Gel nails advice

[NatalieC1983]

Hi all,

I am planning to start a nail course later this year and hope to begin doing peoples nails by Christmas time.

I wonder if there is any particular places technicians but they’re gels from? On amazon they are £10 each, this will be costly for 20/30 beginner colours and I am guessing there is somewhere cheaper?

Any advice gratefully received.

Thank you.

 

[Kyralouise]

Once you've done your training, your educator will be able to recommended products/brands. You'll also be able to purchase from professional brands only available to qualified techs. We would never recommended Amazon/Ebay brands.

You can expect to pay between £xxx per colour depending on the brand you go with, so £10 would be on the more reasonable side to be honest with you. Some brands do bulk deals, but even so, don't expect to be paying a couple of quid. Products are expensive, and shows why nail techs charge so much.

My advice would be, don't chuck money into cheap Amazon colours, wait until you have found the right professional brand for you and start with a handful of popular colours (white, black, red, nudes). A lot of the Amazon colours cannot be proven safe for you or your clients, so you really are best to wait til you're qualified.

Good luck on your nail journey!

[no trade prices please - thanks]

 

[NatalieC1983]

Once you've done your training, your educator will be able to recommended products/brands. You'll also be able to purchase from professional brands only available to qualified techs. We would never recommended Amazon/Ebay brands.

You can expect to pay between £7-£20 per colour depending on the brand you go with, so £10 would be on the more reasonable side to be honest with you. Some brands do bulk deals, but even so, don't expect to be paying a couple of quid. Products are expensive, and shows why nail techs charge so much.

My advice would be, don't chuck money into cheap Amazon colours, wait until you have found the right professional brand for you and start with a handful of popular colours (white, black, red, nudes). A lot of the Amazon colours cannot be proven safe for you or your clients, so you really are best to wait til you're qualified.

Good luck on your nail journey!

This is extremely helpful thank you.

I kind of thought that may be the answer, I’ll continue to save so I can purchase the decent stuff once my training is complete.

do you have brand recommendations? There seems to be so many. Opi looks to be the priciest but helps promote healthy nails.

Thanks

 

[Kyralouise]

I use CJP, but I've read good things about Magpie, CND, OPI, Lecente, Cuccio, there's tons out there. You might get some more replies after me.

Try and ignore the "The Gel Bottle" and "Premier Gel" hype that you see all over Instagram. More info on this can be found on here or the Nail Tech Awareness group on Facebook.

 

[Kyralouise]

[no trade prices please - thanks]

AHHH Sorry!!!

 

[CFBS]

Another tip before you train is to check the course you are about to do is actually accredited/recognised e.g. NVQ, VRQ, VTCT, City & Guilds, ITEC + other 'good' private training academies.
When you qualify you will need to have professional insurance for treating paying clients, for example - Guild of Therapists, BABTAC and others. To get insurance from one of these companies they need to 'recognise' your training certificate. You will also need this certificate evidence to open accounts with professional suppliers.
I would suggest that you contact a couple of beauty insurance companies to check that the course you plan to do fulfils their criteria to cover you. Otherwise you could be wasting time and money on a mickey mouse on line course.
Here are some links that might help you get started:

https://www.beautyguild.com/
https://www.babtac.com/
https://www.sweetsquared.com/my-education/
Good luck!

 

[BobSweden]

Hi Natalie,
Some gentle business advice. If you buy cheap, you will sell cheap and there is a good chance you will also develop allergies.

The key for all service businesses, is to earn as much per hour as possible. That allows you to choose your customers and work less. They only way to achieve this, is by offering a higher quality service than the competition, at a price that is higher, but to the minds of the customers is good value for what they get.

To do that, you need to get the best education you can find. This is the foundation of the house you want to build. And you need a good products from a supplier who has a lot of experience and can also provide the support and education you need, to get the best out of their products.

I know some people think if you learn to use gel, you can use any gels. Maybe. But not as well as someone training in the gel by a company who developed the product, knows it inside out, has a team of educators providing feedback, and perhaps, like us, has developed special techniques.

I know with COVID it is difficult to travel, so perhaps you have to start somewhere. But have a goal to aim higher, you will enjoy your new career much more and it can bring other opportunities like international travel, if you work smart and hard.

 

[NatalieC1983]

I use CJP, but I've read good things about Magpie, CND, OPI, Lecente, Cuccio, there's tons out there. You might get some more replies after me.

Try and ignore the "The Gel Bottle" and "Premier Gel" hype that you see all over Instagram. More info on this can be found on here or the Nail Tech Awareness group on Facebook.

Thank you very much!

 

[NatalieC1983]

Another tip before you train is to check the course you are about to do is actually accredited/recognised e.g. NVQ, VRQ, VTCT, City & Guilds, ITEC + other 'good' private training academies.
When you qualify you will need to have professional insurance for treating paying clients, for example - Guild of Therapists, BABTAC and others. To get insurance from one of these companies they need to 'recognise' your training certificate. You will also need this certificate evidence to open accounts with professional suppliers.
I would suggest that you contact a couple of beauty insurance companies to check that the course you plan to do fulfils their criteria to cover you. Otherwise you could be wasting time and money on a mickey mouse on line course.
Here are some links that might help you get started:

https://www.beautyguild.com/
https://www.babtac.com/
https://www.sweetsquared.com/my-education/
Good luck!

amazing thank you.
so helpful

 

[NatalieC1983]

Hi Natalie,
Some gentle business advice. If you buy cheap, you will sell cheap and there is a good chance you will also develop allergies.

