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Shellac newbie

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Joined
Sep 20, 2013
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Location
Midlands
Hiya

I'm new to all this so please bear with me. Bit of a long story

I trained a few years ago in acrylic, gel, manicure and pedicure and to be honest, my training was terrible. I tried and tried but gave it all up in the end as my sets wernt good enough to charge for - I wasn't even taught how to soak off or infill nails.

So I've ended up using my qualifications to do shellac and brisa lite as my gels wernt terrible but I wasn't even taught what an apex was - I learnt from you tube :(

My shellac sets have been good and I've been earning a little from it and reinvesting profit into more products.

I did an overlay on natural nails with brisa lite sculpting as we had gotten them long with shellac but smoothing wasn't supporting them and they were starting to break... So I repaired them and used sculpting and shellac. They looked gorgeous but, client went to excercise class with weights and out pressure on the free edge of her nails and it lifted the gel at the cuticle, so she agreed to have some length off and go back to brisa lite.

I filed the product with a 180 grit so thin it out and ended up not realising it was a 100 grit on one side and I caught hers and my finger and making it bleed, so I went gentle on all the others with a 240 and the gel after 30 mins of soaking wouldn't move so I kept filing and re wrapping and had to give it a bit of force to get it off the ends of the nails ( I think cos they were so long the nail is old and it really stuck, the product on the nail plate came away fine) . I've re done the brisa lite smoothing and shellac but they
Looked awful, there were lumps everywhere and I think it's where I've pulled the brisa lite and it's flakes the nail

I'm so gutted its completly knocked my confidence as they were so beautiful and she's walked away wih what I think was crap, I think she was just being nice when she said they were fine.

I'm so upset. I invested a lot years ago in training and products and it all backfired and I've got the confidence to try again after reading Gigi rouses nail book and spending hours watching cnd tutorials etc and I feel like giving up.

I really want to train with cnd and do their complete course but I can't afford it as I've got a little boy and I'm only working part time. I wanted to do 1:1 at least for brisa gels and removal technique etc but I've lost my gel and pedi certificates so they won't let me. Luckily I still have my manicure and acrylic (not that acrylics worth jack!!!)

I don't want to give up but feel it's my only option and to just sell all my kit :(

Thanks for any advice in advance

X
 
I didn't want to read and run but my kind suggestion to you is that you do consider retraining..as you have mentioned that your training was likely not sufficient enough. Most of us battle with confidence issues in the beginning but you need to have the proper wealth of knowledge as well..which it seems you might be lacking a bit. No rudeness intended when saying that. You have to be cautious with overfiling your clients nails, you also have to be really cautious about pulling product from your client's nail plates. We're in this position because we love nails and we need to protect the health of our clients nails. From the sounds of it, you have most likely damaged her nail plates. (You did say that her natural nails are now flaking which means you've actually pulled/scraped up layers of her nail plate.

It's also really important to have proper apex placement and proper thickness or you will experience lifting at the eponchyium or snapping at the free edge. This is all fairly standard knowledge and I think it would really help you to retrain or do one-to-one because really it's your reputation on the line.. Right? This industry is a lot of fun but you don't want to jump in and potentially give yourself a bad name within your community.

I hope that none of what I have said has hurt your feelings because there was no intention to do so. But, I do strongly think (for your benefit and your clients' benefit) that you do retrain or refresh your skills with an educator.

Breathe and take one day at a time. You'll get there with hard work and lots of practice.
 
you can contact the awarding body and get copies of certificate. It cost about £20 for me to get a copy of one of mine I think but that was a few years ago. Then you can do your 1-2-1 with CND xxx
 
I didn't want to read and run but my kind suggestion to you is that you do consider retraining..as you have mentioned that your training was likely not sufficient enough. Most of us battle with confidence issues in the beginning but you need to have the proper wealth of knowledge as well..which it seems you might be lacking a bit. No rudeness intended when saying that. You have to be cautious with overfiling your clients nails, you also have to be really cautious about pulling product from your client's nail plates. We're in this position because we love nails and we need to protect the health of our clients nails. From the sounds of it, you have most likely damaged her nail plates. (You did say that her natural nails are now flaking which means you've actually pulled/scraped up layers of her nail plate.

