a longer nail, the apex should be placed a little bit further back towards the cuticle to counteract the weight as the nail grows out. Large gel overlay, a fantastic and very, very underrated way to use hard gel, as with all of our hard gel tutorials, we're starting off with our pure bond application, making sure that the entire nail plate is coated, and then curing our pure bond for 30 seconds. Once pure bond is cured, we can go in with our hard gel application. I'm using true sculpt express in the shade natural. It does look quite pink in the pot, but actually it's very, very subtle once it's on the nail. Express does have a built in base coat, although we do recommend using it with pure bond, and it has a built in top coat as well. Hence the name Express. So if you do manage to apply your Express without having to refine it, you can go ahead and wipe off the tacky layer, and the built in top coat is ready to go, just like we do with our builder gel services. We're starting off with a paper layer, and the paper layer is just that, a paper thin layer of hard gel cured in the lamp for 60 seconds before we go in with our next step. Once you're happy with the coverage on your paper layer, you can cure that for 60 seconds and then go straight in with your slip layer. A slip layer is a layer of wet gel that we leave uncured in order to help the product that comes later to move around the nail plate. Now this first method I'm showing you is by far the easiest Overlay method out there guarantee it. All you have to do is grab your bead, set it down on the nail, play and wait. And it really is that simple. I would definitely recommend doing this on more than one nail at a time, because you'll be waiting for a while. But if you're doing, say, three or four fingers at a time, then it's super quick and easy. And essentially the bead is just going to flow wherever that slip layer was placed. And I'm going to show you the side profile now, before it's been touched by any liner brush, before it's been flipped upside down or refined in any way, shape or form, if somebody has ridged nails, or you might find that maybe, if the room is a little bit colder, you might have to do some touch ups or help the product move a little bit with a liner brush or your gel application brush, but to the most part, it does everything by itself, as long as you've used your slip layer. So I'm flipping the hand upside down a little bit just to draw the apex back down whilst I was faffing around with the product. And then I can pop that in the lamp to cure for 60 seconds, and we're ready to go. It really is that straightforward. Our next method is a little bit more traditional, so we're applying our slip layer, and when it comes to our bead, we're floating the bead down, just like we would do with build a gel. So we're just going to push that bead up towards the cuticle and then float the bead down the nail plate towards the free edge, focusing mostly on the centre of the nail plate, because the rest of the product is going to flow down the side walls. Gravity is going to draw that product down, and we're going to float all the way until we get to the free edge using minimal, minimal pressure. So really it's the gel on my brush, touching the gel on the nail plate, rather than the bristles on my brush, touching the gel on the nail plate. If you find that you've gotten to the free edge and there isn't enough product on the nail plate for a perfect apex, you can just add another bead in and let that bead flow into the existing product. You can help that move a little bit using your gel brush or a liner brush and touch up the areas that need to be touched up while you're doing that, then it's just a case of flipping the hand upside down and allowing gravity to draw that Apex down and help to self level that product with our last method, we're starting off with a slip layer, as we do with all of our methods, and essentially it's a combination of the first and the second method put together into one. We're kind of letting the bead do its own thing, along with manipulating it and speeding up that process, rather than just letting it level by itself. So essentially, it's a little bit less floating than the second method and a. Little bit less weight in than the first method, we're still going to flip our hand upside down. Then we're going to use a liner brush just to perfect those side walls and drag any product there that might be missing, and that's it. Once you're happy, you can pop it in the lamp to cure for 60 seconds. Once all the nails are cured, you can wipe that down with isopropyl alcohol, and because we're using Express you could finish the service here and leave that built in top coat in place. Or you can go in and refine the product and perfect it further. However, if I did want to go in with colour because of that built in top coat, it's important that I give them a buff down. First of all, if I attempted to go straight in with colour or top coat, this might just peel off, because that built in top coat is so shiny, so it's important to mattify and almost texturise that nail a little bit first in order to aid in adhesion. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I hope you've learned something. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know below, and I will see you in the next one. Bye.