Gelish 18G Professional LED Light + Structure Gel Review
Friday, June 29, 2018Gelish 18G Professional LED Light + Structure Gel Review - Press sample
I hope you guys had a wonderful work week! I'm finally ready to share my thoughts on the Gelish 18G Professional LED Light and their brand new Structure Gel.
Gelish 18G Professional LED Light
This is my first high end LED lamp so I was shocked/surprised at all the bells and whistles on this. First up is the eye shield pictured above. You simply stick your hand in the lamp and gently slide the shield down to protect your eyes. I found this to be really nice when I was doing a lot of swatching because staring into a strong LED light is terrible for your eyes. It obviously doesn't entirely hide the light but it minimizes what you see significantly.
The Gelish 18G Professional LED Light is set to automatically detect when a hand (or foot) is placed inside. This is standard (which I love) but it can be deactivated by following the instructions in the manual. To use the lamp you simply select your preferred cure time (in seconds) from the touch screen on the back. Once your time is selected place your hand inside and leave it there until the light turns off. The timer will count down the seconds left on the cure. The automatic light and timer make this easy to use so you can multitask (like binge watching your fave tv show).
The only downside to using the automatic sensor was when I tried to do some test nail swatch sticks. The stick wasn't enough to trigger the light and keep it on, so I had to put my hand in the lamp to trick it into curing. If you do a lot of swatch sticks and test wheels you might prefer the manual setting.
Gelish cure times (as listed in the manual) are:
Foundation Gel: 05 seconds
Structure Gel: 30 seconds
Top It Off: 30 seconds
Gelish Colors: 20-30 seconds
Gelish Hard Gels (as listed in the manual) are:
Foundation Gel: 05 seconds
Hard Gel Clear Gel: 20 seconds
Hard Gel Builder Gels: 30 seconds
One other thing I really love about the Gelish 18G Professional LED Light is that the base is entirely removable so that you can do pedicures too. My old lamp had the same feature, but the lamp was too small to cure a whole foot. This lamp is perfectly sized for pedis, so there's no worry about dinging a nail before it's cured.
Structure Gel
Gelish Structure Gel comes in three different colors including Cover Pink, Translucent Pink, and Clear. All three work exactly the same way, but they offer three different finishes to suit your needs.
Gelish Structure Gel in Cover Pink is the most opaque of the three options. This gives the nail a nice, almost french manicure tint to it. Pictured above is one coat, which is enough to subtly cover any imperfections.
Gelish Structure Gel in Translucent Pink is happily situated between Cover Pink and Clear in terms of opacity. It's slightly tinted which hides some imperfections, but it's quite easy to see through. My swatch above shows one coat.
Gelish Structure Gel in Clear is just as it sounds. This is a clear coat to help build up the nail. My swatch above shows one coat.
Gelish Structure Gel can be used in several different ways. You can use it to add a bit of thickness (strength) to otherwise weak nails. Structure Gel can also help even out ridges, or it can be used to encapsulate nail art. The formula is thicker than a base or top coat which adds strength to the nail. This is still quite flexible, so when properly applied you shouldn't see any cracking. A proper application is one or two coats of Structure Gel over Gelish Foundation.
I've been using Structure Gel for the entire month of June to help me grow out a really bad break that occurred above the quick. The break was 1/3 of my nail so I was really concerned that nothing would help me save it. I'm happy to report that Gelish Structure Gel not only saved it, but you couldn't even tell it was broken in the first place. This helped me survive all of the rough things I do on a daily basis. Everything from typing for my day job to powerlifting and gardening. This stuff is tough!
I'm really quite pleased with my Gelish 18G Professional LED Light & Structure Gel after a month of regular use. Check out Gelish at the links below and be sure to keep an eye out for upcoming Gelish swatches. If you have questions about any of these products that I didn't cover please leave me a comment below or on one of the Gelish Instagram posts.
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