It's also really important to have proper apex placement and proper thickness or you will experience lifting at the eponchyium or snapping at the free edge. This is all fairly standard knowledge and I think it would really help you to retrain or do one-to-one because really it's your reputation on the line.. Right? This industry is a lot of fun but you don't want to jump in and potentially give yourself a bad name within your community.

I hope that none of what I have said has hurt your feelings because there was no intention to do so. But, I do strongly think (for your benefit and your clients' benefit) that you do retrain or refresh your skills with an educator.

Breathe and take one day at a time. You'll get there with hard work and lots of practice.

No you haven't Hun I think I knew deep down that's what someone was going to say :(

I am aware of filing and I've learnt quite a lot if the technical stuff from reading up but when it comes to actually doing it.... I start to panick the minute something goes wrong and do stupid things like give gel a helping hand from the nail plate :( I feel so silly I just outright panicked.

If I'm true to my self, from what sweet squared told me, I don't think I'm good enough at acrylic or gels for 1:1 I think I need to start again.

My manis pedis and shellac are good (in my opinion). Although I hate French (again, stupid course didn't even teach how to paint a smile line :( ) I have a heart attack when someone asks for it - I've told a client that suppliers have a massive shortage if white so I can't do it *hanging my head in shame*

I should never have put the brisa lite sculpting gel on her nails. But it did look beautiful and it was only 3 nails that lifted and I can see what she's done to them, because the free edge has had stress placed on it too and the shellac is showing it.

Ohh I'm so gutted. I don't even want to do shellac now, I feel so rubbish! It took me 2.5 hours :(

My courses cost me over £1000 in total including the kits and I keep seeing her advertising them dirt cheap on Facebook selling pages, I feel like ripping her eyes out cause she was no help when I was struggling and after reading Gigi rouse nail class book and watching tutorials - I am now aware of her failings as an educator. At the time I Bet I could have done cnd complete for that money *doh*

This lady is going to keep coming back to me, she's a family friend and has been really happy so far, I think she knows I've been porley This week and will make excuses for me and just hope I'm back to myself next time.... Little does she know I've probably done some damage.

Can I gently buff the flaking with a 240 grit at the next removal? Bet next removal will be hard cause I applied top coat a bit thick to try and even the lumps out :( :( :( :( :(:(

I'm truly gutted, I just want to be good at this and there's nothing I can do about it :(
 
you can contact the awarding body and get copies of certificate. It cost about £20 for me to get a copy of one of mine I think but that was a few years ago. Then you can do your 1-2-1 with CND xxx

To be honest I don't need the pedi one really and Ice just said above, from what sweet squared said I don't think I'm good enough for 1:1 I think I need to start from the beginning so I
Might aswell out the £20 in a jar and make my way towards doing cnd complete :( xxx
 
NSI do refresher training that is very reasonable cost wise. You might want to look into that.
 
NSI do refresher training that is very reasonable cost wise. You might want to look into that.

Ok I will have a look. I've heard if them but never really come across them much- is their training good? X
 
I am located in Scotland, so I know them through the Scottish beauty school and the girls there are good.

You may want to check if nsi do any courses nearer to you.
This is an example of the course available near me

NSI
 
You don't have to remove anything next time, try and do just a fill. Give her nails a break. HTH :)
 
Hiya

I'm new to all this so please bear with me. Bit of a long story

I trained a few years ago in acrylic, gel, manicure and pedicure and to be honest, my training was terrible. I tried and tried but gave it all up in the end as my sets wernt good enough to charge for - I wasn't even taught how to soak off or infill nails.

So I've ended up using my qualifications to do shellac and brisa lite as my gels wernt terrible but I wasn't even taught what an apex was - I learnt from you tube :(

My shellac sets have been good and I've been earning a little from it and reinvesting profit into more products.

I did an overlay on natural nails with brisa lite sculpting as we had gotten them long with shellac but smoothing wasn't supporting them and they were starting to break... So I repaired them and used sculpting and shellac. They looked gorgeous but, client went to excercise class with weights and out pressure on the free edge of her nails and it lifted the gel at the cuticle, so she agreed to have some length off and go back to brisa lite.