The key for all service businesses, is to earn as much per hour as possible. That allows you to choose your customers and work less. They only way to achieve this, is by offering a higher quality service than the competition, at a price that is higher, but to the minds of the customers is good value for what they get.

To do that, you need to get the best education you can find. This is the foundation of the house you want to build. And you need a good products from a supplier who has a lot of experience and can also provide the support and education you need, to get the best out of their products.

I know some people think if you learn to use gel, you can use any gels. Maybe. But not as well as someone training in the gel by a company who developed the product, knows it inside out, has a team of educators providing feedback, and perhaps, like us, has developed special techniques.

I know with COVID it is difficult to travel, so perhaps you have to start somewhere. But have a goal to aim higher, you will enjoy your new career much more and it can bring other opportunities like international travel, if you work smart and hard.

thank you for the helpful advice!

 

[Feline]

I think you can’t go wrong with OPI.

The product is professional, range is huge, they have a great pro lamp, and you can match your gels to any of their regular polish in your collection too x

- bought through their pro trade site, not elsewhere. I believe that there are fakes circulating which is a dangerous game.

 

[NatalieC1983]

I think you can’t go wrong with OPI.

The product is professional, range is huge, they have a great pro lamp, and you can match your gels to any of their regular polish in your collection too x

- bought through their pro trade site, not elsewhere. I believe that there are fakes circulating which is a dangerous game.

Thank you, I hadn’t thought of regular polish at all. Do you offer lots of these colours? Would that just be for a regular shape and polish?

 

[Noodle]

I think you can’t go wrong with OPI.

The product is professional, range is huge, they have a great pro lamp, and you can match your gels to any of their regular polish in your collection too x

- bought through their pro trade site, not elsewhere. I believe that there are fakes circulating which is a dangerous game.

You can actually purchase OPI polish from John Lewis and other retail outlets so unfortunately, it’s not exclusively professional but for consumers also.

 

[Feline]

I’m not currently working, but I kept (and would still keep) up to 50 regular OPI polishes (not including count of black, white, base and 4 different topcoats) in my kit, it was usually 40 with room for movement when different collections came out.. I didn’t always replace every colour when it was gone if it didn’t get chosen as much. I would say this was a smaller than usual amount

I kept hundreds of gels . Started out with EzFlow and graduated over to OPI in the end as EzFlow became less and less accessible.

File and shape with cuticle work for regular polish manicures, unless requested otherwise - some people do not tolerate filing of any sort let alone cuticle work. Price remained the same. Cold as ice .

- I should probably add that another thing that sold regular polish manicures was the addition of basic nail art with it, by basic I mean easy simple to do with nice visual effect, no embellishments just specially formulated nail art paint and for an extra price on top of the mani.

 

[Feline]

You can actually purchase OPI polish from John Lewis and other retail outlets so unfortunately, it’s not exclusively professional but for consumers also.

Hiya Noodle


That’s the other good point about it, the retail doesn’t strictly rely on you so if you do not want to retail colours, customers are / were happy to visit John Lewis (that’s where I used to recommend actually, as well as their website) to pick up their favourite shade if they wanted. I always warned against ebay, but largely my base was not looking to get a cheaper price and wenot ebay shoppers, so it wasn’t on their minds.

Many of them didn’t buy their own polish. They booked me to supply the entire service, not wanting to paint their own nails as in their words .. they were really happy with their results that they couldn’t achieve at home themselves.

I had also accumulated some OPI regular polish colours that couldn’t be bought anymore, which also brought re-bookings.

It’a a nice treat to have someone else do the mani x

-
Is the gel now available at John Lewis? The products are professional to me in the sense that the formulation is safe, gel - usually trade only, well known brand which is trusted by the general public.

 

[NatalieC1983]

I’m not currently working, but I kept (and would still keep) up to 50 regular OPI polishes (not including count of black, white, base and 4 different topcoats) in my kit, it was usually 40 with room for movement when different collections came out.. I didn’t always replace every colour when it was gone if it didn’t get chosen as much. I would say this was a smaller than usual amount

I kept hundreds of gels . Started out with EzFlow and graduated over to OPI in the end as EzFlow became less and less accessible.

File and shape with cuticle work for regular polish manicures, unless requested otherwise - some people do not tolerate filing of any sort let alone cuticle work. Price remained the same. Cold as ice .

- I should probably add that another thing that sold regular polish manicures was the addition of basic nail art with it, by basic I mean easy simple to do with nice visual effect, no embellishments just specially formulated nail art paint and for an extra price on top of the mani.

This is a great help. Thank you, I just figured regular polish wasn’t widely used anymore! Will keep on saving for those bottles then.

 

[Feline]

This is a great help. Thank you, I just figured regular polish wasn’t widely used anymore! Will keep on saving for those bottles then.

Definitely, you can also get a gauge in it by requests that you receive for it or conversations with clients having different services over why you don’t have it.

To be safe you could start very small and just stock a couple of basics as mentioned before.

It’s definitely worth doing and means that you’l cater for more people overall, and in the very least demonstrate that you’re willing to cater for all. That’s a welcoming vibe.

It’s really exciting I wish you all of the best x

 

[NatalieC1983]

Definitely, you can also get a gauge in it by requests that you receive for it or conversations with clients having different services over why you don’t have it.

To be safe you could start very small and just stock a couple of basics as mentioned before.

It’s definitely worth doing and means that you’l cater for more people overall, and in the very least demonstrate that you’re willing to cater for all. That’s a welcoming vibe.

It’s really exciting I wish you all of the best x

thank you so much for the helpful advice x