O1 · pH Balancing Prep The step that decides your lifting rate. Gel does not bond to oil. O1 neutralises the nail plate's surface pH and strips residual oil in one odourless pass, giving your base a clean, dry, chemically neutral surface to key into. The plate will look chalky and matte afterwards — that is the dehydration working. An acid-free bonder leaves the nail shiny instead; it does a different job. Best for: Every set. Oily plates, humid climates, clients who always lift by day five. Skip it if: You are using O10 or O11 — a fully dehydrated plate bonds too hard and defeats the peel. How to use: Buff lightly, dust off, apply one thin coat cuticle to free edge. Air-dries in seconds. Apply your base immediately. Cure: None. Air-dry. Do not lamp-cure. Specs: Odour ★ · Air-Dry ★★★★★
O2 · Super-Adhesive Base Thin, flexible, invisible. Adhesion with no bulk. Deliberately thin — no ledge at the sidewall, no ridge at the cuticle. It flexes with the natural nail instead of shattering when it bends. Colour laid over it stays locked for up to [45] days of adhesion; regrowth will bring your client back long before the bond gives out. Best for: Standard gel polish. Thin, bendy natural nails. Skip it if: You need structure — O2 adds grip, not strength. How to use: After O1, apply sparingly. Press the brush into the plate and drag, then level with a light stroke. Cap the free edge. Cure. Do not wipe the tacky layer before colour. Cure: 60–120 s LED Specs: Toughness ★★★★ · Hardness ★ · Self-Levelling ★★★★★ · Wear ★★★★★
O3 · Builder Base Base and structure in one application. Self-levels into a usable C-curve and holds it, giving you the adhesion of a dedicated base and the reinforcement of a light builder in a single cure. Measurably harder than a conventional base, still flexible enough not to crack on a natural nail. Best for: Natural-nail overlays, short to medium length. Skip it if: You are extending length over forms. How to use: After O1, apply a thin adhesion layer and press it in. Float a heavier bead onto the stress area and guide it into the apex. Check sidewalls for flooding before curing. Cure: 60–120 s LED Specs: Toughness ★★★★ · Hardness ★★★☆ · Self-Levelling ★★★★ · Wear ★★★★★
O4 · Water-Gel Builder The one to hand a beginner. Watery and cushioned — it releases from the brush and finds its own level in about one stroke — but the surface tension is tuned so it stalls at the cuticle line instead of running into it. Crystal-clear, so it disappears under colour or works as a clear overlay. Best for: Beginners. Anyone who floods sidewalls. Encapsulation where clarity matters. Skip it if: You want maximum hardness — that is O5. How to use: Over cured base, lay a thin bonding layer. Place a bead behind the stress area and press gently; let the gel level itself. Cap the free edge. Cure: 60–120 s LED Specs: Toughness ★★★★ · Hardness ★★★★ · Self-Levelling ★★★ · Wear ★★★★★
O5 · Builder & Strengthener If you buy one builder, buy this. Hardens as it builds, so it forms the apex and armours a weak natural nail at the same time. It also takes pigment without breaking down — making it a mixing medium for custom shades, a blooming medium, and an encapsulating clear for foil, flakes, stickers and dried flowers. Best for: Weak or over-filed nails. Encapsulation. Custom colour mixing. Skip it if: You need glass-level optical clarity — O4 is clearer. How to use: Over cured base, apply evenly and build thickness at the stress area. For encapsulation, cure a thin layer, place art, encapsulate and cure again. Cure: 60–120 s LED Specs: Toughness ★★★★ · Hardness ★★★★ · Self-Levelling ★★★★ · Wear ★★★★★
O6 · Builder Top Coat Build and finish in one layer. Thick enough to level a surface, create a C-curve or encapsulate a sticker — and it finishes glass-clear and scratch-resistant with no separate top coat over it. One fewer product, one fewer cure, one fewer interface where lifting can start. Best for: Fast sets. Encapsulating stickers, flowers and foil in a single seal. Skip it if: You want maximum gloss — O7 out-shines it — or you are finishing matte. How to use: Over cured colour or builder, place a generous bead centrally and let it flow out to the sidewalls; do not brush it thin. Guide the apex with light pressure. To encapsulate, place art on a cured surface, then flood over it and level. Cap the free edge. Cure: 60–120 s LED Specs: Toughness ★★★★☆ · Hardness ★★★★☆ · Self-Levelling ★★★★ · Shine ★★★★ · Surface Smoothness ★★★★★ · Wear Resistance ★★★★ · Wear ★★★★★