I filed the product with a 180 grit so thin it out and ended up not realising it was a 100 grit on one side and I caught hers and my finger and making it bleed, so I went gentle on all the others with a 240 and the gel after 30 mins of soaking wouldn't move so I kept filing and re wrapping and had to give it a bit of force to get it off the ends of the nails ( I think cos they were so long the nail is old and it really stuck, the product on the nail plate came away fine) . I've re done the brisa lite smoothing and shellac but they
Looked awful, there were lumps everywhere and I think it's where I've pulled the brisa lite and it's flakes the nail

I'm so gutted its completly knocked my confidence as they were so beautiful and she's walked away wih what I think was crap, I think she was just being nice when she said they were fine.

I'm so upset. I invested a lot years ago in training and products and it all backfired and I've got the confidence to try again after reading Gigi rouses nail book and spending hours watching cnd tutorials etc and I feel like giving up.

I really want to train with cnd and do their complete course but I can't afford it as I've got a little boy and I'm only working part time. I wanted to do 1:1 at least for brisa gels and removal technique etc but I've lost my gel and pedi certificates so they won't let me. Luckily I still have my manicure and acrylic (not that acrylics worth jack!!!)

I don't want to give up but feel it's my only option and to just sell all my kit :(

Thanks for any advice in advance

X

Ok so I've had confidence issues with my nails, like you had good clients and bad. It's important not to give up and to keep pushing yourself! It will make you a better nail technician in the long term- we all make mistakes it's impossible not to hun! The important thing is to learn from it! Trust me like you I have felt like giving up! It is important to get the right training initially though. I still have areas I want to improve on so I decided I am going to do a 1:1 course with the nsi educator in the south east- lally Quayle! Not sure where you are but she does travel and charges £185 per day. She can tailor the course to you. Maybe this would be something you should look into as personally I feel 1:1 is much better and I know the CND course is mad expensive! like you I've got children and have invested a lot already so in opting for this to trouble shoot. Also why not advertise for hand models to practice on!? That way you won't feel so bad when things aren't as good as you hoped?

Don't give up hun, seriously you will get better and your confidence will grow in time- don't be defeated!!' Xxx
 
Ok so I've had confidence issues with my nails, like you had good clients and bad. It's important not to give up and to keep pushing yourself! It will make you a better nail technician in the long term- we all make mistakes it's impossible not to hun! The important thing is to learn from it! Trust me like you I have felt like giving up! It is important to get the right training initially though. I still have areas I want to improve on so I decided I am going to do a 1:1 course with the nsi educator in the south east- lally Quayle! Not sure where you are but she does travel and charges £185 per day. She can tailor the course to you. Maybe this would be something you should look into as personally I feel 1:1 is much better and I know the CND course is mad expensive! like you I've got children and have invested a lot already so in opting for this to trouble shoot. Also why not advertise for hand models to practice on!? That way you won't feel so bad when things aren't as good as you hoped?

Don't give up hun, seriously you will get better and your confidence will grow in time- don't be defeated!!' Xxx

Thank you very much :)

I never knew nsi did one to one like cnd do!! Amazing!

I trained with the edge products and then Went for shellac because I knew about cnd so my brand awareness isn't great!

I've done some resesrache and Beverly Robinson from nsi is really close to me so going to contact her and explain my predicament!!!

Still feeling rubbish but better than I did last night. Because I've been offering shellac already, I don't want to look for
Models for that because my straight forward shellacs are fine, all this happened because I used brisa lite sculpting gel to do an overlay and couldn't get it off!

Thanks for not shouting at me and telling me off, I know it was stupid but I felt really porley and was panicking and just wanted to finish :( xxxx
 
Just a note to say this topic really helped me, I thought I was the only one with confidence issues. I trained with Bio in June and wasn't as good at applying the gel as the others in the class and to date I have not felt I could charge. In fact one of my friends showed her overlays to someone and they said they wouldn't have paid for them (which she didn't but it really knocks your confidence). It's a catch 22, you've got to practice to get better but you don't want to do it if its not up to scratch. I've spent a fortune buying different brushes, gels, nail forms to see if it makes a difference and am not covering my costs yet.

I'm not going to give up yet though and reading all your posts has made me realise its normal to have confidence issues. I did 2 friends' nails yesterday and they looked good (one of them insisted on paying) so maybe ive turned a corner. All the very best Shellac Newbie and everyone and thanks a lot.


EviB
Sent from my iPad using SalonGeek mobile app
 
Just a note to say this topic really helped me, I thought I was the only one with confidence issues. I trained with Bio in June and wasn't as good at applying the gel as the others in the class and to date I have not felt I could charge. In fact one of my friends showed her overlays to someone and they said they wouldn't have paid for them (which she didn't but it really knocks your confidence). It's a catch 22, you've got to practice to get better but you don't want to do it if its not up to scratch. I've spent a fortune buying different brushes, gels, nail forms to see if it makes a difference and am not covering my costs yet.

