Art Shmart

Hey! 

Hope your nails are lookin fly!

Have you tried nail art?  I truly believe it could be for everyone. Seriously, there are so many levels to nail art something is bound to catch your eye. 

Lets go through the basic levels:

As simple as it gets. A possibility is not doing any nail art per se, but playing with the colors on different nails to create a pattern. The upside is that its fast and easy and it’s probably free of charge.

Another option is to play around with a little glitter or chrome effect on one nail. Simple and playful and oh so cute!

Now were getting a little more creative, playing around with french is another way of having fun. You can do your basic pink and white french or why not do a colored french. Its an easy  transition into using wild colors!

My personal FAVE is minimalist nail art. Yes! minimalism is a thing even for nails. Marie Kondo your nails baby! Does it spark joy? Yes! Lines and dots all the way. Its cheap, fast, and most nail techs can do lines and dots. And you can play with the colors (or not) to have a little more fun. 

Obviously there are waaaaay more options to nail art, these are just simple ways to start if you're afraid and want to get your foot in the door. Have fun!

Get Your Moneys Worth

Im more of a natural gal anyway, so for those of you who dont use gels or acrylic, here are some random tips to make regular polish last longer.

Frequency of activities including water, such as hand washing. There is such thing as excessive hand washing. Medical professionals, for example, over-wash their hands (they absolutely have to!) but harsh soaps and alcohols dry up essential oils in our bodies, causing polishes to chip quicker.

Not pushing cuticles back properly? Even if you don't like cutting your cuticles, it's necessary to push back cuticles with good instruments and softened skin. Use cuticles softeners or just plain old warm water! When any cuticle (even thin ones) are left on the nail, polish won't stick well to it and will simply lift from it. Sorry!

Use other options, like: use one coat of color, or skip base, but only if you're using natural looking colors. Use good, non-expired polish. (yes they expire)

Leaving oils and creams on before polishing?  I once went to a salon where the tech left a little lotion before polishing, and then the very next day...my polish lifted. I wasn't surprised though. Nail polish will not adhere to oil. The best thing to use if you are extra oily is 99% cosmetic alcohol. If that's too hard to find, just use pure acetone to ensure a strong adhesion.

Let 'em dry! Each coat should have some time between to dry (1 min) before the next one goes on. This'll help make sure the polish is not gummy or sticky and also will give you longer lasting nails.

Some other things you could do is: oil em up! Use cuticle oil as much as possible to protect your nails from over drying, especially if you're in water all day.
Also, putting a clear coat after the second or third day after your manicure seems to have worked for may clients in the past. But if you choose to do both of these, make sure you coat and then oil!

Good luck, I hope you try a few of these tips.

Prevention is Key

In all my years doing nails, Id say 70% of clients aren't aware if tools are sanitized or cleaned  or reused. These 70% of clients don't bother asking. Those 20% are clearly interested and the other 10% are wickedly interested and even want to know what we clean with, what we do to sanitize and if we reuse tools.

In case you wanted to know (I'd hope you do) there are procedures and steps that are put in by the laws of Florida that we as professionals must follow or suffer severe consequences. All nail techs and service workers are meant to follow these instructions but sadly not all salons nor technicians ever practice protocol.

As an advanced nail technician, I learned that the first rule is to not just meet state requirements but exceed the requirements!

It's pretty simple and I've managed to get it down quick enough where it will take me roughly 3-5 minutes to get through. Here's how...

so first things first...you need dirty tools =)

The first thing I like to do is scrub my tools with antibacterial soap and hot water a brush and make sure I get out all the nail clippings and filings that get stuck in the grooves of the tools.

Then I leave 'em soaking in the properly diluted barbicide while I pick up and sanitize my work area. About 10 minutes.

After 10 min, I take my tools and dry 'em and put them in the seal able blue bags and then put my name on them so they're not lost.

Once 5-10 bags have accumulated (these are not all mine, I work with 9 other girls) they are placed in the autoclave, and with pressurized steam get sanitized! Voila!

Now the process starts all over again. I like that we sanitize our tools, its a great marketing strategy and an easy way to prevent fungal or any other kind of disease that any client could bring.

I hope the next time you choose a salon you ask how they clean their tools!