Thinking of changing brand

[ChloeeR]

I have been a mobile nail tech since July 2020 and use the Bluesky system. I have a mixture of some of the standard range and some of the professional range and on the whole have been fairly happy with it. Clients are happy as it lasts a good amount of time too. However as a user of the product I do find that some colour shades require two to four thin coats sometimes before I am happy with the coverage, particularly the lighter colours.
I am thinking that I may look to overhaul the whole system later in the year and looking to see what people rate the best. At the moment I am drawn towards Cuccio or Lecente? I use the gel polishes as well as builder gels.
can you give me your opinions on brand please? X

 

[Medeis Nails]

Lecente would be a fine choice.
I personally use Light Elegance, but I am a fan of Ikoniq and CND. All of those are high quality brands with their own chemists who stand behind their products.

 

[TheDuchess]

I’m a Cuccio salon and I’ve used it for 5-6 years. The gel is very hard wearing, but quite drying and tough to remove. I don’t love it for these reasons. The Head Office staff are not all Nail professionals and questions are often referred out to self employed trainers who have their own businesses to run, so of course the replies to queries take a little while.

They aren’t proactive in training at all - I don’t receive any tips or indeed branding support at all - just product launches and offer codes. I think I love the brand concept but not the U.K. support. None of our clients are aware of the brand. We refer to it as “The biggest brand you’ve never heard of”.

The mani/pedi products are wonderful, really good. However the colours are often not quite right and they go out of stock for long periods - or a colour we love and is very popular will be discontinued (we get that a lot). They don’t seem to be responsive to the UK market and it seems that different colours sell poorly in the US compared to the U.K. (who knew!). I guess it’s the light levels - I notice that my U.K. wardrobe often looks drab in sunnier countries.

Ditching 130 colours is quite a big step. And they last ages. I haven’t lost a single gel or polish in 8 months of lockdown. The bottles look very pretty on the shelf, especially with matching polish bottles in front. I had the chance to buy a closing salon’s Artistic stock and didn’t go for it, because I have to say I thought they’d detract from my “look”. Which isn’t a good reason to ignore a brand, but clients do buy polish with their eyes and they are drawn to my display (I was turning bottles in lockdown in case you were wondering)

 

[user 95727]

Lecente would be a fine choice.
I personally use Light Elegance, but I am a fan of Ikoniq and CND. All of those are high quality brands with their own chemists who stand behind their products.

Do you use their new P+ range in the bottles or just the pots? x

 

[Medeis Nails]

Do you use their new P+ range in the bottles or just the pots? x

Their P+ range is all soak off gel polish and really high quality pigment, so I use them most of the time, especially on clients with thinner nails. The colours in the pots are all hard gel, so have to be filed off, and I use them on occasion (mostly the Buttercreams) for art

 

[ajane]

I use Cuccio (plus others when the colours right) and agree with The Duchess about everything, although I’m not a nail tech (offer beauty and holistic treatments) so I’m not using them day in day out and I’ve not noticed the lacquer drying the nails but the gel did until I changed over to using the Builder gel as the base coat, the nails seem to benefit from it, it wears longer plus removal is sooo much easier than with the regular gel base coat.
I do struggle with the fat brush that comes in the gel topcoat bottle. It’s too wide for some little nails so then I use my miniature.
Good luck making a choice...it can be overwhelming!

 

[TheDuchess]

Great tip about builder gel @ajane I use bio Sculpture Evo under Cuccio - same approach. I’ll buy a bottle of Cuccio builder gel next time I’m ordering.

the lacquer is excellent. Great wear and care. Clients are impressed.

 

[ajane]

Great tip about builder gel @ajane I use bio Sculpture Evo under Cuccio - same approach. I’ll buy a bottle of Cuccio builder gel next time I’m ordering.

the lacquer is excellent. Great wear and care. Clients are impressed.

Agreed, all my pedicure and manicure clients are impressed at longevity etc.
Do you use the Cuccio gel top coat? I’ve only used one other brand of gel , its top coat wasn’t as runny as Cuccio.

 

[TheDuchess]

Yes I use the Cuccio top coat, but often two thin coats to thoroughly seal the tips. I prefer Bio Sculpture’s Evo top coat and I often see it making an appearance on my colleague’s desk.

 

[ajane]

Yes I use the Cuccio top coat, but often two thin coats to thoroughly seal the tips. I prefer Bio Sculpture’s Evo top coat and I often see it making an appearance on my colleague’s desk.

! Great tip thank you xx