I'm not going to give up yet though and reading all your posts has made me realise its normal to have confidence issues. I did 2 friends' nails yesterday and they looked good (one of them insisted on paying) so maybe ive turned a corner. All the very best Shellac Newbie and everyone and thanks a lot.


EviB
Sent from my iPad using SalonGeek mobile app

Makes me feel better that my situation has helped someone else :)

I've spoken to my local nsi trainer and considering starting from scratch. Only prob is it will have to gop
 
Go on the credit card :s
 
Hopefully you will make it up later from happy customers! All the best


EviB
Sent from my iPad using SalonGeek mobile app
 
I've had confidence issues with doing sculptured gels, I've took mine off my treatment list.
I haven't done many sets but 40% had no issues, a little lifting but not enough to panic about but the other 60% had major lifts and several snapped off at the free edge.

I've now decided to do a conversion course with Brisa lite sculpting gel (used a hard gel before but really hate the idea of filing off)

I just need to save a bit then i can do it, trouble is it's gone really quiet now and I'm skint, typical lol.

I think all of us can get there we just need some more education and tweeking.

I really do now how you feel though :Love:
 
Thanks Hun.

You still have to file most of the brisa lite sculpting gel off, then soak the thin layer left on the nail. This is how I got in a mess cause I caught her finger with the file, lost my confidence and didn't debulk it enough before wrapping so when I took the wraps off it will still adhered to the nail plate so I Kept buffing and re wrapping and ended up giving it help with a pushie- damaged the nail and didn't notice till I had re applied the shellac and it was bumpy and rubbish :(

I'm going to thoroughly consider it over today and tomorrow but think I'm going to do the nsi course. The educator is lovely and promised ongoing support if required :)

Untill then I think I'm going to sell all my old crap kit on eBay and my brisa gels and put it toward my course :)

Xxx
 
Well you know what i said about losing my confidence, I've just seen the lady who i did hard gel extensions for, she went to turkey for 10 or 14 days, there is not one lift on her nails and none have broken, i was so made up! :D

I must have done something right.

But you say brisa whilst is soak off you have to file the majority off, so what is it like compared to a hard gel like gelish then, i suppose with all that filing you dont save much time compared to having to file down/off gelish hard gel. :(

I'm really gonna have to learn how to use an e-file :(
 
Well you know what i said about losing my confidence, I've just seen the lady who i did hard gel extensions for, she went to turkey for 10 or 14 days, there is not one lift on her nails and none have broken, i was so made up! :D

I must have done something right.

But you say brisa whilst is soak off you have to file the majority off, so what is it like compared to a hard gel like gelish then, i suppose with all that filing you dont save much time compared to having to file down/off gelish hard gel. :(

I'm really gonna have to learn how to use an e-file :(

Well compared to the edge hard gels, I just found it a bit odd because I didn't file it very much but on the nail plate, it came off with just the top coat removed but then on the free edge it stuck like turd to a fluffy rug :(

But don't take my advice hahaha!

I've been reading on here and I think a lot of oeople think its a fabulous product so I'm guessing if you do the conversion- you will too.

Well done with your set- sounds like you might not need to switch after all hunny!

One thing I found with brisa lite sculpting gel is it's very expensive (yes I know its a quality product) but I think the cost per service would be quite high in total? I've ibly done an over lay set and I've made a dent in the pot!!

Xxx
 
Thank you very much :)

I never knew nsi did one to one like cnd do!! Amazing!

I trained with the edge products and then Went for shellac because I knew about cnd so my brand awareness isn't great!

I've done some resesrache and Beverly Robinson from nsi is really close to me so going to contact her and explain my predicament!!!

Still feeling rubbish but better than I did last night. Because I've been offering shellac already, I don't want to look for
Models for that because my straight forward shellacs are fine, all this happened because I used brisa lite sculpting gel to do an overlay and couldn't get it off!

Thanks for not shouting at me and telling me off, I know it was stupid but I felt really porley and was panicking and just wanted to finish :( xxxx

That's ok hun that's what were here for! Let us know how you get on with you nsi educator?
 

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