Hello. What an awful night I have just had. As you know I have just started as a mobile tech. I had two clients booked in tonight and was quite excited as they both wanted a bio gel overlay. I thought great, as I feel quite confident doing that. It turns out that one of them already had gel on. So I proceeded with soaking. Problem was that the gel did not budge. This went on for over an hour. So I tried then to soak off with acetone. Still they did not budge. The only thing I think was that the last technician used a different gel and that it needed buffing off. I could not stay any longer and have arranged to sort her nails out on Saturday. She was insistent that the last technician used bio. But this could not be possible. Can anyone shed any light on this............................

mmmm not familiar with gel, or bio products, however I do sympathise as I used to get this when going to new clients they would have nails on with polish sometimes and want new set arggggg. I now inform over phone how much I will charge for soak off, or they can soak them off themselves.

I do know that some gels are buff off only, but not bio(I think ). I have loads of clients saying oh yeah they use CND and I know they DONT. I would inform your client if you know there not bio that they can not pos be bio iygwim. xxxx

if it didnt soak off then it wasnt bio....

I thought as much. I will let you know how I get on when I go back tomorrow.
x

yeah if it didn't soak off then it wasn't biosculpture as this is a soak off gel. The only way to get normal gels off is to file them off

It was NOT Bio Sculpture. It may very well could have been a UV acrylic gel put into a Bio Sculpture pot (that happens a lot in our area - refilling jars with the cheap stuff and saying it's Bio)

The surface of any 'soak off' will start to break down within minutes. If this doesn't happen it's NOT a soak off and no amount of time in acetone will budge it! Even acetone on cotton wool will tell you this as a quick test.

Next time, if you're not sure, try this first and save a lot of time. If it is a buff off and you are doing a new overlay, don't buff it all off. Just thin it out and apply your gel. This will save time and avoid nail plate damage.

A very fast way of testing to see if it is buff off or file off is to try and lightly file it first.

If it files easily and is kind of powdery then it is buff off, if it feels more rubber like and not powdery then it is probably soak off.

If you file it and it is not rubbery or powdery then it is probably acrylic L&P!!

These are the main ones, but there are also fibreglass nails, acrylic/gel mix nails.. etc

Gina x

My price menu states that any soak off gels which do not soak off within my recommended time are charged extra over and above the allocated soaking time. The same should go for buffing to as this means you get paid as a tech for the time.

It is not fair that you should have to spend time not being paid properly for your professional time.

Is it possible this client was wearing an mma product. They are also a b*gg*r to buff even to thin out .

Hope you got it sorted?

Can you apply bio over other non soak off gels?

x

Thank you, those are great suggestions. I definitely lost out on my products and my time. I know I need to be tougher. It is easier said than done.

x

yes

Gina x