New start with Shellac

[sophiegees]

Hi

I started doing shellac last October, had problems as I could not do it correctly and gave up. Bought gelish and could do that so started offering that until March of this year.

Have had a break from it all since march and am now going to re-embark on doing nails on a part time basis and am going to give Shellac a try again. I really, really want to offer Shellac - so am going to give it another go.

Thought I would share as I am excited........

xx

 

[deanosnana]

What problems were you having with Shellac?

 

[evangelinegrace]

Have you been to an official Shellac class? X

 

[sophiegees]

Thanks for your reply. Basically it was not lasting on clients nails and I think it may be due to for some reason my shellac was going gloopy - maybe due to my overhead nail lamp, maybe because I was slow so bottles were open.

I did the shellac course, plus when I was having problems I had a 3 hour one-to-one with the local CND trainer who could not identify anything.

My confidence was very low - and now I feel more refreshed after my 4 month break and a bit more laid back with the whole thing.

I have every colour (apart from the last release) and its sitting there doing nothing. But I may have to replace a lot of it as it is probably still gloopy from whatever I did to it

I did my first set of nails in four months (gelish) on my daughter a few days ago and they came out fine - bit rusty - but a few sets and I will be fine. And I thought this was an ideal time to get to grips with shellac.

xx

 

[Christine Mary]

Sophie, you say your bottles are "gloopy". I work from my cabin down the garden, and sometimes they get a little thicker when the temperature lowers ever so slightly. I find putting them on a towel on top of my oil filled radiator that's on very low all the time just loosens it up a little.

I'm rather slow too, probably because it's more of a paying hobby for me and I'm not tied down to times, but I find this helps.

I have found the top coat gets a little thicker at times, but putting in the warm sunshine, (when we have any) for 5 minutes does the job and it's easy to apply.

 

[Christine Mary]

Just another idea, are you giving them a good old scrub with the scrub fresh?

 

[evangelinegrace]

Actually, while heating will lower the viscosity in the short term, the additional energy will cause the solvents to evaporate more quickly. So the Shellac will go even thicker... x

 

[Christine Mary]

I don't heat it, just warm it slightly, just as effective as holding it in your hands and using your body temperature and warming it but a bit quicker.

 

[evangelinegrace]

I don't heat it, just warm it slightly, just as effective as holding it in your hands and using your body temperature and warming it but a bit quicker.

Exactly, you are increasing the temperature of the product, which will in the long term be detrimental. Especially if you are a slow painter too.

geeg
12-11-11, 11:48 AM
I've never seen instructions in my CND training manual for either warming or putting a bottle of Shellac in your bra to do so!! :lol: Warming Shellac would make the solvents evaporate more quickly and help the bottle go thick.

 

[geeg]

Exactly, you are increasing the temperature of the product, which will in the long term be detrimental. Especially if you are a slow painter too.

geeg
12-11-11, 11:48 AM
I've never seen instructions in my CND training manual for either warming or putting a bottle of Shellac in your bra to do so!! :lol: Warming Shellac would make the solvents evaporate more quickly and help the bottle go thick.

To clarify .. Shellac should be used at an ambient temperature .. between 60 and 70F. If it is colder than that, it will not harm to warm it gently to the ambient temperature where it works so well. It would be no different to it warming naturally if the temperature went up. Best thing is to not let Shellac be subjected to swings of temperatures form hot to cold etc. Keep it in a normal temperature the way you keep yourself in your home.

 

[geeg]

Exactly, you are increasing the temperature of the product, which will in the long term be detrimental. Especially if you are a slow painter too.

geeg
12-11-11, 11:48 AM
I've never seen instructions in my CND training manual for either warming or putting a bottle of Shellac in your bra to do so!! :lol: Warming Shellac would make the solvents evaporate more quickly and help the bottle go thick.

To clarify .. Let's get things in perspective and not go to extremes ... Shellac should be used at an ambient temperature .. between 60 and 70F. If it is colder than that, it will not harm to warm it gently to the ambient temperature where it works so well. It would be no different to it warming naturally if the temperature went up. Best thing is to not let Shellac be subjected to extreme swings of temperatures form hot to cold etc. Keep it at a normal temperature the way you keep yourself in your home.

 

[evangelinegrace]

Thanks for your reply. Basically it was not lasting on clients nails and I think it may be due to for some reason my shellac was going gloopy - maybe due to my overhead nail lamp, maybe because I was slow so bottles were open.

I did the shellac course, plus when I was having problems I had a 3 hour one-to-one with the local CND trainer who could not identify anything.

My confidence was very low - and now I feel more refreshed after my 4 month break and a bit more laid back with the whole thing.

It's always so sad when people who have problems go through all the official channels but still have issues! I'm really glad you're feeling more relaxed after your hiatus though.

Another possibility would be that the clients' nails may not be healthy and strong enough for Shellac, or they were being a bit too rough with their hands. Gelish has more strength so they may be getting on better with that partially for that reason. Did you try Shellac on yourself? Xxx

 

[evangelinegrace]

To clarify .. Let's get things in perspective and not go to extremes ... Shellac should be used at an ambient temperature .. between 60 and 70F. If it is colder than that, it will not harm to warm it gently to the ambient temperature where it works so well. It would be no different to it warming naturally if the temperature went up. Best thing is to not let Shellac be subjected to extreme swings of temperatures form hot to cold etc. Keep it at a normal temperature the way you keep yourself in your home.

Yes, exactly. In most cases, the work environment isn't going to fall below 16C. A 'reasonable' minimum temperature for work places is 16C (dependent on other factors such as humidity and so on). Regulation 7 of Workplace Regulations 1992 and it's associated ACOP explains this.

There should be no need to increase the temperature unless they have been stored in a very cool place... Which most techs do not do before every client. In the winter months it may be necessary if the temperature of the salon has dropped over night, but not for every single client all year round

It would be a shame if the OP did accidentally warm the Shellac up too much and it went gloopier as a result x

 

[sophiegees]

Thank you for all your support - I really appreciate it.

I am wondering about the temperature actually as the nail bar I had was in an indoor market - but it was autumn so maybe not too much of extreme temperatures. It is a thought though. I do wonder if it was my light I was using though - I had it down really low. And also I did shellac on anyone - and perhaps some of their nails were not suitable. And very slow....

My daughter was doing mine and I was doing my daughters and we did not have problems. I do think it was a lot to do with my confidence as well. I opened a full time nail bar and it kind of all went wrong!

I have closed it now and use our piercing studio which is a proper enclosed clinical room (in the market again) and there is no pressure to be there every day as we pay for it anyway but only use it for piercing on a Saturday. So there is no pressure this time - will just do nails part time and gradually build it up slowly to get my confidence up.

Thank you all for your support.

xx