Day 55 – Nail Removal


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Day 8 – New Nails


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Day 55 – Nail Removal is a post from: Nail Technician Courses

Acyrillic Gel Nails


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French Nails




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gel nail try #2


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Acyrillic Gel Nails is a post from: Nail Technician Courses

This blog has some pretty amazing art and fashion pics with many different styles.  Based in California, their styles range from blushing brides to modern couture with many eye catching images the whole range between.

The most interesting items i would have to say are the bios of their various and talented artists.  One such talented and beautiful artist caught my attention with her history of work.

Jenifer sought to achieve her license as a cosmetologist to further broaden her creative outlets. Her keen eye for glamour and style has made her one of the top nail art designers in the area. Her signature stiletto nails, all the rage now in Europe, and her Rock Star toes, set her apart from any other nail technician.

Jenifer Haupt has had an eye for fashion, cosmetics and especially nail design.  I have come across her rock star toes in the past (awesome use of glitter and uv gel nails), but i was curious about the stiletto nails, does anyone have any pics of these?

Nail Designer – Stylist of The Month is a post from: Nail Technician Courses

Wilde Cosmetics is a modern cosmetics firm providing innovative and high quality cosmetic products ( Nail Art – Naildesign UV Gel )and services for the cosmetic market. Our core competence is the field of fingernail cosmetics. We provide the perfect equipment for Nail Designer Salons with our extensive range of light-curing resins for reinforcing and extending fingernails.

They certainly do have some interesting nail resins.  The video for this nail art tutorial is below so you can see a few different techniques for creating your nail art or the petals of your flower with a cuticle stick , some oil and a uv nail gel of your choice.

Click play, its a quick video

I’ve seen some great uv gel nails before, but this is a pretty amazing way to go about creating a piece of art.  After watching this tutorial, do you think you could recreate these beautiful nails?

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3D Nail art tutorial – Flowers Naildesign by LCN – Could You Do This? is a post from: Nail Technician Courses

Aqua Crystal Nail Art by Dreamglow Pumpkincat210

This is a really interesting set of nails that came from a blue base coat and green crystals on top.  The partially clear crystals came together with the blue polish to make a beautiful aqua.  It really makes me want to do a few nail art experiments of my own.

Not sure about you though, these look a bit fragile for my tastes.  I bet with a top coat of a clear uv nail gel, these nails may be a bit heavier than normal but would be much less prone to snagging and would last quite a long time.

has anyone worked with crystals while taking nail technology courses or taking a nail art class?

Aqua Crystal Nail Art is a post from: Nail Technician Courses

Check Out Your Competitions Gel Nails

If you are mobile nail technicfian than your prices will inherently carry a premium because of the inhome service you are providing that many others do not or will not.  If however you are in your own nail salon, you want to make sure to explore the different nail salons and beauty salons in your geographic region.  If it is in your budget i would suggest you go get gel nails or other nail treatments from all the places around you to determine what they are providing their clients, and what they are charging for the experience.  This can help you to add items or experiences to your services that may help you demand a higher price for your time.

I would suggest you experiment with your prices as best you can, but make sure to start your prices at the higher end of the services that you have received.  A very common mistake and an odd bit of human psychology is that many people will not price their time high enough to cover what it is truly worth.

It’s Math Time!

Take an inventory of how much of your supplies you will use for a given service, then put a dollar price on that. (i.e if it will take you 20 manicures to get through a bottle of something, put a dollar value of 1/20th the price of that product) do this with all of your services, then take your rent and multiply it by 1.2, divide that number by the number of gel nail manicures or other nail work you think you will be doing within that time period.  Your new rent number plus your nail supply numbers will give you a hard cost, the only thing you need to add into this is how much you think your time is worth and any extra budget that you may want to save for in your nail tech business.  hope this helps to give you an idea of where to price your gel nails!

How Much to Charge For Gel Nails? is a post from: Nail Technician Courses

1)  Warm, and Cozy. When removing Gel nails and acrylics, warming the solvent (which makes the cross links expand till they break) can cut removal , time in half.

2)  Fun to with finger bowls. Put Pretty marbles, clear stones, or glass beads (whatever fits your decore tastefully) into your fingerbowls to give your client something to “Play with” while their fingers soak.  You would be amazed at how such a little thing can add to client comfort and to a better experience.

3)  Give a good rub down. Take a reflexology class.  A little bit of a hand or foot massage at the beginning of a great nail treatment can do wonders for client referrals, and if you get good at it, that may be another service you can offer as well.

4)  Master your tools. Learn to use multistep as well as single step gel nail kits.  by practicing with both, you will be able to see the difference in your finished nails and you will get better at working with different gels and different consitencies.

5)  Damp, not wet. Place a damp towel under your gel product container.  This is a speed item for when you need to clean your brush in between layers of gel.  you can quickly use the towel right at hand to give yourself a nice clean gel brush to work with.

6)  Let There Be Light. Get a good uv lamp.  If there is one thing that could add to your professionalism as a nail technician it would be to have a quality lamp that adds comfort and more importantly adds speed to your service.  A low power lamp can tend to leave gel nails uncured fully which can be a real problem for clients down the road.

7)  Dry, like Arizona in the summer. One of the best ways to make sure a new set of gel nails stick well and last a long time without lifting or chipping is to make sure that the natural nail is a dry and free of natural oils as possible.  using acetone on a swab is good for removing the oils and a light fanning will ensure that the acetone is fully evaporated leaving you a clean dry canvas to do your fabulous gel nails on.

