Thanks for the advice everyone, I think I have just got into bad habits and now I'm just learning to do things wrong but I don't think the company I trained with have reps that can come out. They have a helpline but thats no good if I need someone to sit and watch me. I've got my bio sculpt conversion nxt month so that will be extra training and I'm hoping to convert to CND but they keep telling me theres dates soon to be added but they don't appear but I know they have one to one training so I can get that aswell. I've been round hairdressers and tanning shops today and I've got 3 meetings next week to go over my idea of setting myself up in a corner, charging £15 a full set using all my own products and the owner gets £5 for every client I have so its extra revenue for them and practice for me, I won't make any money off it but I don't mind as I'm just desperate to be better.
In regards to the questions :
- Are you happy with them once you've done them? If not why not, what's wrong with them I'm rarely happy with them but they are not horrific and the client always says they are lovely. I can often see that with natural tips ive not buffed the corners of the tip properly or I've got some acrylic on the skin but they usually leave me looking reasonable but then they must just start to lift and come off
- do they last on your nails? I don't wear extensions on my own nails because I tend to catch them constantly with my file or get acrylic stuck on them and they look a mess and plus I stuggle to file with my opposite hand but I always wear gel polish with a coat of extension gel over the top because my nailsare thin and they look nice and neat but I do still catch them with the file so they end up a mess
- what's the first thing to go wrong, chipping or lifting? If lifting, where does it occur? Its usually lifting and its mostly the sides, I've not had anyone say theyve chipped but then Ive not heard back from most people
- how soon till the nails start to 'come off' I'm not sure to be honest but not long after becuase they usually say they'll see me in 2 wks for infills but they must all come off before then
- are you meticulous with your prep? I do everything the best way I know how, I push back the eponychiums and get as much of the cuticle off as possible, sometimes theres the bits in the corners that just will not come off and I could scratch at them all day with no luck. I do often get air bubbles under the nail but I reapply and reapply and it still happens but thats the kind of thing where I can be told how to do it but unless someones sat next to me teaching me I don't know how to fix it. Ive bought some non buff natural nails but im wary of using them because they dont have the stop ridge so I think the glue will probabl run all down the nail but i'll give them a go tonight but also they are still quite thick so are they really not buffed at all??? x
Hiya - yes that's the sort of thing I'm talking about, the nail trainer above. You cant soak off the acrylic it comes with changeable little practice nails that you can remove once you've done your nail.
OK I'm going to try address everything you've said, one point at a time.
With the tips, you need to thin them out before you apply them (with a file), so they are much easier to blend. Especially the little 'ears' or corners. Then once you've got your tips glued on, you need to gently blend over the smile line till it disappears.
If your product (acrylic) touches the skin at ALL, you will get lifting almost immediately. This is because the oil in the skin in contaminating the product & it will not last on the nails.
Are you using cuticle eraser or doing dry cuticle prep? a lot of new techs struggle with perfect prep - if you leave any cuticle on the nail you will encounter lifting, same reasons as above. See this excellent video to find out about using products and proper prep
Removing Cuticle....the real cuticle - YouTube
Air bubbles - do you mean under the tip? If you are not using the correct sized tip you will get bubbles, or if you're using a rubbish glue! But mainly, probably not using the correct tip. They not only have to fit the correct width, they have to have the right depth of c curve. If you have a tip with a very deep c curve on a flat nail, it will ping off & take the acrylic with it within days I imagine. You need to use a brand that give you a variety of tips to choose from (I like CND tips). It's fine using well-less tips just make sure you don't overload with glue.
I know there is a LOT to take in, and you are going for further training soon, but I thoroughly recommend reading every single word of Geeg's tutorials (go to Articles at the top of the page) and she discusses prep, brush control etc. Also - buy her Nailclass book. £15 on Amazon and you will learn so much from there. Plus check out more of Fingernailfixer's videos on youtube (same person as I posted above) she has fab advice on l&p and gel.
Xx