Help! Flakey Nail Enamel!

[Mani-fique!]

I'm in a bit of a tizwaz here! I bought some creative polishes as part of my little set up for my manicure business and tried one last night. But this morning its flaking off and I'm not sure why.

I scrubfreshed, applied 2 coats of enamel, used out the door topcoat then solar speed dry.

I wasn't sure if using a top coat over a shimmery polish was correct as at college we were told not to do that, but seeing as most of creatives polishes are either frosted, shimmery or metalic I thought probably incorrectly that it would be ok to apply top coats.

If someone could advise I would be grateful as I don't want to let myself loose on clients if I can't use the stuff properly!!

Tamm

 

[naturalnails]

.....
I scrubfreshed, applied 2 coats of enamel, used out the door topcoat then solar speed dry.

Tamm

wot no basecoat!

Did you use a basecoat, if not then this is probably your problem.

 

[Mani-fique!]

Woops! forgot to type that bit! Yes I did use basecoat. I used toughen up! So why did it still flake?

Tamm :huh:

 

[geeg]

After using ScrubFresh ...are you quite sure the nail plate was dry before you applied your basecoat?

 

[Mani-fique!]

After using ScrubFresh ...are you quite sure the nail plate was dry before you applied your basecoat?

Absolutely positive! I really made sure that I got into all the nooks and crannies!
Help!

Tamm

 

[geeg]

Being totally logical, the only thing that would cause flaking (on all the nails?? or just one or 2??) is if the paint was never adhered to the nail in the first place or if the nail was very soft and bendy and 'flexing' the paint off the surface.

The nail surface was either holding moisture or oil.

Look again to your preparation ... the answer is there somewhere. Hundreds of us on this site use Creative enamel without a hitch so the problem has to lie there ...

 

[Mani-fique!]

Being totally logical, the only thing that would cause flaking (on all the nails?? or just one or 2??) is if the paint was never adhered to the nail in the first place or if the nail was very soft and bendy and 'flexing' the paint off the surface.

The nail surface was either holding moisture or oil.

Look again to your preparation ... the answer is there somewhere. Hundreds of us on this site use Creative enamel without a hitch so the problem has to lie there ...

mmm, most of the nails have flaking polish. It seems to be occuring round the stress point upwards, starting from the sides in. If this is due to flexing of the nail how do I resolve this? What else could it be? Its really weird I've never had this happen to me before with other polishes!

Tamm

 

[Hollyballoo]

mmm, most of the nails have flaking polish. It seems to be occuring round the stress point upwards, starting from the sides in. If this is due to flexing of the nail how do I resolve this? What else could it be? Its really weird I've never had this happen to me before with other polishes!

That certainly does sound very wierd Tamm...never had that happen with my Creative enamels I have to say.

Best try doing your nails again and seeing how they fare next time....who knows, maybe it was just a "blip". If it happens again, then there is definitely something in the procedure that is contributing towards this or you have strangely flexy nails that flick off varnish?!!

 

[Mani-fique!]

mmm, most of the nails have flaking polish. It seems to be occuring round the stress point upwards, starting from the sides in. If this is due to flexing of the nail how do I resolve this? What else could it be? Its really weird I've never had this happen to me before with other polishes!

That certainly does sound very wierd Tamm...never had that happen with my Creative enamels I have to say.

Best try doing your nails again and seeing how they fare next time....who knows, maybe it was just a "blip". If it happens again, then there is definitely something in the procedure that is contributing towards this or you have strangely flexy nails that flick off varnish?!!

Great! trust my nails to be different! I must admit its made my already low confidence faulter even more! I seem to be having a difficult enought time as it is figuring out my own nail type never lone working out why enamel won't stay on my nails!!!

It makes it worse that noone else seems to have experienced this. Makes me feel odd!!

Oh well maybe I'm just tired. Might feel better about it in the morning!!!
Just fed up!

Tamm

 

[Hollyballoo]

Tamm

Why don't you try and work on a process of elimination to get to the bottom of it because there has to be a reason for it. Who knows, maybe your nails just don't like Toughen Up or something?! Try doing one hand with Stickey base coat and the other as you did before....maybe try doing much thinner layers of enamel and maybe test out Super Shiney/Speedey as your top coat on one hand ...that's what I'd try if I were you.

BTW, when you say it is flaking....do you mean in bits or is the enamel literally peeling off in one strip?

 

[Mani-fique!]

Sounds a bit of a nightmare really!

the enamel is flaking off in bits. The enamel was put really thinly. Its not peeling off as if its too thick

Why wouldn't my nails like the Toughen up I wonder?

Tamm

 

[Hollyballoo]

Why wouldn't my nails like the Toughen up I wonder?

I have no idea Tamm!!! I'm just clutching at straws I guess

 

[Mani-fique!]

Hi guys. Have been trying the creative enamel again but am finding that I'm finding that its remaining soft enough to actually scrape off with my nail even hours later! It doesn't seem to drying to a rock hard state. I don't know if this is normal but I can't see what I'm doing wrong if it isn't. I've done all the preparation and the use of top coat (I've tried stickey, shiney and out the door)

I'm not saying that it isn't drying to some sort of hardness but Its not hard to the point that if I accidently knock it or for some reason knock one of my other nails into it it disturbs it.

I know you'll probably wonder what the hec I'm doing with this enamel but any ideas or help please!!? Or can anyone tell me how long its supposed to take for it to go hard enough that this doesn't happen?

Tamm

 

[dovetail]

Hi,

Just a thought were your hands hot, when you were applying the polish :?: . Or was the polish warm :?:

I have noticed on some clients who have warm hands the polish does have problems drying, So I have been known to pop the polish in the fridge.

anyway just a long shot

 

[Mani-fique!]

Hi,

Just a thought were your hands hot, when you were applying the polish :?: . Or was the polish warm :?:

I have noticed on some clients who have warm hands the polish does have problems drying, So I have been known to pop the polish in the fridge.

anyway just a long shot

I hadn't noticed that my hands were hot, the polish wasn't warm because it was fairly early in the day and the heat of the day hadn't got going. Thanks for the input though How long do you find it takes for enamel to dry right through?

Tamm

 

[Mrs Geek]

this is exactly what I do to the letter and NEVER have problems!
1. ScrubFresh all 10 nails
BACK TO NAIL 1
2. Using Sticky, I applying 1 thin coat of Sticky to all 10 nails
BACK TO NAIL 1
3. Using any colour of my choice apply a thin coating of colour to all 10 nails
BACK TO NAIL 1
4. Apply second coat of colour to all 10 nails
BACK TO NAIL 1
5. Apply thin coat of Super Shiny to all 10 nails
WAIT MAYBE 3/4 minutes
6. Apply Solar Speed Spray (at a 3/4 inch distance from nails) to nails!

My nails are dry in 5 minutes!! When I say BACK TO NAIL 1, I am starting with the same nail each time so as I work on 2-10, by the time I get back to NAIL 1, it is reasonably dry - WOW, hope this helps

 

[Mani-fique!]

Thanks for the help! I will do exactlyas you have suggested and see if I can't fix this dilemma!

Tamm