Can You Use a Regular Base & Top Coat with a UV Gel Polish

In this article, we are gonna be exploring whether you should use either a regular base coat or a regular top coat with a UV Gel Polish.

And what effects such a combination will have on your manicure.

1- Can You Use a Regular Base Coat with Gel Polish

A regular base coat won’t work effectively with a Gel Polish and if used together will greatly diminish the lifespan of your gel manicure.

You see regular base coats usually have a lifespan of 4-6 days. And then they start to peel and chip whilst some gel polishes are meant to last for 2-3 weeks.

So if you use a regular base coat with gel polishes your gel manicure would start to lift and peel prematurely and thus wasting your money, since gel polishes are more expensive.

For this article, I used a regular base coat with a gel polish and the gel polish peeled off after 2 days.

Gel Polishes are designed to be used with a gel base coat.

You see a Gel Base Coat will create an amazingly sticky surface on your nail plate for your gel polish to adhere to. And a regular base coat won’t do this because they use a very different formula from a gel base coat.

You can click here to read my recommendations for the Best Gel Base and Top Coat that would work with any brand of gel polish.

2- Can You use a Regular Top Coat with a Gel Polish

A regular top coat can be used over a colored gel nail polish to help them to last longer and make them more durable. This is because even a regular top coat will work as a protective layer.

A top coat layer would help to protect your gel polishes from being damaged and from being exposed to water and other chemicals that would overtime diminish your gel polish.

Now I still recommend that you use a gel top coat with your gel polish.

This is because a regular top coat won’t last as long as a gel top coat. You see a regular top coat won’t adhere so well to your gel polish and would be very prone to peeling.

Gel top coats are extremely durable and some brands can even last for 3 weeks.

In my opinion, a regular top coat is like wearing a cotton t-shirt but a gel top coat is like wearing Kevlar.

Recommended Gel Base & Top Coat

You can click here to read the Gel Base and Top Coat that I use and recommend to work with any brand of gel polish.

Citations and References

The Science of Gel Nail Polishes

The Chemistry Of Nail Polish.