Make no mistake

Creating strong and durable enhancements is a real skill. Georgie Smedley, managing director of Gelish distributor the Georgie Smedley Group, and Tinu Bello, founder of Colour Riot Nails, explore the common troubles that trip techs up when creating beautiful enhancements and how to avoid them.

1. Relying on over filing

“When applying acrylic product, it’s important to get the application right because you don’t want to rely on filing to get the structure of your nail,” says Smedley.

“Minimal filing means you cut down on your work time as you’ll be well practised in getting the product on, and then it’s just a case of refining the nail with your file. This will also help reduce repetitive strain injury (RSI), which a lot of techs experience due to over filing.”

Bello agrees, stating that she sees techs over filing side walls a lot. “It’s a pet peeve of mine because there should be good symmetry between the walls and the shape, which you don’t get with over filing.

“It’s nice to create a shape that looks good from the front but if you over file, as soon as you turn the nail onto its side you’ll notice that the side walls have been filed away too much.”

2. Using too much product

“A lot of YouTubers use quite large brushes in their videos to do acrylic sets because a big brush holds more monomer product, enabling them to get on to a one-bead application,” explains Smedley. “When doing this method, you’re holding a lot of liquid in your brush and you risk it going around the client’s cuticle area and onto their skin.

“If that repeatedly happens, then your customer could become allergic to the product because their skin has been overexposed. So, it’s important to choose the right brush size for you instead of trying to get everything on in one application with a really big brush.”

3. Not keeping an eye on the temperature

“When you’re using liquid and powder, it is important that the temperature in salon is just right. If it’s too low the product will have difficulty polymerising, which is what makes it set,” explains Smedley.

“You have all these little monomers that need to link together and they rely on heat within the client’s fingers, as well as in the salon environment, for that to happen. If you have a low temperature in salon, then you’ll get crystallisation around the outside of the nail (although this is rarer with present-day technology making products perform better).”

She adds: “The perfect temperature is dependent on how quickly you’d like it to polymerise. If it’s hot, it will cure quicker, so it depends on what speed and skill you have. If it’s a ‘normal’ temperature, then it will perform well without any issues.” 

Georgie Smedley is managing director of the Georgie Smedley Group, which distributes Gelish and manufactures All That Jazz.

Tinu Bello is a session tech and founder of Colour Riot Nails salon in Shoreditch, London.

NEXT MONTH… getting your arch placement right