O7 · Sparkle Top Coat Whites stay white. Blacks stay clear. No optical brighteners and no fluorescing agents, so a white never develops the blue-lilac cast that gives cheap top coats away on camera, and a black cures to a mirror instead of a fog. Hard enough to resist scratching, flexible enough not to craze, and it holds its gloss well past the point most top coats have gone flat. Best for: Everything. Whites, blacks, sheers, anyone shooting content under a ring light. Skip it if: You want matte — that is O8. How to use: Over cured colour, float a moderate bead evenly across the surface. Applied too thin it will not level; brushed too hard it drags colour. Cap the free edge properly — that is where wear starts. Cure: 60–120 s LED Specs: Toughness ★★★★★ · Hardness ★★★ · Self-Levelling ★★★★★ · Shine ★★★★★ · Surface Smoothness ★★★★ · Wear Resistance ★★★★★ · Wear ★★★★★
O8 · Matte Top Coat A matte that stays matte. Cures to a genuinely flat velvet finish and holds it — no oily sheen developing at the high points, no patchy re-gloss at the free edge. Stain-resistant, which matters more for matte than for gloss: a matte surface is microscopically open and will drink up turmeric, red wine and hair dye if it is not sealed properly. Cured matte also makes an excellent watercolour ground — pigment spreads instead of beading, so your colour payoff is stronger and your edges stay controllable. Best for: Matte, velvet and suede finishes. Watercolour and airbrush bases. Skip it if: You are working over chrome — matte flattens the mirror. How to use: Over cured colour, lay one even coat and cap the free edge. Do not go back into it once it starts to level; brushmarks in matte do not self-heal the way they do in gloss. Cure: 60–120 s LED. Light-sensitive — store boxed, away from your lamp arm. Specs: Toughness ★★★★★ · Hardness ★★☆ · Self-Levelling ★★★★ · Wear ★★★★★
O9 · Tip Adhesive Reposition until you're right, then commit. Cyanoacrylate glue gives you about two seconds to place a tip, stinks, and turns white the moment it meets moisture — every misplaced tip becomes a removal. O9 stays workable until you cure it, so you can seat the tip, check the sidewalls, slide it a millimetre and check again. Cures crystal-clear with no whitening or haze at the smile line. No solvent sting, no odour. Best for: Soft gel tips and press-on application. Clients sensitive to glue fumes. Skip it if: You are sculpting on forms with no tip involved. How to use: Buff and prep the natural nail. Apply to the inside of the tip — enough to spread to the edges without squeezing out. Seat the tip, press down and hold, adjust position now if you need to, then cure while maintaining pressure. Check the sidewalls for gaps before releasing. Cure: 60–120 s LED Specs: Toughness ★★★★ · Self-Levelling ★★★★ · Wear ★★★
O10 · Peel-Off Base Change your nails weekly without paying for it in keratin. Bonds well enough to wear a full gel manicure for around 7 days, then releases in one piece when you lift the edge. No acetone, no soak, no drill, no filing back to bare keratin every seven days. Best for: Weekly changers. Swatching. Events. Content creation. Thin, over-filed nails. Skip it if: You need a two-to-four week set, or your hands are in water all day — easy removal is bought with wear time. How to use: Wipe the plate free of dust and oil. Do not use O1 first. Apply one even coat, staying slightly short of the cuticle and sidewalls so you have a lifting edge later. Cure, then build your manicure as normal on top. Remove: Soak hands in warm soapy water to loosen the seal, lift one edge with a wooden stick and peel along the length of the nail, not across it. If it resists, soak longer — never force it. Cure: 60–120 s LED Specs: Toughness ★★★★★ · Self-Levelling ★★★★ · Wear ★★★
