Elwira Walczak

Acrylic vs gel nails – how do I know what I need?

“What’s the difference between acrylic and hard gel? – clients ask.

If you are a Nail Tech you’ve probably heard this question many times, but do you actually know the answer? If you are not a Nail Tech you may be asking that question yourself, or you may have googled it before going to a new nail salon. Let me explain it here so next time you can show your clients that you know what you are talking about.

I’ll start from things that may be obvious but not for everyone.

To create acrylic nails we will need two main ingredients – a powder and a liquid. So we have 2 separate pots – one with the powder – polymer, and second one with the liquid – monomer. After dipping the brush in the liquid and later in the powder the monomer and polymers bond together and create a bead.

Hard gel comes in one pot. It’s an already made mixture of ingredients that we can apply on a prepared nail straight away.

The consistency of acrylic is completely different to hard gel. Acrylic bead will look more like thick icing on the cake before it sets. After a while it will be more similar to the play-dough and then it hardens (it only needs air and room temperature to set hard). The hard gel, as a name suggests, has a consistency of a gel. It can be more runny or thick. It depends on a type that we use. It will stay that way until you place your client’s hand in a UV or LED lamp. In this case a Nail Tech has an additional cost of the lamp.

Another thing that your client will notice while applying these two products is the sensation of heat spikes. To be quite honest hard gel usually burns in the lamp after a few seconds. It happens because the gel sets very quickly and the whole process is exothermic which means that heat is released. With the acrylic system we haven’t got that rapid feeling of burning because the product sets slowly. It does heat up but it is extended in time. In this instance your client won’t be screaming and jumping up and down on the chair. She probably won’t feel anything.

There is no difference between the look of finished acrylic or gel nails. If they are made properly you cannot tell which is which. But you will feel the difference in terms of strength. The acrylic is stronger/harder wearing and less flexible. Hard gel is a little bit more delicate and has more flexibility. That’s why for example the acrylic works better for clients that work in a warehouse where the hard gel might not last as well and as long on them.

You can also feel it when your clients comes for a maintenance. The acrylic is harder to file. You will need more power in your arm and a rougher nail file in your hand while hard gel is much easier to file.

What happens when your client does not want to have nails anymore? Of course we have to remove them but how? The acrylic can be soaked off (in acetone) as well as filed off. With hard gel there is only one option – filing it off. What’s quicker depends on a lot of other things but I’ll tell you about it on another occasion 😉

If we are already touching the filing subject we have to look at the dust that is created. It seams like the hard gel dust is finer when the acrylic dust has bigger particles. It will have an impact on your skin. What Nail Techs using mainly hard gel find is that their skin is very dry and needs a lot of moisturising.

There is one more thing that both of you and your clients will notice – the smell. Definitely if you walk into the salon where they do acrylic nails you will know it very quickly. It is the liquid (monomer) that gives that strong smell. I’ve worked with acrylic for a long time and I don’t even smell it any more because my nose got used to it so much but if someone else walks in they can tell straight away. It is unpleasant so if you get a very sensitive client they can feel unwell. All is caused by an ingredient called thioacetone. Unfortunately it is necessary in the polymerisation process. Talking about differences – hard gel on the other hand is odorless so happy days! There is always an alternative option for you to choose from 🙂

So my dear ladies this is how more or less acrylic vs hard gel looks like. I’m sure that if you made it up to here, you will know the answer if next time someone asks “what’s the difference” 🙂

If you can think of anything else that could be in this article or you have any questions please ask or put it in the comments 🙂

About the author

Elwira Walczak

Nail technician, educator, artist.

Shop: https://www.petitenails.co.uk/

Blog: https://elwirawalczak.com/

About Elwira Walczak

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Tel: 07511882837

Email: elwira@elwirawalczak.com

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Elwira Walczak – Acrylic vs hard gel nails – Top of page

Many of you probably thought about it at least once in your life. We all have nails without a doubt but does it mean we know how they are created? How our body produces them?

How long does it take them to grow. How long you will wait until they grow back after the bad treatment?

I hope below you will find answers for these questions.

In between the last knuckle and the nail plate, underneath your skin there is a matrix. It is a live tissue (with nerves, blood vessels, lymph) that produces cells containing lots of alpha keratin (the main building material of nails). These cells will later on become a nail plate. While matrix is producing new cells all the time, the old ones are pushed forward, squashed, compressed, flattened and become translucent. Eventually they will turn into a visible part – the nail plate. This is how nails grow.

As we already know how it happens, it’s time to answer the next question which is: how long does it take?

Well, it depends on a lot of circumstances such as diet, nutrition level, the amount of activities that you have, your age or even sex. Approximately we can say that your fingernails grow 3,5mm a month. Your toenails grow slower – around 1.6mm on average a month. Now you should be able to calculate how long does it take for your nails to complete grow back in case of any damage, overfilling etc. All you have to do is measure your nail bed (the pink part of your nails) and divide it by 3,5mm. The number that you get will tell you how many months it will take. For example, if my nail bed is 20mm long I will have to wait 5.7 months for my nail to be completely new.

Of course it is an estimated number of months but at least it gives you an idea of how long you will wait after you did something to your nail or your nails were badly treated.

I hope that this brief description of how nails grow helped you understand the process. If you have any questions please ask in the comments or contact me. I’ll do my best to answer them.