1st set of L&P terrible!

[Puffle]

Hi all, just after a bit of your knowledge!

I did my first set of acrylics last week (thankfully on a friend!) and they are all off! One she banged on the car and it broke the tip, one came off her thumb when texting and 4 came off in the bath!

Now I know that I didn't put enough on zone 3 as I could see that once it had dried. I also know that my ratio was a little too wet, but as hard as I tried I couldn't rectify this as I was going along.

Do you think those 2 things will be the reason for them coming off so easily?

I have emailed my tutor, but she only answers emails on a Friday, so was just hoping someone would be able to help inbetween.

Thanks!

 

[chimbabweep]

hey hun. Was it a sculpt or tip and overlay? What products are you using> xx

 

[Puffle]

Ah yes, sorry that might help!

They were french tips and I'm using Millenium as that's what I trained with. I know this isn't the 'top' brand....

x

 

[NailVixen]

"90% of the time it's your prep" is what I hear most frequently from my instructors, and after watching a girl in my school forget to remove shine and dehydrate... well the client did not make it out of the door before I had to go back and replace 3 nails that fell off. Not got ripped off, not even "popped off", straight up FELL off. So make sure you remove all surface shine with a file and dehydrate, Scrub Fresh is pretty amazing stuff. And did you use a primer? HTH, good luck! BTW I think everyones first set kinda sucks, lol

 

[Puffle]

Thanks NailVixen, I'll go back over my prep. I did remove shine, dehydrated and used primer, but I've heard how good scrubfresh is so I might look into that! I really didn't expect my first set to be great, I'm really trying to pinpoint what I need to look at for next time, so thanks!

 

[MrsMeea]

Hi Julie,
sounds like your prep, however, you really need to concentrate on getting the l&p to the right consistency. At first it seems you can't get the product to move! (been there and sure lots of others geeks have too) and so it's tempting to make the l&p quite wet but this will result in your acrylics not being as strong as they could be/lifting...
Otherwise practice, practice, practice!! lol... i asked my husbands cousin to say to her school friends(16yr olds) and done the 1st 5 sets for free, next 5 for £5, next 5 for £10...let me know how you get on and welcome to SalonGeek!!

Maria xx

 

[sarahpoppy24]

Hi hun! Was just wondering have you got a nail trainer? They are the big plastic hand that come with the special nail fake nail plates to practice on. Mine was a godsend and also great for experimenting with nail art etc. Also I found that of you get a bag of realy cheap tips from ebay (they are hanging, so would never use them on a real client just to practice). Stick them onto a pencil or something similar to practice beads and smile lines etc, to get your mix ratio right. Have you checked out the tutiorials on her? They are also realy good. x

 

[Puffle]

Ah thank you, you're all fab!! One thing I have bought is an Ezflow 508 brush, as I was aware that the brush I was using just came in the kit I purchased on my course, so was probably a cheap one. I have put a few tips on myself this morning and I do think they were better....not GREAT obviously but definitely better. The test will be how long they last!!

I do have a nail trainer which I practise on, although I do think I should buy some cheap tips as you say, or I'll be running out very quickly!

My prep most definitely needs looking at, and also the fact I know the beads are a little too wet.

I am roping friends in to have nails done as I certainly wouldn't unleash myself on the public yet, but the problem I have is most of my friends wear acrylics ALL the time (one uses the chinese nail salons) so are used to perfection...which just scares me!!

 

[MrsMeea]

Hi Julie,
Keep your used nail trainer tips as you can use them to practice nail art, polishing techniques etc in the future....xx

 

[Aislinn]

Hi Hun,
Liquid and powder ratio is HARD to master, and will take time. One thing that i found helped is always make sure ALL the brush flags are wet with monomer, then wipe the side of the brush only half way up the dapen dish, often the brush needs to be wetter than u think, before dipping in the powder to get a medium size bead. It should have an orange peel texture almost instantly. Place it, leave it to settle for a few seconds before working with it. HTH and makes sense! x

 

[Puffle]

Hi Hun,
Liquid and powder ratio is HARD to master, and will take time. One thing that i found helped is always make sure ALL the brush flags are wet with monomer, then wipe the side of the brush only half way up the dapen dish, often the brush needs to be wetter than u think, before dipping in the powder to get a medium size bead. It should have an orange peel texture almost instantly. Place it, leave it to settle for a few seconds before working with it. HTH and makes sense! x

Yes thank you, it does make sense. I must say that all of the times I've had my nails done, I didn't realise it was so hard! I'll try what you've said about wiping the brush, on our course the tutor told us to wipe the one side of the brush a few times.

Thanks. x