I think polish is the most important part of any nail service.
I was thinking the same thing when I saw a tutorial on gel pedicures. Who is having problems keeping their pedicure ? Mine stays on for months. And no UV Lamp required!

I can understand how people working with acrylic would want their own designs to be tougher with a clear overlay.

I'm sure product companies are doing well off this trend!

Thank you, I am relieved to hear this. I must admit to getting extremely annoyed at being pushed to push out 30 minute standard Manicures in 30 minutes which the clients were paying for using gloopy, tacky rubbish polish!

I do love to polish too, there are a few of my clients that love it, I must admit, I love painting on dark colours, the wow factor is amazing.

I think some clients get so fixated on pink and white that they forget how fab a colour can look on their nails, and is isn't until you do their toe nails that they say, oh can I have that on my fingers too.

I have to say I used to dread french manicures but have overcome that now!

Well one way to sell a polish service or indeed to sell polish is to WEAR polish!!

I know, I know, as you all say, "But my polish gest wrecked when I am working with solvents and files!" But it doesn't have to with a little care.

I can remember the days when I polished every single day to keep my nails looking perfect for working in the salon.

Being successful at work requires ..... WORK on your part and attention to detail. It requires you to go home at the end of the day and think of what you are going to promote and how you are going to promote it.Try it for a week and see how much polish you sell.

We used to sell on average in my salon 20 bottles of polish per week. That was an extra 60.00 per week return on sales which equals and extra 3000.00 per year for doing nothing more than showing off what you have to offer. That doesn't begin to reflect our retail sales when you add in Solar Oil and Scentsations lotions and shower gels, polish remover, files and buffers, bse and top coats etc etc.

Don't ignore the art of doing a perfect professional polish it can gain you loads of extra business and extra revenue ... doesn't cost you much in time to do and you can offer lots of extra things with polish.

If applied correctly, polish doesn't have to take hours and hours to dry. WE had the odd clients who were serial smudgers but not many (especially as we charged them extra to fix it if they sudged it) and we knew how to fix smudges FAST without having to redo the whole polish ... we taught our clients how to do it too and also to apply just one coat of Super Shiney top coat per week between appointments to keep their polish looking 'new' for 3 weeks. They loved it.

Hi Geeg,

Yes ma'am. I can do some awesome things with polish, course back then when I trained it was required as you said, we didn't have colored acrylic polymer.

Aside: Cherries in the Snow was my mothers fave polish and is one of mine. Hell my first car was that colour....

Back to Topic: I still like to do funky polish (I prefer it actually) and especially now with the really good topcoats, it can last two weeks easily. I also like the versatility of polish. Luckily for me, where I am, polish is popular.

Now I'm wondering how many people were taught how to polish for visual effect (ie. leaving the tiniest margin on the sidewalls polish free or leave a tiny margin at the free edge to alleviate chipping.

OK, I have to go find some geritol or something.....

:-)

Nancy

Hey Nancy ... the old dogs can teach a few tricks. I think I will write a class for polishing. I do have a tutorial on here Precision Polishing but there are so many tricks to teach that I think I can get a class out of it for a Monday mentoring session later on this year.

I see so many technicians taking so much time to do things with coloured powders that you and I can do in 10 minutes with polish PLUS you can get rid of it in a heartbeat when you want to and start again with something different. I just can't see the appeal in coloured tips done in L&P when it is so easy with polish.

i have never been taught how to do a good polish...even though i asked in my manicure class...my only instruction has been from nail class manual and i have to say i dont think i am that bad ....but when i see competition nails painted red...and they have been done perfect i really admire them and quite envious. I am going to try and take a picture today of one i did yesterday....and you can critique it for me as not quite sure where i am going wrong.
I love the CND website for all the step by steps on how to get lots and lots of different looks and effects......

I can polish well enough that I feel comfortable charging for a manicure as a service, but I don't think I do a killer polish job...... I do tidy up with Nailfresh and I love polishing but, like Cathie, I don't do many manicures.

I would love to improve my polishing that bit more.

The bulk of my business is manis and pedis so polishing is an important part of my work.

I taught myself from Gigi's tutorial and my clients are happy but I don't remember the last time I painted a french.

I was just thinking about this last night. I do work for my local council within the Healthy Liveng Centre, offering nail paints to the women that come to the events. (Last night was salsa evening)

Every one of them comment on how lovely and neat it is and you can tell the diference getting a professional to polish and "they can never get it to look like that". Colour depth etc...

It made me realise how skilled it was. I think I'm a good at polishing (not excellent - yet!) and actually enjoy doing dark colours and french polishes - it is an artform!

*makes note to practice more*

Brill thread.

Great thread Gigi!

I have a few regular polish clients (for fingers) and a few more for pedis.

When I did my Spa Mani & Pedi with CND in Leeds - Kirsten used the Nailfresh trick on my toes - I'd never seen it done before and thought - blimey, how neat was that little trick - and how professional it looks and the results were perfect.

I used to use a polish corrector pen - one for french and one for colours and keep dipping into acetone.
I still use one of them if I catch the skin under the nail as it's easy, but I use a fine detailer brush dipped in acetone - didn't want to 'spoil' my nailfresh, but I will decant some into an old bottle and use that instead.

I love to wear polish but do tend to shy away from it because I end up scuffing it with my files or wiping it off when using my scrubfresh, so it looks a bad advert after a couple of clients!
That's me needing to take more care and hold my file better. I have a habit of putting my thumb so close to the clients sidewalls when filing, so as not to cut them, I end up with sore thumbs and scuffed polish

To be honest, I much prefer to work with coloured gel and do a french manicure in gel.

This is for a few reasons...

1 - I think you can create a more perfect french with gel without having to clean the smile lines off with any special product

2 - It's more commercial from a business point of view.. to do a manicure properly will take most people more then 1/2 hour - say 40-45mins at least.

When you have clients back to back and work by the hour, you can do a gel colour change that lasts for 3-4 weeks and is instantly dry (with no risk of the customer knocking it and asking you to redo it!) For this we charge £30

Because this is our main business, it means that an hour slot is too long for a £17.50 manicure and not long enough for two manicures.

3 hours = 4 manicures @ £70 or 3 gel customers @ £90

£30 is cheap in our area for gels and £17.50 for a manicure is expensive!!

The problem is that most manicures are too cheap I think!!

3 - your gel (or acrylic if that is what you do) clients will have to return for infills/colour change and are more likely to make a standing appointment.. I couldn't tell you when I next have a free slot before christmas and ALL are gel customers

Gina xx

NO .. SORRY ... this thread is about the lost art of polishing with POLISH

No way could I be bothered to file off gel to apply a coat of another colour gel at the next appointment. Time saved on the drying aspect would be lost on the removing aspect in my opinion. I know that you have made this a niche service in Your salon Gina, but what you do is not refective of the industry as a whole, in my opinion.

I agree we have made it a niche in our salon and it works for us.

My post was about what I prefer to do personally and obviously not a reflection on the industry as a whole.

Gina x

I think I can do a half decent job with polish but thats not good enough for me. I would love to attend a class in just polishing alone to learn tricks and techniques from the past and present. Could we do this?

Great thread, it really made me think about what I am missing out on. It seems from this thread that it would be really popular. I am fired up after my course with EzFlow and want to learn more and more each day.

P.S as a guy is there anything I can do to get clients to notice polish too. I would love to wear the colours but it's not as easy for me LOL