Beauty

[4doggies]

There are two women on the boards who are gel nail experts, thank you for your help so far!

Ok, I purchased the Sally Hansen kit with gel strips because I wanted the lamp and I've read that all LED lamps are basically the same. I prefer a liquid polish, but the strips worked out fine. I thought SH made a liquid gel polish, but all my CVS had were the strips, not the neutrals, only the design ones which I'm not interested in.

I then go to Walgreens and check out the Sensational liquid--yikes, $11 a bottle, polish only, no gel coat. They have a gel base (not sold separately) that goes on before the polish unlike the SH where the gel is applied over the strip. I had some Sensationail white nail tips, so I used those with the SH gel topcoat, cured it. When I did the alcohol wipe, it removed most of the shine, and I had to put a coat of clear polish over the whole thing! 3 days later, it looks fine but I don't know how it will hold up.

So..as long as I have the SH gel coat, am I locked into using their strips? Why did the alcohol wipe do great on the SH when used with the strip but removed the shine when the gel was used alone over the french tip? The tips look ok, the shine came off mainly on the lower part of the nail. I'm confused--is one brand not compatible with any other?