Gelish Harmony Hard LED Clear Builder Gel, 0.5 Ounce

I use this to make my nails longer, read below for how I do it. This method works for me with my equipment, your mileage may vary!I love this gel, it is self-leveling and I get smooth results! This is HARD GEL, if you want something to just give your nails a little hardness then you can use STRUCTURE GEL.....it's softer. I'll do a review on that too.I had acrylic nails lately and they were a thick mess. Rather than go back and have them further butchered I bought this gel and now I do my own fill ins. Yes you can use this gel to do fill ins over acrylic nails! When the acrylics pop off (because that's how schitty a job the tech did) I just replace them with a dual form gel nail and they are slender and pretty and look like my own nails!This is what I use and how I do it.*GELISH 18G LED LIGHT: Yes it's expensive. Yes it's worth every dang penny! I wasted more than this costs, buying lesser quality lights. It works with every single gel polish I've tried. It never fails me and I can always count on whatever I use, working. My instructions are based on my light and I can't be sure what results you'll have with other lights. I've watched Youtube videos of people doing these nails with other lights and their instructions didn't work with my light or they used much longer times.*HARMONY PRO BOND: Yes you want this instead of just the PH Bond. Don't try to sub alcohol or acetone for this. Just buy it. It's cheap and it lasts forever*DUAL FORMS: I got the 100 pcs for about $5, I'll try to put a link in my review.*HARMONY HARD LED BUILDER GEL: Make sure it's the hard builder and not structure*#6 nail brush*IBD LED/UV Bonder*Very fine buffer squareStarting with clean nails----use the very fine buffer sponge and lightly buff your nails in a downward motion from cuticle to free edge. Just enough to take off shine. Wipe with alcohol then dab on Pro Bond. Let dry.Apply a thin coat of IBD LED/UV bonder, cure 5 seconds in Gelish light. (this is LED light)Select the dual forms that fit best on your natural nails---make sure they fit from side to side, edge to edge, without overlapping or having a gap. File to fit if you need to.One nail at a time, paint a light coating of Builder Gel inside the dual form. Place inside your light and cure 5 seconds.Paint another light coating of the builder gel inside the nail. Fit the nail to your finger and press gently--don't make the gel squish out. Make sure there are no bubbles under the form. Place the finger under the light and cure 30 seconds.Remove finger from light, grab form at end with tabs and gently work it side to side to remove the dual form from the nail. If the form is not damaged you can put it back in your box and use it again.At this point the form should release cleanly from the nail and you are left with a shiny nail. It may be soft-ish. That's where I do something I have not seen in any other how to: put the finger back under the light (now minus the dual form) and cure another 20 seconds.Trim nail to desired length.To paint just lightly buff with the sponge, use your foundation and color coats like normal. I get over a month of color with this method and just fill in as they grow out.

I started using Gelish when my work told me I could no longer wear fake nails. Unfortunately my real nails are so brittle that plain polish was out of the question. So I tried gelish and it saved my sanity from having ugly short nails. I just had to apply extra coats of gelish to thicken my nails to keep them from bending, which was fine but time consuming.Then I found this product, it's much thicker to work with but not difficult, and has amazing results. It allows for a much harder nail surface without more then one layer of the product. My nails are shiney and keep a tough surface.Perfect!! :)Just prep your nails as usual creating a rough surface first, cleanse with blue soultion, apply your ph balance, then apply your foundation, cure, (apply color, cure) apply gel builder, cure, apply top coat, cure, then rub with alcohol and done.NOTE: If you want color, I suggest adding it in after the foundation and before the gel builder. I think the heavy top layers protect the color longer.So far I'm very impressed and I absolutely recommend it to all!!

I wouldn’t recommend this product if you’re expecting something hard like acrylic. My nails were still slightly bendable / flexible and many of them ended up cracking. I’m a waitress so I’m pretty hard on my nails and I was expecting more out of this product.Update***I recently got married and my mom paid for me to get my nails done at a salon. I got a full set of acrylics done and they were beautiful and lasted a long time!! However, acrylics do not have any flexibility and I ended up hurting my nails on multiple occasions. I have much more appreciation for this product!! It doesn’t usually lift, and only cracks if my nails are really long and I end up hitting them on something, or I do a sloppy/rushed job at doing them. Very easy to apply with brushes and easy to clean off with acetone. I love using gel because it’s so easy to do simple designs without having to use tape that ruins your polish. I personally only do about 2 layers of this before doing any colors. I finish it off with “top it off” by gelish and I have a near perfect mani every time. If you want more of a thicker nail, you could always do more layers.

The hard gel is great for creating nail extensions. It's more viscous than the soak off builder gel (white jar). I use less for a thin but strong application, which is perfect for maintaining long nails; your nails won't bend, crack & break when you accidentally jab it into everyday things.This can replace the soak off builder gel, although I feel like you should have both depending on what you want to do. The soak off builder gel is great for mixing with pigments, glitters and setting in jewels/studs/cabochons. Not so much creating nail extensions as it is less viscous, so it runs. I would cure your nail under the LED/UV light asap with this one.About me: Non-professional with love for gels & nail art. My nails are brittle so gels saved me. Self taught & quick learner. Patience is key. Everything you do is going to be hard at first. take the time

In the past, I had used this brand's structure gel and, although I loved it, I stopped using it when they stopped selling it to the public. Given that this is the same brand and it's supposed to be a "builder" gel, I gave it a try. I was a little overdue for a manicure so as soon as I received it, I used it, and IMMEDIATELY I returned it. It was really difficult to use as it is more liquidity than it should be. Due to this, it would go directly to towards the edge. By the end of the first week of applying it, the gel from most of my nails had lifted. I am, definitely, NOT a fan of this product.

This product is really great and to me a lot easier to use than normal poly gel but the container is leaking out the top even though it is all the way shut resulting in me losing product when I’m not even using it. I probably won’t be buying again for that reason because it was $20.