Builder gel · MorpethBIAB Nails in Morpeth, Northumberland

What BIAB is

Builder In A Bottle is a thicker, soak-off gel applied as an overlay on the natural nail, with a small apex built over the stress point where nails usually break. It is not an extension — nothing is added to the length — and it is not acrylic. What it does is take the flex out of a weak nail so it stops splitting before it grows.

Why people switch to it

• Natural nails actually grow instead of breaking at the free edge
• Three to four weeks between appointments, not two
• Infilled rather than removed, so there is far less filing over time
• Looks like a good natural nail, not an obviously enhanced one

Infills, not soak-offs

BIAB is designed to be infilled. At each appointment the regrowth is filled and the apex rebalanced, leaving the original product in place. That is what protects the natural nail: repeated soaking off and reapplying is what thins nails, not the gel itself. Most clients go three to four weeks and do not have a full removal for months.

Prep is where it holds or fails

A BIAB set that lifts within a week is almost always a preparation problem — cuticle work not done properly, or oil left on the plate. It is unglamorous and it takes time, which is why the appointment is longer than a gel polish. We would rather run to the hour than have you back with lifting.

Looking after them

Cuticle oil daily, gloves for washing up and cleaning, and do not use your nails as tools. If one chips or lifts, come in and let us fix it — picking at a lifted edge takes layers of the natural nail with it.