Why is my Gel Base Coat so sticky? These are the reasons and answers.

You have your favourite fluffy boudoir slippers on and a soft dressing gown. Now you can binge-watch Netflix while giving yourself a professional home manicure. Your nails are feeling sticky.

It can be frustrating to have tacky nails that don’t give your manicure a glossy, smooth finish.

What’s the problem?

Let’s first look at why your nails feel so tacky after applying a gel basecoat to your nails in your home.

We’ve now covered the short answer to why your nails feel tacky after you spend time preparing them by filing, buffing and clipping your cuticles. Let’s look at the differences between a normal and gel base coat to find out why one is more likely to stay sticky until the end.

What is the difference between a gel and a regular base coat?

Base coats served a different purpose in the old days of traditional polishes. Let’s take a closer look at why a traditional base coat isn’t tacky.

Why isn’t a traditional basecoat sticky?

You used base coats with older nail varnishes for a completely different purpose.

These were made to ensure that your nail varnish colours didn’t stain. This was especially important if you used dark colours like reds or deeper, more edgy ones like blacks and blues.

The base coat needs to dry completely before applying your nail colour. However, it dried quickly. Gel nail base coats require curing under a light source. It doesn’t need to be dried under a lamp. The traditional base coats can be dried similarly to the normal nail colours and topcoats.

It is possible for your base coat to be sticky if used with one of the dry varnishes or colours, but not a gel colour.

You may wonder what a gel base coat is and why it feels sticky once applied.

Why is a gel-based base coat so sticky?

Gel polish is not something you can do without it.

Your gel manicure base coat will ensure that the gel polish sticks to your nails. The base coat must be sticky to ensure that your top gel colour sticks to it.

Gel manicures are sticky because each layer, which includes your base, colour, and topcoat, feels sticky. You can remove this stickiness with rubbing alcohol or gel cleanser.