Brisa/Gel Techs - please help

['chelle]

Can anyone give me some advice on where I went wrong with a set of nails I did recently.

I use l&p mainly, and since I dont do gels very often I'm not as good with them as I would like, they look fine, but I am much slower than I am with l&p. I did a pink & white set using the white sculpting gel on Friday last week, and today my client rang to say she is not happy.

She came into me this morning with five broken nails, the nailbed was fine, but the tips had broken off. The break wasnt a clean break, it was a jagged break, she brought me some of the broken bits so I could see what had happened, although not all of them because with some of the breakages she said she just looked and the nail was already broken. The client hasnt been at work and says she has had quite a leisurely weekend, so hasnt caused any stress to the nails. They werent very long so I dont think the length was the problem, and they were a soft square shape.

She said that the tips had broken one by one over the course of the past few days, and just seemed to come off without any force and for no reason, she even said that one of them broke off during the night, she woke up in the morning and there was a tip in the bed!

I filed them down to apply a set of l&p, and the remaining tips didnt break whilst I was filing, I explained to the client that since they were withstanding the filing I cant think why the others just came off without any force. I have applied a set of pink & white l&p for her now since I am much more confident with my l&p work.

I am glad that she came back and gave me an opportunity to sort them out, and whilst I wouldnt say that I did the gels wrong, because I am not 100% confident with gel due to the fact that I dont work with it very often, I didnt feel right to charge her for these new nails as I could not say with 100% confidence that the problem wasnt in the application, so I have done todays nails for free, something I would never do if an l&p client came back with broken nails since I know my l&p work is fine.

I'm trying to think now what it might be that has caused these tips to break off. I'm not going to rule out client damage, although she had these nails done especially for her holidays which she is going on tomorrow so I cant think that she would destroy them herself. I wondered if there could be two possible causes: 1) Could I have done the white gel a bit too thin? or 2) Could the join between the pink & white have been too thin? I was making an effort not to drag the pink over the white so I wonder if there was a weak point? I'm very confident with my tip application so I dont think it was that.

Anyway, I'm not going to offer gels until I've got this sussed except for toes & NNO, but I wonder if any of you gel users could suggest any areas where I went wrong?

 

[clara doon]

I would *think* chelle that you need to have a look at zone 2, if they aren't at a length as to cause a problem I would be inclined to think that you've not built the nail enough,

now you said you didn't drag the pink over the white (which is correct) I apply my pink zone 2 before my zone 1, I feel this gives me a better apex, do zone 1 and then look from the side and fill on any dip with clear gel (doesn't matter if you do go over the white then x)

I'm sure your doing a good job with it, but it is hard to get the practice when you like doing L&P more ! just remember you want your brisa nails to be built the same as your L&P

 

[adelekeegan1]

I did this regularly (on myself) when I first started using Brisa and as Clara Doon says it was my zone 2 being too thin (even more so when sculpting)

Once I got that sorted I had no more problems

 

['chelle]

Aw thanks girls, I think that might be the answer. When I apply zone 2, I have a tiny dip where it comes up to zone 1 but not over it, and rather than apply a clear, I've filed it smooth. I've probably filed them too thin in that case.

Thanks for the advice, I shall gather up some victims for a practice :green:

 

[clara doon]

keep at it chelle xx have a go with the extra clear it really helped me with the apex ,,,, I think one of my threads shows my first brisa's !! the apex are all over the place !! its worked much better the way I've told you xxx