Vetro gel is a brand of Japanese Gel, that made an impact in the US market by being one of the first companies to actually begin bringing nail artists at their prime directly from Japan, to come and train American nail artists.
As a result, I had the wonderful opportunity to train w/ world renowned nail artists who are still doing their thing within the Japanese gel nail industry. Among those artists, are Ageha and Tati!
In 2015, I don’t think there where any bigger Japanese nail artists then Ageha and Tati. So when their class dates where announced, I could not sign up any faster. I learned nail art tips and tricks like I’ve never learned before.
So Vetro gel was among the first Japanese gel nail brands in the USA, and at that time, the quality of their gel products was absolutely difficult to match by any American company.
I had been in the nail industry now 2 years taking clients consistently, when one day I decided to empty out my drawers of anything non-bio sculpture gel or japanese gel related. And I have not looked back since.
Shortly after I also trained and gained a technician and Instructor level certification with Vetro. By the way, to the date I have not taken a more difficult exam in nails than the Vetro Instructor Exam. Perhaps my nail technician license, but perhaps not.
It was hard indeed!
And well believe me when I say that once you touch and learn Japanese gel, you really want to touch and work with nothing else.
Which is one of the main reasons I created my very own non-product specific Japanese Gel Online Program, Master Gel Nails. It takes you step-by-step through my six figure earning services of gel manicure gel overlays and gel extensions as well as long wearing nail art using only Japanese Gel. It covers every detail of how to apply Japanese Gel Nail product for monthly wearing services, even if you just want to apply it on yourself. Head on over to mastergelnails.com to learn more about that.
Now I want to get into the details of Vetro Gel product.
Vetro offers essentially 2 types of systems.
A brush-on system and a potted gel. The resins are the same for the most part what changes between them is the viscosity.
Brush-ons (which are most commonly referred to as gel polish) are a good option for gel nail beginners, DIY’ers, or for pros working on long nail clients. It is however very important to note that Vetro’s “gel polish” line is 100% gel which means a few things. It’s less acidic, more durable and you can also expect it not to get thick in the bottle over time.
The brush on system offers a gel base and non wipe top coat., as well as 108 colors and counting. Colors for this line typically are not released as fast as colors for the potted gel system are. Recently they released this “Fizzy” Collection, which is essentially a sheer shimmery 4 color collection, and at the end of this video I’ll let you know how you may win these 4 gels. Yes! I’m giving them away.
Now the potted gel system line is so cool, and by far Vetro still continues to be among my top favorite Japanese gel nail brands to use, when it comes to potted gels. I also have enjoyed working with Kokoist and Leafgel for about the last 3-4 years and I have videos if you’d like to check those out.
In the soft potted gel system, Vetro offers 2 base options, 1 top coat, and one soak-off builder which is incredible (btw!). They also have some of the BEST nail brushes you could ever own, they are made out of synthetic nylon bristles, and seriously if you have the opportunity to buy some or all of these DO SO, mine are going on 5 years, and I still use them consistently.
I personally cannot work without the oval brush for color applications and the Max brush for application of sanding free base.
So in total there are 6 brushes.:
French, Max, Oval, Square, and 2 liners.
The French brush is perfect for painting a medium thickness French.
Max brush was created to apply Max Base Gel and that is because Max base gel has a watery consistency and this brush’s bristles are super soft and flexible.
They also do not allow you to over saturate the brush and thereby flood the cuticle area. For this reason also it can be an excellent brush for potted top gel.
Oval Brush can be used for any of your potted clear gels and colors. Again. I like mine for colors.
Square can also be used for any of your clear gels and colors, I found the best use of it with Extension Clear Gel.
Liner M allows you to draw wider even lines, while Liner S which is a bit thinner, allows you to draw the thinnest of lines.
Now Let’s jump into one of the unique features of Vetro Potted Color Gels.
Vetro Potted Color Gels are sorted within a star system. The star system classifies the color gel’s texture, or its viscosity.
Every single Vetro potted gel is categorized into this star system. So you will see either a 1,2,3, or 4 star marking on the cap of the potted gel.
1 star being the least viscous, with a softer texture and therefore easiest to apply.
While the 3 star texture is more viscous, with a hard texture. A texture like this gives you full coverage with just one layer, but if the color is too dark than do apply in 2 thin layers instead.
4 star texture gels are gels with a bit of 2d thickness to them.
So perhaps you’re thinking, Why go through all this trouble with star coding gels.
Star coding system makes it easy for the artists to choose a color based on what they want to do. So in this statement lies the answer to the question. Vetro Gel is strategically crafted for nail artists.
Many sheer or translucent colors have a 1-star soft texture, these offer easier one-color and ombre application. Two star- textured gels are very versatile and can be used for one color application, some ombres, and hand-painted nail art. 3-star hard texture colors are highly pigmented and are best for hand painted nail art..
Vetro is the only company I know to offer 4 types of Whites, and 4 types of Black. Here are each ones unique characteristics.
#23 Matte White is the Whitest white and is 3 star texture, suitable for line work.
#55 White is a Medium white and is a 2 star texture.
#905 Gradation White (is not a full opaque white, making it excellent for gradation and therefore it is 1 star texture.
And the newest white is #975 Tole White which is a Matte finish white for embossed or raised 2d nail art, for that reason it is of a 4 star hard texture.
Now on to the blacks:
#22 Black is 3 star texture and therefore the hardest texture black.
#289 Pigment Black is 2 star and therefore of medium texture.
#262 Jewel Onyx is 2 star and it is a full translucent or see-through black.
Lastly, #999 Boss Black is a Jet black for hand-painted art and line work, although soft in texture, it is not to be used as full coverage on the nail.
Now another key feature of Vetro’s potted gel is that it does not require frequent stirring.
Frequent stirring is time-consuming. Right?
But most importantly, when colors are mixed vigorously, the tiny oxygen filled air bubbles that are produced in the gel can inhibit efficient polymerization internally. This means that your color gels may not fully cure and can chip and/or lift when cured.
To eliminate the need for stirring Vetro did something very special and added thixotropic properties to their gels.
In layman terms this property allows the gel to become soft when touched with a brush, and recoil back to a firm stationary state when not being stirred or brushed on. Super cool right?!
Alright, so enough of my raving with Vetro’s potted gel, what about their clear gels?
Well… I’m glad you’re curious. As I mentioned earlier, vetro offers 2 base gels in potted form. Max and Fuji.
Both of these gels have excellent adhesion properties.
Remember that Max is of watery consistency and therefore cannot be self-leveled on the nail, and it is best applied with Max brush, don’t forget.
Now Fuji is a bit thicker and has some self-leveling property. So you can use that to your advantage to fix imperfections on the nail. You can apply this one with Oval or Flat brush.
Top Gel is an excellent potted top gel with great shine that can be used to create movement in nail art also.
But my absolute all time favorite gel, I think across all Japanese gel brands is Extreme Clear, it is in my experience the strongest soak-off builder gel and it is great and crystal clear for encapsulating nail art. Definitely invest in the 45g jar if you can. I know I did.
Now all Vetro Product fully cures in 20 secs in the Vetro Lamp, which I believe this model is offered in the US only.
Thank you for joining me today, see you next week!
