You don't have to be Michelangelo or any of the other Mutant Turtles to create enhancements on the fly.

Sculpting enhancements on a form is the nail professional’s secret to fast, lower cost services. In this splendid pictorial, I cover some tips and tricks that successful...

That should have been "Fab" sorry.

Hi i just wanted to say that i totally agree that sculpted nails are fantastic plus the tutorial is brilliant!!! Wish it was you that would be training me!!
I have sculpted nails now and i can definately say that there much better and stronger than tips & overlays!!
I used to bite my nails for a very long time so for my wedding had my nails done with the t&o method they felt really heavy not that natural and keep lifting. I had the nails shortened but after a couple of months gave up with them. Then at the beginning of this year i started really missing them so went somewhere else that did the t&o method (as didn't know about sculpted nail at this point), and once again as my nails don't really grow much and are really weak the same thing happened they felt awful and keep lifting they were looking awful after only a week. So once again i stopped having the nails done. Feeling down about not having nails i got chatting to another of my friends who'd started going to a place that did sculpted nails, i was really scepical but they're fantasic they last easily 3-4weeks give or take the odd tidy-up as with all nails!!! I now wouldn't have any other method!!!! So much so that when i'm fully trained i'll definately want to use sculpted nails on my clients. Everyone who's seen my nails say that look so natural and really price wise its not anymore expensive!!!
Thanks Leah82

P.s i know/ have been told that using the sculped method is much harder to master but its really worth it!!! When fully mastered the results are wonderful!! (I'd show you a pick of mine if i knew how too) lol!!! Plus can i just ask with sculpted nails my nail tech esp uses a drill instead of file as its much quicker and she says you can get better results. But as you showed you can also just use a file, does it really matter?

Thanks Leah82 :O)

That was a great lesson, but I have had trouble with a client with downward shaped nails(parriot), is there a way to do her nails? She has already lost one set I gave her when I used tips.HELP!

File the free edge as much as possible before application and apply the form so that the extension edge will align straight from the finger instead of so sharply downward.
This will help and has corrected my clients hook nails in the past.

hth's

I seem to recall having this same conversation with you and my students when you first started educating, and I'm glad to see you've come around to my way of thinking! I'm still wearing sculpted nails, I still ski, white water raft, hike, bike, and play outdoor sports. (very seldom do I break one, unless I'm being a complete dunderhead and jam it into something) I seem to recall that you just didn't like to sculpt I think you said tips are where it's at. (being faster and all.... still luv ya Sam!)

Fab Tutorial Sam-

My mum has very wide, some flat, & some concave nail beds, she is also a nail biter & when grows a little free edge they point to the heavens!! . Couldn't get the forms to fit properly when i had a go before. Would i need to take ALL the free edge away?

Also, if the sculptured tip is just butted up to the natural free edge(with a tiny bit on the nail to create the smile)& then zone 2 is butted up to that- would the end not snap off as there isn't any overlay joining the two zones? (Sorry if i sound dumb. )

Please help me... she doesn't like the feel of tips-she's tried them but said they didn't feel very strong!

She's quite heavy handed so i've picked up a Radical tester kit, would appreciate some top tips... if you wouldn't mind.... so i can give her a lovely set of sculpts.(Well try to anyway)

Actually she was Amanda's model for the seminar she did @ NEC in Birmingham in April(think you couldn't do it cos you were having your op). She chose her because she said her nails were perfect for demonstrating custom blending & elongating her nail bed.


Ta muchly
xxxxxx

Can someone advise me on the best acrylic system to use. I am currently using Millennium products and don't know if its the product or me that's the problem as they tend to break quite quickly. Please advise, many thanks

Thanks for yet another brilliant tutorial!!

I have only just learned about sculpting and am dying to give it a go!!

I think there must be so much artistic flair to sculpting and am in awe of all of you that do it!

I hope I can do it - lots and lots of practice I think!!!
xxx

i am currently doing the essential nails home course and i am really enjoying learning nails . i have bought several products over the last few weeks and have tried sculpture. i love it . it is so much easier than tips and blending and it takes me about one and a half to two hours for a full set. but (theres always a but) my sculptures seem to end up wide on the free edge, what am i doing wrong ? this is why the time is so long as i seem to end up filing for a good forty mins as the sculpture doesnt take long. even my smile lines are getting good ( my friends love them) but i know i need more practice and i find the nail trainer useless as the finger tips are so wide. how can i get the lovely streamlined look like in your tutorials before all that filing ? i am using gold square forms and the white looks great just after applying but once the forms come off they end up wide.

lisa xxx

This is a really good tutorial.

If you use gel, i take it the same techniques applies!?!
I also have v/flat, hardly any c curve nail plates.
What's the easiest way to apply forms for this type? (Do cut the nail form)
What do you think about the the reusable nail forms?

Thanks

well i luuuurrve sculpting i really prefer it to tipping the result is so much better but....... i cant do it i did a set on my sister last night it took me nearly 4 hours and yes they did look lovely in the end ,but bloomin ek'
how am i gunna get the hang of it.....im gunna try applying my forms differently to how i have been,also i find it really hard to get my mix ratio right on my white!
i end up with a marbled effect ,and my sidewalls mostly end up miles too wide resulting in 45 mins filling ...pleasey weasy help me...coz i really want to be able to do this
btw i have read all the tutorials,and tonnes more in scratch and pro nails...so i understand the process in theory just cant put it into practice,
when you say you do a thin layer of white first,do you mean the whole of your free edge,to sort of create a base???
thanks guys your all fab

That would have to be one of the best pictorial and descriptive tutorials i have ever seen ....., i'd love to see one done with no free edge at all or a typical nail we see everyday walk in the door, my personal favs are the old fashioned aluminium forms, merely because they are a bit more solid and hold their shape better,also allowing the slight crease to create invisible sidewall strength, i've even stuck double sided sticky tape down the inside sides to make em stick to the skin , i use different sized dowels for different sized fingers, but maintain a matching c-curve. Creative disposeable forms are brilliant though (more rigid than most) especially if you fit the pop-out bit on the underside, i originally found them by mistake (a sample at a show) and have ordered several lots since. Sculptures seem to be a dying art, nice to see someone pumping some life into it. Many (including me) thank you...

Stunning info.

last year i had tutor at college she was lovely but she did not teach us very well and some of as compland . i did not pass my tests for my overlys and its costs to much to go again what can i do?