Andreia The Gel Polish TR1 Tropical Fiesta - Gel Polish 10.5ml

Andreia The Gel Polish TR1 Tropical Fiesta: the neon pink you can see through

TR1 opens Andreia's Tropical Fiesta collection, a summer limited edition of six gel polishes in 10.5 ml bottles. The official name stays deliberately plain, Tropical Fiesta TR1 - Limited Edition, and the colour does the talking: a translucent neon pink scattered with gold foil particles. This is nothing like an opaque fuchsia. The material stays see-through and the natural nail remains visible beneath the shade.

A neon that lets the light through

Most fluorescent pinks are built to hide the nail: two coats and the plate is gone. TR1 works the other way round. Its translucent body behaves like tinted glass laid over the nail, so light passes through it, bounces off the plate and comes back up. The pink then looks lit from within rather than painted on. On a healthy natural nail the lunula and the rim of the free edge stay readable, giving the jelly effect that clients start asking for as soon as the weather turns. Say so before you start, because a shade of this type conceals neither staining nor uneven natural colour.

Dialling the intensity coat by coat

The first coat lays down a fruity wash, almost a candy pink, with the nail still clearly visible underneath. The second, the one Andreia's official protocol calls for, saturates the shade: the pink turns crisp and vibrant and the foil grows denser. That is the real freedom a translucent formula gives you, since you tune the intensity to the client's brief instead of accepting a fixed opacity. Work in thin, even coats rather than one heavy pass, otherwise the gold particles gather into clusters in the middle of the plate.

What the gold foil does to the pink

The gold is not a packed glitter that covers everything; it is a fine, scattered flake suspended in the translucent base. Under direct light it switches the pink on and lends it a warmth no pure fluorescent ever has. In the shade it recedes and the colour drops back to an almost bare, tangy pink. That constant flip between two states is why the shade photographs so well outdoors: every movement of the hand changes what you see.

Choosing what to lay it over

Applied straight onto a clear base, TR1 gives its most summery reading, the one of a translucent sweet. Over a milky base or a solid white background, light no longer escapes through the nail plate but is thrown back at the eye, and the pink turns properly fluorescent, almost electric. Over a deeper nude base, or on darker skin tones, it leans coral and softer. Prepare those three readings on a sample palette; it is the fastest way to help an undecided client commit.

The Andreia protocol, step by step

Sanitise the hands, prep the plate, remove the natural shine and cleanse the nail. Apply the primer, let it air dry, lay the base coat and cure it. Then apply the first coat of TR1, capping the free edge, cure for 60 seconds under LED or 120 seconds under UV, and repeat for the second coat. Finish with the top coat, cured the same way, then remove the inhibition layer. The times quoted by the brand should be adapted to the output and generation of your own lamp.

Working comfort and the brand's claims

Andreia describes its The Gel Polish range as vegan and odour free, which matters in a closed treatment room when appointments run back to back. The fluid texture of these gel polishes spreads easily and limits brush corrections, a real help on a transparent shade where every overloaded stroke shows. The brand also states wear of up to four weeks.

When to put it on the menu

TR1 belongs to the bright months: holidays, festivals, outdoor weddings, toes. It performs best on short to medium lengths, almond or squoval, where the transparency stays legible. Pair it with TR2 and TR3 for a finger-to-finger gradient, or keep it for one or two accent nails over a nude set. Being a limited edition, it will not be around every season, which is exactly the novelty argument to push from May onwards.

Bring summer into your colour chart with Andreia The Gel Polish TR1 Tropical Fiesta and its translucent neon pink lifted by gold foil.