UNT Ready For Takeoff over gel

I'm a die hard UK indie polish fan, but I haven't yet found a peel-off base coat from a UK indie polish maker, so I've been testing UNT's peel-off basecoat for two months. I've finally found a method that works for me and my nails. Let me know in the comments if you have any tips or tricks for getting the most out of peel-off base coat.

UNT is a Taiwanese company, and Ready For Takeoff has myriad fantastic reviews. The closest alternative I've come across seems to be Holo Taco's Peely Base, which is a bit tricky to get your hands on in the UK (although I have a lovely friend who has sent me one and I'll be testing that next). I'm sure there are more out there, but from the comparisons and reviews I've seen, these two are pretty similar in performance.

After many weeks of trying different application techniques and combinations of other polishes, I've found the method below to work best for me. Your priorities may be different but my situation is as follows:

- I have soft nails so I have to wear gel to grow them

- I only have time to change my gel on weekends so it needs to last well

- I change my mani almost every day

- My skin is very sensitive so the less product I use on it the better

- I'm impatient so I don't want it to take ages to peel off a mani or remove my gel

Test 1:

Colour gel mani (OPI base coat, Bluesky hard gel, colour gel and top coat), followed by a coat of Ready For Takeoff and then a nail polish mani (2-3 coats of polish and top coat).

With this method, my peelies didn't come off in a single piece and I had to hack at them with a cuticle remover. Fortunately the gel protected my natural nails. However, I had a lot of lifting and chipping of the gel around the edges from constantly picking at the nail polish to peel it off.

The OPI base coat meant gel removal was easy as it doesn't adhere to my nails as hard as Bluesky does. The Bluesky hard gel also crumbles when soaked in acetone which is convenient.

Test 2:

Clear gel mani (Bluesky base coat, lots of Bluesky hard gel and top coat), followed by Ready For Takeoff and nail polish/top coat.

Once I started trying to do proper swatches and product tests, I decided a clear gel base would show the products more accurately. This worked better than the first method but I still had some lifting and chipping. Bear in mind my gel manis don't chip if I just wear them on their own - it's the use of them as a canvas for other stuff that does the damage.

I discovered at this point that the more coats of polish, nail art and top coat I had over the UNT, the more likely I was to get a whole peelie, so I made sure I had a minimum of 4 coats on before peeling.

Removing this gel was also pretty easy.

Test 3 (bingo!):

Clear gel matte mani (Bluesky base coat, Candy Coat clear builder gel and Bluesky matte top coat) followed by cuticle oil slightly rubbed in, and then Ready For Takeoff followed by nail polish and top coat in at least 4 coats.

My friend gave me some Candy Coat builder gel to try and it's much thicker and stronger than Bluesky hard gel, so it requires fewer coats and makes my nails harder. Cristine of Simply Nailogical posted on her Instagram story that she doesn't dehydrate her nail plate before applying Peely Base when swatching, but rather leaves her cuticle oil to soak in, as it eases removal. This tip, in addition to the use of matte top coat which allows me to slide the cuticle pusher under the peelie more easily, has been the Goldilocks spot for me. I get full peelies with almost no gel lifting at all. My gel also lasts much longer with Candy Coat. Woohoo!

The only downside to this is that it's absolutely impossible to remove. I'm still working on getting it off without destroying my nails.

Other notes:

When applying Ready For Takeoff, I leave a larger margin around the nail than I do with nail polish because I found that using a clean up brush dipped in acetone around the edges was lifting the base coat ever so slightly - not an awful lot, but it was visible in photos. Leaving a larger margin means that I have to go around my nail with a cotton bud soaked in polish remover after peeling, but it makes neat manicures easier and also means I don't accidentally lift the gel as I don't peel right at the edge.

When I first started using peel-off base coat, I sort of expected it to randomly peel and pop off and generally make my nails look a bit bedraggled, but that hasn't been the case at all in my experience. I have to very deliberately peel it off, starting the peel with a sharpish object. That said, my nails are pretty 'adhesive' as I struggle to get gel polish off too, whereas I know some people struggle to keep polish on.

I plan to do a similar test with my Holo Taco Peely Base, so for any other soft nailed polish addicts out there, stay tuned.

I have gotten UNT from rainbow-connection.co.uk and eBay, and I recently put in an order on UNT's own website which arrived within a week and included some freebies. Sadly this website will be shutting down at the end of August 2020, so get your orders in to benefit from really great deals! I know hypnoticpolish.com sells Ready For Takeoff in the EU and if you're in the States, store.whatsupnails.com has a whole range of UNT products. I'm sure there are many other stockists all over the world - let me know where you get yours in the comments.