

The overlay method can be helpful if you struggle with getting your nail tips to look natural. In short, if you don't do this technique correctly, you can still face a risk of developing a gel allergy.
#Whats an overlay nails how to#
"Licensed technicians know product control and how to avoid overcontact with the skin," she says. Though the technique does, in fact, allow better adherence of the tips to your natural nails, Kandalec still recommends going to a professional nail artist when working with gel polishes to avoid allergies. This technique highlights once more that we need all-inclusive sizing on nail tips, too many brands were not making tips large enough for people's thumbs, as well as transgender people who wanted to wear nails but found that the prepackaged ones were too small."


So moving the tip out further on the nail and then filling the space with gel - similar to doing a fill or retouch - allowed them to fit better. "It originated from people finding that some nail tips weren't large enough to fit their fingers. "This solution has been around," Kandalec says. Though TikTok is reintroducing the technique to the masses, it's one that's been used for years. "This method is a way to ensure better adhesion for your gel tips, or a way to make larger nails fit when the tips are too small for your own nails," celebrity manicurist Julie Kandalec tells POPSUGAR. Then you fill in that gap with the extend gel to adhere the tip to your finger. The technique itself entails placing a prepared Gel-X nail tip right above your cuticle line, leaving some space between the end of your cuticles and the nail.
