Old gel stuck to nails

[Lisa111]

Hoping someone can shed some light on this...

I had a client last night for gel overlays. Had to soak off existing gel that she had on (Biosculpture) before doing a new set.

The lady had her previous gels on for about a month she said ( I think perhaps longer though) and she had about 3 infiils since the initial application.

When I went to soak off there's me thinking it's a doddle and won't take long....took flippin ages!

When I finally managed to get it off, there was still some very old gel left stuck to her nail but it looked like it was actually ingrained in her nail as opposed to sitting on it. I was a bit miffed as never had this before. (Didn't want to keep soaking incase her fingers fell off!)

Now, do you recon I had trouble getting it off because I use a different system (Calgel) therefore liquid not compatible, or is it because the original gel is so old. Trouble is it was bright fuscia pink, and the new colour I did was a light shimmery pink so you could actually see patches of the old colour underneath.
I did feel a bit :o( when I left thinking maybe i should have done something better/different.

Any ideas? Thanks folks x :cry:
(Sorry for rambling...)

 

[jonailtech]

what did you use to soak off?? did you use calaway as normal, i would of thought that would take them off as they are very similar products

 

[Lisa111]

Yep I did the foil soak off with Calaway.

 

[mely-bely]

Could be the the old gel stuck to her nails wasn't a soak off.

 

[jonailtech]

Could be the the old gel stuck to her nails wasn't a soak off.

that must be the prob as surley the calaway should of taken it off...

 

[angel fingers]

could have just been the pigment from the highly coloured gel that had stained the nail in much the same way that polish can. it could be avoided by making sure there was a clear layer as a base, but possibly the old tech went straight in with the colour ?

the soak off products are basically acetone so yours should have been ok to use. buffing might have got the colour off the nail plate but if it was heavy staining you'ld risk damage. maybe a pale colour wasnt the best choice for her .

 

[Terese]

to add all of the above are possible..........but was she sure it was Bio?

It may have been that she had a different system on before the Bio and made her nails were in poor condition? Hence the client then deciding on a nno, to help her nails recover?

Also the choice of a darker pink colour? as she obviously likes pink, just a thought

 

[NSINAILS]

I could be wrong, but I don't believe that Calaway is primarily Acetone, which is the active ingredient in most soak-off gel removers. Perhaps using 100% Acetone might have soaked-off the old gel, since Calaway is designed to work for CalGel, not BioSculpture. Just a thought, although the easiest thing to do would probably be gently filing off the a last bit of gel.

Interesting story though as soak-off gels are supposed to be so easy to remove. Isn't that their main selling point?

 

[Lisa111]

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions folks. She said it was definately Bio that was used and it was the first and only time she's had gels done. I did try to persuade her to go for a darker colour but she wanted to go for the more natural look. Initially wanted french but I think that would have probably looked worse so I disuaded her from that! Didn't want to buff too much in case of damage as it was literally ingrained!
Oh well. Let's see if it comes off when I soak this lot off. Maybe I should try the acetone on the old colour as suggested.

Ta x