O11 · Practice Barrier Practise on real nails. Daily. You cannot learn to sculpt an apex on a plastic tip — the angles are wrong, the flex is wrong, and everything you practised stops working on a real hand. O11 is a sacrificial layer: it air-dries onto the natural nail in seconds, you build a full practice set on top, and the whole thing lifts off in one sheet. Your natural nail never meets gel, acetone or a file. Best for: Students and self-taught techs building speed on real hands. Skip it if: You want the set to last — this is a practice layer, not a manicure base. For wearable peel-off, use O10. How to use: Wipe the plate free of dust and oil. Apply one even coat across the full plate, taking it slightly onto the very edge of the sidewall so the sheet has something to grip and lift from. Air-dry until clear and touch-dry, then build your practice set on top. Remove: Lift an edge with a wooden stick and peel the entire set away in one piece. Cure: None. Air-dry. Do not lamp-cure. Specs: Air-Dry ★★★ · Self-Levelling ★★★★★ · Wear ★★
O12 · Chrome Gel Base and sealer. No timing window. Chrome is a timing problem — rub too early and the powder sinks into a soft surface, rub too late and it will not take at all. O12 removes the window: it self-levels quickly and cures to a surface that accepts chrome powder cleanly and consistently, so you rub when you are ready. Crystal-clear, so it does not tint the powder or dull the mirror the way a slightly yellow no-wipe top coat does. Then it does the second half of the job — apply it over the rubbed powder to seal, and the chrome stays chrome. Best for: Mirror chrome, aurora and pearl powders. Skip it if: You are not working with powders. How to use: As a base: apply an even coat over cured colour, cure fully, then rub on the powder until the mirror develops. As a sealer: dust off the excess and apply a thin coat in one directional pass — brushing back and forth drags the powder and streaks the mirror. Cure: 60–120 s LED Specs: Powder Adhesion ★★★★ · Toughness ★★★ · Self-Levelling ★★★★★ · Wear ★★★★
O13 · Gem Gel Anchors the stone without drowning it. You place a crystal perfectly, seal around it with a regular top coat, the top coat floods over the facets and the crystal goes dead. O13 exists to stop that. High-clarity but deliberately thick — the viscosity is tuned so it stays exactly where the brush puts it — and paired with a fine pointed brush so you work in the gap between the stone and the plate rather than over the top of it. The same properties make it the crispest French and line-art gel in the range: a gel that does not flow gives you a clean smile line first time. Best for: Rhinestones, crystals and charms. French tips. Fine line work. Skip it if: You want a full-nail top coat — O13 is a detail gel. Use O7 over the rest of the nail. How to use: For gems: secure the stone first, then take a small amount on the point of the brush and draw it around the base, building a small fillet where stone meets nail. Keep it off the facets. For French and line art: load the point sparingly and draw in a single confident stroke. Cure: 60–120 s LED Specs: Toughness ★★★ · Self-Levelling ★★★★★ · Wear ★★★
O14 · Blooming Gel Ten seconds from dot to flower. Blooming is a chemistry trick pretending to be a painting technique — drop pigment onto the right medium and it spreads itself into a soft-edged flower with no brushwork at all. The whole thing lives or dies on the medium. O14 blooms fast and evenly, and it is crystal-clear with no yellowing or haze, which matters because a blooming gel is a full-coverage layer sitting under your entire design. Consistent spread means repeatable florals instead of one good nail out of five. Best for: Blooming florals, watercolour effects, soft-edge abstract work. Skip it if: You want hard-edged controlled line work — a gel that spreads is the opposite of what you need. Use O13. How to use: Apply an even coat over cured colour. Do not cure it yet. Dot your colour gel onto the wet surface and wait about 10 seconds while it opens into a bloom, adding further dots as the design develops. Cure only when the bloom has reached the size you want — curing stops the spread instantly. Seal with O7 or O8. Cure: 60–120 s LED Specs: Blooming ★★★★★ · Self-Levelling ★★★★☆ · Wear ★★★★★
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