8)  Get a bit rough with it. Another great tip for making sure that a set of uv gel nails adhere and stay on for a long period of time is to remove the shine from the natural nail with a 240 grit nail file.  be very gentle (i know i said rough) with this, because you don’t want to over do it, by removing the shine from the nail, you have roughed up the surface just enough to give a better hold from the gel once it has cured.

Got any tips of your own you want to add to this list?  let me know in the comments!

8 Tips for Working with Nail Gels is a post from: Nail Technician Courses

Airbrushed Gel Nails

With Gel nails there are a few common styles that you will see around more often than not.  Airbrushed gel nails are very common because of the high gloss that properly cured gel provides.  it can be done with acrylic nails but gels over tips are usually the preferred canvas.  One good way to airbrush your own nails is to perform a basic gel manicure as you normally would, using the color you would like to work on top of as the color of your gel.  Next you want to setup your airbrush station, and grab a metal surface, a couple small magnets, and a stencil you have either made or bought that you would like to use.  Lay your stencil on the metal surface, and use the two small magnets to give your stencil a dome shape that you can fit your fingernail beneath.  make sure that your nail is in contact with the curved stencil and let your air brush do the rest.

Colored Gel Nail Art

Another common type of Gel Nail Art involves just using different colored gels to give yourself a long lasting flat or even 3D artistic manicure.  When working with different colored gels, make sure to lay down one color at a time, and use the thick viscosity of your building gels to create edges that you may not be able to do with acrylic powders.  cure your first color for a short bit and then apply your second color.  You can place designs on the top of a cured nail to give yourself a 3D nail design.

Clay and Gel Nails

Another very interesting type of gel nail art i have seen involves thin pieces of pre designed fimo clay that can be placed either inside the building gel, or on top of the gel nail after it has been cured.  One key to working with fimo with nail gel is to make sure the fimo is very thin, and to lay it down after you have laid a thin layer of gel on the nail.  if you use a clear sculpting gel over the fimo clay you can create a very beautiful piece of nail art.  make sure not to file into the fimo when you are finishing of your nail forms.

How to Do Gel Nail Art is a post from: Nail Technician Courses

Gel Nails: Beautiful and Difficult

The beauty of Gel nails is that they have a very natural look while still being very strong and durable.  They don’t tend to discolor or just “look fake”  like some cheap acrylics are known to.  They also have a very high gloss due to their molecular structure.  This same structure makes them very hard to remove, even more so then acrylic nails.

generally acrylic nails only require you to take the varnish off the top and just “rough them up a bit” before an acetone bath for them to melt like the wiked witches nose.  UV Gel Nails on the other hand need to be filed down to a thin layer and soaked for a good 20 – 30 minutes before they can be scraped off the nail with a cuticle pusher.

The advertizements for these new Soak off UV Gel Nail kits show that they are much easier to use and remove then other gel nails.  The benefit to these is that they generally do not require as long of a soak as other gel nails and they are much less of a hassle to scrape off after the soak time.

Some Soak Off Gel Nail Kits To Try

If you are thinking about trying some new soak off gel nail kits, i would suggest that you try the IBD soak off kit, or Nouveau Nail’s One-Step Soak-Off UV Gel System Kit which comes recommended by nailsmag.com.  Tammy Taylor also has a Soak-off Nail Gel Kit that may be worth looking at.

Whatever soak off gel nail set you decide to go with, make sure that it has all of the elements you are used to working with and try working with the materials, because consistency changes can really throw you off if you are not ready for them.  Check to see if the product has its own removing solvent or if it just require pure acetone, also make sure you know the price of refill remover if it is only available through the manufacturer.  Hope the tips help you make great tips!

Soak Off UV Gel Nail Kits is a post from: Nail Technician Courses

Removing Acrylics

Acrylic nails have a loose cross linked molecular network that is great for keeping a strong, beautiful, sturdy nail, but is really dang hard to break apart and get off!  The basic method for removing these from your nails does not involve lifting or popping off as that could cause major damage to your nails and make infection a likely possibility, instead we are going to use some fancy chemistry to get them off.

First remove all varnish, enamel, or gloss from the top surface of the nail.  remove the shine of the artificial nail with a 240 grit file.  By removing the shine, we will be able to get more solvent into the molecular structure of the artificial nail.  This will help to speed the rate of absorption which will help to stretch out that molecular link until we can break it apart.

Pour solvent into two warm-able finger bowls.  Warm-able finger-bowls either sit warm water.  Tip:  Put marbles into the finger bowls, it will help your client pass the soaking time.  Soak your clients fingernails for 15-30 minutes while the hands and bowl are covered with a terry cloth towel (this helps prevent evaporation and preserves warmth)  make sure not to lift fingers or nails out at all during this period or it will extend the acrylic removal time.

After soaking, with the nails still submerged begin to gently remove the artificial nail with a cuticle pusher or an orange wood stick.  Once finished treat your clients nails to a nice manicure and make sure to moisturize.

Removing UV Gel Nails

Uv Gel nails are much more difficult to remove because they are more resistant to solvents.

To start you will want to slowly file down the gel until there is only a thin layer left on the nail.  be very careful not to hurt or damage the nail during this process.  Soak the nails as before with the gel removal product.  Once the soaking is complete you may gently proceed to scrape the nail clean with an orange wood stick.

How to Remove UV Gel Nails and Acrylics is a post from: Nail Technician Courses