Talk to me about shellac and other fake nails

[Dancergirl]

I'm fed up of my finger and toe nails looking a mess. All I tend to do is put polish on at home, occasionally I treat myself to the odd manicure or pedicure.

I'm a terrible picker so it doesn't last long. I always see lots of other women with beautifully done nails.

So what are my options? I don't really understand what shellac is or if there are any alternatives? Once you start, is it a lot of upkeep?

Pedicures are really popular with clients & it's more satisfying to transform a clients feet than to maintain feet that look nice anyway.

You don't actually need gels on toes, toenails look just as nice with normal varnish & a shiny topcoat. Or minx, little vinyl nail coatings you can peel off at home 6 weeks later. Hands need a uv cured polish because hands have a harder time of it than feet.

Our suppliers are pushing varnish for pedicures this summer, it's cheaper for the clients too.

Definitely - they last for months on toes if you let them!!

My toes are really manky, I'm worried the therapist might say they can't be done!

I've had Shellac/CND done a few times, at different salons and it always, without fail, strips my nails so they crack and peel for ages afterwards. I'm afraid I just don't believe it must be fake stuff, or they are all doing it wrong - I think people's nails are different, mine are quite thin for example.

However, I have found a few things that help keep my nails nice and mean I can paint them myself and they're fine:

1. file them less - I now cut them to make them shorter and use the glass file just for shaping, it's made a massive difference
2. accept they don't grow long very well and learn to love them short-ish
3. oil the cuticles as this seems to help the nail
4. when I use varnish I use the Orzly base coat, then colour, then Seche Vite, then colour, then Seche Vite and then quick dry drops - I sometimes do this over two days - last week I put a clear strengthening varnish on four days in a row, then Sunday the colour and SV and last night second coat of colour and SV - I broke two the week before moving boxes, so they're all quite short at the moment but with dark purple (cheap from H&M) varnish on they look lovely and as if they've been done in a salon. Last time I put colour on a couple of weeks ago (a Nars one) it lasted over a week and the grey Mavala I put on before that lasted nearly two weeks - in fact I only took it off because I was bored of it!

Another here who normally has really strong nails, but gel ruins them entirely, with big lumps peeling away. Normally only takes one or two applications to do this too, from reputable salons. I can listen to all the nail techs in the world telling me that this isn't true and it's application error, but no-one's told my nails that.

Have just managed a run of a couple of months with Opi gel on, before big lumps of nail and gel peeled off (it was like my nails got a memo, they looked fine one day and then 4 nails did it the next day LOL).

This time I had taken a conscious decision that it was going to trash my nails, though, but I fancied having them for a while - in preparation, I had been taking Perfectil all through, am keeping them really short, and am oiling them furiously - I reckon after a couple of months, they'll be OK.

They've over buffed, that's why your nails are thin. Poor application. Nails are only 100 or so thick, a buffer can reduce that by a third & then they split.

That's why IBX was developed, it strengthens the nail & pulls it into a tighter shape, mine sloped off to one side before when they got long enough.

I'm soaking off my shellac later & they'll be healthy.

Apparently there is going to be an epidemic of skin cancer on hands in years to come from exposing fragile skin on hands to all this UV light.

There won't be. It's akin to sitting with your hand on a windowsill during the day.

The new LED bulbs pinpoint the light to only go on the nail now anyway, uv bulbs are being phased out.

www.schoonscientific.com/resource/understanding-uv-lamps/

They've over buffed, that's why your nails are thin.

No, it's really not. They are just thin and weak, they were thin and weak before I had even heard of buffing nails. People's bodies are just different - I have thin hair too and I've never buffed that.

You may not want to accept it, but Shellac does not suit some people. I'm afraid your 'nail tech' training may, just may, have been ever so slightly biased.

No nail coating suits all nails, but none do any damage if used correctly. There's nothing acidic or alkaline in shellac to corrode human nail. It's just a uv cured nail polish.