What is Rubber Base Gel?

What is “rubber base” gel?

It’s a funny term, isn’t it?

Rubber base is a gel that is supposed to have flexibility and a rubbery-feel after being cured.

In this video, I want to give you a bit of the origin story behind the term “rubber base” and what it means out there on these -nail- streets.

Let’s begin.

In short, “rubber base” is a marketing term, but it does have an origin story. When the term is used, it actually refers to a couple of products in the market.

The origin story.

I want to preface this by saying that this is my personal account of the origin of the word “rubber base.” This is now my 12th year in the industry, so again, I am just going by my account of how I saw this term emerge in our nail community.

5-8 years ago, the popularity of applying a soft gel base coat under a hard gel builder became a thing. This is because hard gel, as its name implies, is hard, without a lot of flexibility… And so on flexible nails, hard gel would lift easily.

The answer… neutralize that rigidity by using a soft gel base coat. 

But to someone like you and me, who specialize in structure soft gel systems, that didn’t matter much, as well-developed structure soft gel systems, like Bio Sculpture and Japanese gel brands, offer both soft gel and semi-hard rigidities, making them suitable for all nail types by prescribing the correct gel viscosity to the nails without having to resort to hard gel.

… Essentially solving that puzzle of compatibility, years and years ago.

But it became a thing… Put a soft gel base under your hard gel for better flexibility, specifically one that feels like “rubber.” This means that when you bend it, it doesn’t break—it flexes instead.

It is human nature to want to classify things quickly, and when a name clicks, we just stick to it. For techs, the easiest way to describe what type of base gel to put under hard gel was to describe how that base gel actually felt… rubbery.

Enter the name “rubber base”.

Another characteristic of rubber-based gel is its viscosity.

It couldn’t be a “gel polish” base coat with a watery consistency… It had to be a soft gel base with viscosity.

(Again… We structure soft gel specialists already knew that having viscosity in our soft gels was key for retention and prescribing the right viscosity to different nail lengths and flexibilities.)

So rubber base was not a new product development, the term itself was the newly discovered thing.

Now stick around till the end, because the term has taken a turn in its meaning within the last few years.

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Because of how easily product system names can change via the fast flow of information on social media, I created a free e-book called Gel Nails 101, so you can learn to identify any gel in the market regardless of trending names. To get it, click here.

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Is a rubber base gel really rubbery-feeling?

I guess that if you’re thinking of rubber like a rubber band with that kind of elasticity, imagining that it could be stretched from here to the end of the table, then no, rubber base is not that kind of rubber.

However, if we think of rubber as a material, for instance, a rubber tire, then we’re on the same page.

The best visual for this is considering phone cases.

Usually, phone cases consist of a hard acrylic case and a soft silicone case. If my phone is in a hard acrylic case, upon impact, it will break. If my phone were in a silicone case, that silicone case would absorb the shock of the impact and not break.

Rubber base is like that silicone case.

When it truly is flexible, almost silicone-like, it wears well on all nail types BECAUSE it’s only going to flex as much as the natural nail itself flexes. And nail materials that are worn with the nail have the best retention.

In my experience, only a few bases of the handful of soft gel nail products I’ve worked with actually have that rubbery, silicone-ish, flexible feel.

They are:

Gelish Foundation Gel

Bio Sculpture Clear Gel

Leafgel Smooth-fit Base Gel

You can test your structure soft gel and see how rubbery or flexible it feels to you by curing a patch of it on a flexible surface that would allow you to then peel it off after you cure it. You’ll then roll it, and even bend it in half. If it cracks or even if it has hard edges to it… I wouldn’t consider it a rubber base gel.

What does rubber base mean nowadays?

These lower-viscosity builder gels with flexible properties started becoming a hot thing in the industry. The creativity of labs abroad and the entrepreneurial spirit of nail technicians blossomed, eventually pioneering a new product in the market—tinted bottled builders.

In my opinion, this is the NEW product discovered, NOT rubber-base gel, because all that was… was a structure soft gel base, renamed.

Thanks to social media, and the fast flow of information in it… Things got lost in translation.

As I recalled earlier in the origin story, rubber base no longer means rubbery-feeling. Rubber base now seems to refer to tinted bottled builder systems.

Yes, it seems as though the trendy names BIAB and rubber base are actually being used interchangeably now.

As a reminder, BIAB stands for “builder in a bottle,” these bottled builders are often offered in various tinted shades, not just clear.

However, if you look on certain brand pages, you will see their tinted bottled builders termed “rubber base.”

I haven’t tried tinted bottled builders that are actually named in their title “rubber base.” They may feel like rubber, but I don’t know. You could certainly do that strip test to test their flexibility.

But in my experience, with the 3 tinted bottled builders that I’ve tried out on my nails in the last 6 years or so (sidenote: I’ve only used Nail Thoughts bottled builders for the last 4 years)… none of them feel like rubber. They feel, in fact, like a term Kokoist coined, and that is semi-hard gel.

So to my knowledge, tinted BIABs and tinted rubber base gels would be the same thing.

And so yes, nowadays most often, when you hear the word rubber base, most likely someone is referring to tinted bottled builders when they are using that term.

And I gotta tell you…

Bottled builders are not a passing trend, they are certainly here to stay because of these 3 reasons:

1. They are easier and thereby quicker to apply than potted builders, and time is money for both the tech and the client
2. They accentuate the look and feel of a person’s very own natural nails, and clients long for wearing their very own nails if they can
3. They are ideal for short to medium nail-length wearers, which turns out in most cases, that’s what the majority of our clientele is

And listen, I’m a potted gel nail artist, and probably always will be, but there is a huge home for bottled builders, and believe me, it took me a while to fully embrace them.

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Before I bring it all home for you, I want to let you know that I have a tinted bottled builder certification coming up. The Nail Thoughts bottled gel system is made by the Japanese gel nail company Kokoist. If you want to master the art of creating natural nail length overlays with a high quality bottled builder gel system, you’ll want to be part of this upcoming certification. Enrollment is opening in just a few days, so sign up for the waitlist here to keep up with all the details, including class date, price, and materials required. K. Let’s wrap up today’s topic.

Final thoughts…

Rubber base gel became a term when nail artists wanted to describe a clear base gel with viscosity and some flexibility.

The surprise of realizing soft gel could have viscosity to it, pioneered a new product type in the market -tinted bottled soft gel builder- and that journey led to many brands and techs to use the terms rubber base gel to refer to these tinted builders as “rubber base gel”.

However, the truth is that many of these tinted bottled soft gel builders are more semi-hard in rigidity than rubbery-like. There are actually just a few clear bases in the industry that feel rubbery.

I am able to see past trendy names quickly because I understand that there are only two categories of nail gels in the industry: soft gel and hard gel. Both of these apply, wear, and remove differently. If you’re delving into using rubber-base gel or tinted builder gels, and perhaps you’re already hooked on them, and so are your clients, then consider specializing in structure soft gel systems.

I don’t advise offering everything in the industry. I created a free masterclass to tell you more about my journey and love for structure soft gel systems and how they can help you master all of your gel nail services using only tried-and-true structure soft gel systems. Check out this free masterclass here.

If you want to continue growing with me, stick around for the next one and don’t forget to subscribe.

See you in the next one.

Paola Ponce is a licensed nail tech of 10+ years and a certified Japanese gel educator.

Learn more about her journey as a specialized gel nail artist and her gel nail application course inside her free masterclass here.

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