GELibility Take 2: Success at creating a holographic gel polish!
I’ve been playing with my GELibility again, and this time I was successful at creating a holographic gel polish! Woo hoo! If you don’t know what Gelibility is, it’s a custom formulated clear gel that can be mixed with regular nail polish (RNP) to turn it into gel polish. I did a full review of GELibility a few weeks ago (read it here), and in those trials I was unsuccessful at getting holographic effects when mixing a holo polish with the gel. I did a drop for drop ratio when mixing the RNP with GELibility. After writing that post, the creator of GELibility did some of her own trials and discovered that one drop of GELibility actually has more volume than a drop of regular nail polish so I was actually adding too much gel into my mixture which greatly diluted the colors and effects.
In my recent trials I switched to a ratio of 1 drop of GELibility for every 2 drops of regular nail polish… what a difference!! Of course the effects will vary depending on the polish that you’re using, but I found this combination to work much better. Below is a picture that demonstrates the side-by-side comparisons of the RNP to the GELiblity mixtures. I applied three coats of each. From left-to-right, the colors shown here are Llarowe Show Me Again!, KBShimmer Shore Thing, Elevation Polish Haleakala, Glitter Daze Flowers Are a Girl’s Best Friend, and Girly Bits What Happens in Vegas Ends Up on Instagram. These are all indie polishes, and a couple of them are also colors that I used in my first trial. The first color on the left, Llarowe Show Me Again, is a gorgeous duochrome, and with this new ratio the effects are much improved. Obviously adding a clear gel to any color is going to dilute it somewhat, but I’m pretty happy with how these finishes turned out.
I’m most happy that I was actually able to get a holographic effect! Below is another shot of my nails with Haleakala by Elevation Polish. This is a highly pigmented holographic polish, and adding the gel only muted the effect slightly. I was also sure to only apply a very thin layer of top coat over the color coats because I know from past experiences that a thick gel top coat will also mute holographic effects.
In these trials I used a nail art color palette from Bundle Monster to mix my gel polish creations. This dish was absolutely perfect for this use since it has several round pods to hold the different color mixtures. I also found this tray very easy to clean when I was finished. I just took a paper towel with some alcohol on it and wiped each little pod out.
I also used one of the brushes from my Bundle Monster UV Gel / Acrylic Nail Art brush set. This set of 6 is perfect for using with gel polishes. The first angled brush is great for cleaning up along the cuticle area before curing your gel polish. The brush all of the way on the right is the one that I used for this experiment. I also cleaned the brush with a paper towel and alcohol.
Thank you for the update! I am thrilled to learn more about the Gelability product and also to learn about the palette and brushes.
Have you done any wear tests since trying the 2:1 ratio? Is the wear closer to the gel polish experience or more like a gelly sandwich? I generally get 10 days with no issues using gel polish and can stretch it to 2 weeks, but there will be wear on the tips or occasional small chips. With a gelly sandwich, I get more like 7 days. Still way better than regular polish on its own, of course.
I haven’t done any wear tests on Gelibility yet. I hope to do one at some point, but I am conducting others right now and they take some time :)
Im new to this blog so…
are you telling me I can mix this gellibility to any regular polish and get the same wearability as with gel polishes? I’m so very interested. Where can I order some and can I contact you with questions?
Thanks so much
Teresa
Yes, you can mix Gelibility with a regular nail polish and it will cure and wear like a gel polish. There are a few links to the product on Amazon.com in my post above. I recommend reaching out to the manufacturer with questions. Thanks!
Awesome news! It looks so gorgeous, I can’t wait to try this with all my RNP.
This is a game changer:) thanks for sharing!
I just took off my first Gelibility mani, full 2 weeks with normal gel wear. Thank you so much for endorsing a great product. I now have on my first holo-gel mani. I cannot wait to see if this will wear a full 2 weeks.
Awesome – I’m glad to hear that the mani held up for you the whole time!
Thank you! Once again you have revolutionized my nails. As far as I’m concerned you have the best research out there. I work in fashion – and must have a perfect (not to mention to-die-for) nails for work. I am terrified of the things you can pick up at the nail places in nyc so I do mine at home. Costs less and I can wear my pjs. Since I found your blog I get so many comments. I know just what to buy and then there are things like this that just step up my game exponentially. Thank you very much.
So I just ordered this – SO excited for how much this expands my color choices for gel nails! I was watching a video review and it said that you needed a 16W LED lamp to cure Gelibility – I was wondering what type of lamp you used to cure yours? I have a 12W LED and it has worked perfectly for everything I’ve tried, but wanted to know if it would still work for this – can you speak to this?
Nancy,
I am the creator of Gelibility and yes, your 12 watt lamp will work, just be sure to cure for the full 60 seconds. You can’t over cure Gelibility, but you can definitely under cure, so be mindful of the time.
Thanks for your reviews! I’m really excited about Gelibility–great way to get longer use out of those rare or expensive polishes for fear of not being able to replace them.
I find when I use holographic polishes they go on patchy unless I use Aqua Base. Did you use this as well? Do you think you’d have to add Gelibility to Aqua Base as well?
I have never used Aqua Base and am not sure what it is.
WOW! I’m surprised. I really have a problem with patchiness when I use holographic nail polish. This blog demonstrates the patchiness I’m talking about as well as Aqua Base. I wonder what you do different from me that you don’t get patchiness. http://goldenankh.blogspot.ca/2012/05/why-everyone-should-own-aqua-base.html
This link no longer works. I was really interested in learning about what you do for patchiness and how or why even sonwone would use aqua base I am unfamiliar with the product and I always relish learning new techbiques as well as learning about new revolutionary techniques. Pretty obvious since I’m here, no? LoL
But the link, she is DEAD DEAD DEAD… )-:
Has anyone tried using only the “fix it”? Meaning, has anyone used a base/top coat that was not the one in the set, “stick it”?
Hi Nikole,
Yes, actually for the first time this past weekend, I used Gelish foundation for my base coat with the Fix it (I used Gelish TIO for my top coat too). I was using a Gelibility-made polish on some nails and a regular gel polish on others, and didn’t feel like using 2 different foundations. I got 2 very minor chips on one finger with the Gelibility polish, but honestly I suspect that’s because I didn’t prep my nails with Gelish phBond or anything. Gel polish loves my nails, so much so that I rarely ever use the phBond and certainly never any true bond product – of course this becomes a disadvantage at soak off time. :-( So I’m mixing with RNP, I think I’ll need to remember to use the phBond when using Gelibility polishes to prevent any possible chipping. Otherwise, the Gelibility polish on all of my other nails is holding up brilliantly. All in all, I don’t think using a different base or tc is an issue.