All professionals are now aware that the faster they work the more clients they can get through the turnstile and therefore the more money they can dump in their bank account. The addiction to the ‘sausage-factory –nail-salon’ mentality is that the shortcuts used to expedite clients through the chair actually lead to a dangerously low standard of quality. To paraphrase a famous saying, ‘wherever shortcuts are taken, long delays are made’. Those delays are what are really at the root of the decay in the quality of our industry’s work.

Want an example? I’ve got a perfect one that doesn’t just pick on those working in High Volume Low Cost salons: The French Tip.

Nail ‘professionals’ who do not want to take the time to master smile line applications with liquid and powder frequently fall prey to the ‘smile line shortcut’ by using French tips.

Heck why not use French tips? They can produce consistent looking smile lines, you don’t have to bother with blending, By gosh and golly – all applications should be so easy!

The problem is two fold: The first being that those that lack the skill of producing smile lines, lack the skill to produce beautiful nails. Yup – bring on the hate mail – you still can’t deny the fact! Smile lines are not difficult to do when you have skilled control of your product.

Application skills are like a muscle – if you don’t use them, you lose them. Avoiding your smile line applications with liquid and powder is equivalent to eating a super sized Big Mac meal (complete with fries) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and then having your exercise regimen consist of fingering your remote between ‘Wife swapping’ and ‘Eastenders’.