Gel polish wouldn't come off!

[Fayebulous]

Hi everyone,

I have just had a client come to me who had gelish applied to her toes by another salon. I wrapped the toes and left them for 15mins-nothing. Re-wrapped and nothing again! I have never experienced this before. I don't use gelish-I use Shellac. I have had to send her to a friend who I know soaks Nails to remove as I felt there was nothing else I could do. It was like cement.
Any ideas tips? I don't ever want to have to send someone away again! [emoji17]

 

[AcidPerm]

No, I would never refer them to another tech.
That's effectively telling clients that you're incompetent because you can't remove the product effectively.

Obviously, that's not really the case, as it's all to do with not being 100% certain of their previous history. The bottles might say Gelish and look like Gelish but unless you know the other tech really well neither you or the client can be sure that it isn't a cheap eBay fake. Unfortunately, most clients don't generally understand the devil's in the detail and think all gel/Shellac/acrylic is roughly the same thing really.

My advice? Just make it a policy to never remove other techs work but to just offer a re-balance instead. Lightly file the surface of the gel polish and re-do it.

That way, you retain the client and saves the predicament of getting into a fluster trying to remove goodness knows what, in the future.

Edit: Gelish normally removes easily with wraps so I'd be dubious that it was the genuine article.

 

[Trinity]

Wrapping for 15 minutes may have been some of the issue, the acetone would have evaporated in that time especially in this heat at the moment. If it had started to disolve then re-hardened it seems to get even harder to remove.

Like AcidPerm says it's hard to know for sure exactly what product has been used, I always assume the worst and buff the top coat which is usually the biggest issue for removal, and wrap for a short period of time initially (about 4 minutes) then remove the first wrap and check to see what is happening. If the product is bubbling and starting to remove, then it's only going to be a few more minutes. If there has been no reaction, I test the surface with my buffer, it may be the previous tech is more generous with top coat than me and I need to buff a little more, or worse case scenario it's not the product expected.

If wrapping hasn't worked after about 10 minutes, then I would move to bowl soaking or as AcidPerm suggested buff down and re-apply.

It's also possible it wasn't a Gel Polish, it could have been a coloured hard gel.

 

[AcidPerm]

Wrapping for 15 minutes may have been some of the issue, the acetone would have evaporated in that time especially in this heat at the moment.

Heat?? Not over here, lol.

 

[Trinity]

Heat?? Not over here, lol.

Cor! I'm stewing in my own sweat at the moment, admittedly today is cooler but I'm looking fab with my sweaty face, hair gone curly from the sweat and red little face

 

[NailtechJoe]

Hi everyone,

I have just had a client come to me who had gelish applied to her toes by another salon. I wrapped the toes and left them for 15mins-nothing. Re-wrapped and nothing again! I have never experienced this before. I don't use gelish-I use Shellac. I have had to send her to a friend who I know soaks Nails to remove as I felt there was nothing else I could do. It was like cement.
Any ideas tips? I don't ever want to have to send someone away again! [emoji17]

IMHO it is the professional thing to do to refer to another nail tech IF and only IF you are not sure. Gelish usually crumbles up within 10 minutes to 15 minutes (dependent on how long it has remained on clients nails) but this is a minimum time for soak off.

It might be the case that if there is no crumbling of the product that it may be something else like a hard gel which is buff off only and it is a nightmare to remove.

 

[Gina Ballerina]

Did you buff the topcoat off? I know you do this with geleration or it won't soak off easily, I think girlish is the same