

If you wish to extend the length of your nails beyond your nail plate’s natural free edge, overlays aren’t for you. Overlays are also an excellent solution for anyone who bites their nails or who struggles to grow them, since they provide additional protection for nails that are prone to breakage and are weak. If you’d like to only use overlays with no gel polish, you can use a camouflage rubber base coat or polygel in beige, peach or pink either without or with a shimmer to make your nails look elegant and glossy. Overlays are an ideal reinforcement under gel polish or in place of standard nail polish as an attractive and natural-looking coating for your nails. Overlays can also prolong the lifespan of a gel manicure and can help naturally weak and thin nails grow out without getting damaged by supplying a protective coat. They also reinforce and support your nail plate to guard against nail breakage and make your nails appear thicker. This is because they fill in any dents in your natural nails. Overlays are an ideal manicuring solution if you want your nail plate to look smoother. Overlay nails are suitable for use with a variety of nail designs, and nail overlays can be finished with colored acrylic nails rather than gel polish if you prefer. The result is a perfect matte or glossy gel manicure. Often, nail overlays are used with gel polish to provide an extra layer beneath the polish to reinforce the nail and smooth the ridges and dents on the nail plate.

While gel polish only provides a colored coating for your nails, nail overlays aren’t just about color. Is There a Difference Between Gel Polish and a Nail Overlay? Lots of people choose to leave their extensions in place for a long period, choosing only to do regular infills instead. This leaves a grown out area of bare nail which needs to be covered up with new extension material then connected seamlessly to old extension material.ĭoing infills is cheaper and easier than re-creating nail extensions, and it also allows you to keep your chosen nail design. Infills involve only filling in the natural nail’s naked parts between a nail extension – or area covered with polish – and the cuticle.Īs the nails grow out naturally over time, a gap will appear, and since nails grow fairly rapidly, manicures begin to look strange within just a few weeks with the design getting pushed downwards. Is There a Difference Between Infills and Overlays? Similar to nail extensions, an overlay is spread over your nail using a sculpting brush with a C-curve being formed for reinforcement. Nail overlays use identical materials to nail extensions however, the process of application is different. Extensions are glued onto the wearer’s own natural nail and then overlaid with gel or acrylic, so they have a more secure finish.Įxtensions have tips which are glued onto the nail or, alternatively, with forms which act as a base for added material. Nail tips, otherwise known as extensions, are made from durable yet lightweight plastic that is trimmed to the wearer’s chosen shape, like coffin or almond. Extensions, meanwhile, will extend over its free edge. The primary difference between nail extensions and overlays is that overlays only cover your natural nail. What Is the Difference Between Nail Extensions and Overlays? Extra material must be left in this stress zone, so a slight and natural-looking curve is formed that tapers off at the nail’s free edge, close to the cuticle and at the side edges. Meanwhile, the overlay’s thickest point must be lengthwise, in the center of the nail’s natural bed, since this is the nail’s stress zone which requires reinforcement to guard against breakage. Rather, the free edge must be the nail overlay’s thinnest part unless extra material is being added to counterbalance a thin nail that tends to curl upwards. The overlay’s free edge shouldn’t be thick as if lots of material is piled onto the nail’s free edge they may break. What Are the Main Features of Nail Overlays?Ī key element of overlays is avoiding adding any additional material to the nail’s free edge.

This results in a neat and attractive look before being buffed for an attractive and glossy effect. Rather, it involves a hard-wearing, strong gel or acrylic being directly applied onto the natural nail and then shaped manually. Unlike extensions, a nail overlay won’t extend the wearer’s own nail. Two kinds of false nails exist – overlays and extensions. Enjoy Healthier-Looking Nails With Nail Overlays.What Is the History of Nail Overlays and Extensions?.How Do I Prepare My Nails for Overlays?.Should I Apply Overlays to My Natural Nails?.Is There a Difference Between Gel Polish and a Nail Overlay?.

Is There a Difference Between Infills and Overlays?.What Is the Difference Between Nail Extensions and Overlays?.What Are the Main Features of Nail Overlays?.
