help with acrylic crystallizing

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littlegem

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Hi all and a merry christmas,
I've just finished my home nail acrylic training and have been using the nail trainer hand,when i first started the course the acrylic crystallized and the problem was solved by me using a lamp but i done a set of nails on my friend (my first live hand) and the acrylic crystallized, i thought a "live" hand wouldn't have the same problem of being cold ....................any help or info would be greatly received.
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During the winter months I keep a heating pad on my table and wrap it in a cloth towel, then put my Hands Down towel on that. Be sure to replace the cloth towel as well with each client. It (cloth)helps keep the heating pad clean. If they still crystallize, use a small hair dryer(I keep a travel size on my table to help dry product) for a minute or two just before you apply acrylic. Be sure to keep the room warm too. Hope this helps. ~ Ginger
 
This also happened to me, as the temp dropped, and I was also using gold. I changed dappen dish and use a v small one. Also try not to "mess" too much with the acrylic ...pat and stroke as little as possible

HTH :)
 
I have to butt in and say here ladies that although you may think you are solving your crystallizing problems by using heat to speed up the reaction ... this is a BAD practice and will cause other problems later. Knowing your chemistry will stop you from devising do it yourself remedies that can cause harm to the nail and problems with the product.

You should never use a heat source to cure your L&P. It causes excessive shrinking of the product, and can cause pain or onycholysis to the nailplate. It can also 'shock cure' the product and lead to excessive breakage later on.

Why not use a product that never crystallizes? I can never understand why, when there are superior products available, technicians continue to use products that are 'old' technology and still suffer through these problems when they can be completely avoided? Heating pads? Monomer warmers? Hair driers? Lamps? Who can be bothered?

It must be well over 10 years since I have ever seen a product crystallize. I forgot there are still so many products out there that do this in the cold. Sorry, but this is the truth!
 
....i put a thin layer of EZ flow L&P over a gel nail and it did crystallize on me...maybe Geeg would know why that happened....


From Gigi!!!!

I'm so sorry Anna .... I have edited your post by mistake ... my answer to your question appears further down the page.

Must've hit the edit button instead of the quote button. My apologies. If you would like to resubmit your post Please do.
 
I don't mean for this to sound snippy, but I NEVER said that I heat to cure. Read it closely and you'll see that I only use the heating pad or hair dryer to warm the hands BEFORE applying the product. I hope this is not taken the wrong way but I don't want my advice turning into something that I didn't say. I always remove it (heating pad)from the table when applying. it is an electrical appliance and it is not wise to use it when using liquids let alone something that is flammable. Thanks for allowing the clarification. ~Ginger
 
Hi, After reading your posting ginger, I still agree with Geeg, that even if you only use a heat source to warm the hands prior to applying the L&P, Its still wasting time that could be more wisely spent.
I think that if your using a good quality product and your ratio mix is right you should not have any problems.
 
....i put a thin layer of EZ flow L&P over a gel nail and it did crystallize on me...maybe Geeg would know why that happened....

You may have been seeing the 'sugared' effect (that looks to the eye like crystallization, but is not caused by the cold).

'Sugaring' as I call it, is caused by rapid evaporation of the liquid from the polymer ... this can occur as a result of several causes ... too wet a mix as well as being in a draft of some kind. the draft could be anything from a breeze to a fan to an air conditioner even in a very warm room. But the two things (wet mix and draft) have to be present at the same time.

Unlike crystallization caused by the cold, the sugaring effect is usually only on the surface and could be buffed away without a problem BUT if the layer you did was only very thin in the first place, then it could have gone all the way through the layer.

If the right circumstances are present, this problem can also occur with Creative products. Usually it is rare though that the 2 things happen at once to cause the problem.
 
i don't have a problem with crystillization or sugaring, but i do get clients to warm hands up when very cold as i find it slows my application of acrylic.

after reading messages not sure if this is a bad thing to do! should i just to stick to faster drying acrylics?

ta to anyone who offers advice.

Amberx
 
There is nothing wrong with warming a client's hands prior to or during application.

Of course, the cold will slow down any chemical reaction just as heat will speed it up. Even a fast dry system will be slowed down in the cold.

What I was trying to point outis that one should not try to heat up the product by means of hair driers or lights etc. These practices can lead to problems.
 
Crystalisation is a thing of the past with me, I have had it, but now I have Creative, it is NO MORE.
I even have a client that has exceptionally cold hands all the time but still it isn`t present. It is all extra time when you have to make sure you have things at the right temperature to provide a good service
 
Thank you all for you're comments and advice as i am at the start of my career i would be grateful for saving time ! i have been only using pinnacal products wich was included in my home learn course but i am aware of the gold monomer inhancer that they do,what other supplier sells the non crystallizing products as i have not decided what product to use at present.?
 
geeg said:
....i put a thin layer of EZ flow L&P over a gel nail and it did crystallize on me...maybe Geeg would know why that happened....

You may have been seeing the 'sugared' effect (that looks to the eye like crystallization, but is not caused by the cold).

'Sugaring' as I call it, is caused by rapid evaporation of the liquid from the polymer ... this can occur as a result of several causes ... too wet a mix as well as being in a draft of some kind. the draft could be anything from a breeze to a fan to an air conditioner even in a very warm room. But the two things (wet mix and draft) have to be present at the same time.

Unlike crystallization caused by the cold, the sugaring effect is usually only on the surface and could be buffed away without a problem BUT if the layer you did was only very thin in the first place, then it could have gone all the way through the layer.

If the right circumstances are present, this problem can also occur with Creative products. Usually it is rare though that the 2 things happen at once to cause the problem.

Hmmm, this was strange because other that this instance I have never had this happening. And there was no draft or cold, the only thing that comes to my mind is that it was a very thin layer of L&P over a gel. The whole layer was "frosted" and when I went to file it, it just all flaked off the gel...strange.
But now thinking about it, maybe the mix was bit on the wetter side....maybe that's why...
Sorry, I know this is bit off the topic...
 
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