Seriously need your expertise / advice / help!

[Miss_Biscuit]

Sorry this is a bit long.

I have been doing my own acrylic extensions for over 3 years now and recently took and passed the Creative 4 Day foundation.

Since then I have only done 4 sets (I work full time.) the first was on my model and she had then taken off the next day as she wasn't allowed them on for work reasons. The 2nd person wanted them off after a day as she said that when she touched things with them on they made her cringe! (Yes really! EVERYTHING makes her cringe, the feel of newspapers, velvet, porcelain to name a few!! But I digress!) so they were soaked off after two days, then I did another friend and my Mum a set each, a day apart from each other.

Now, I expected my Mum to lose a couple as she is a serious nail biter.. But so far in 3 weeks she has only lost one and that was from her shortest, shortest nail. And they don't even look like they need infilling yet either (Her nails grow v. slowly.) But my other friend has had a 'mare with hers.

5 days after I did her set she said that she had lost one, the rest looked like they "were growing fast" and a couple were lifting, she asked if I could do a repair and a manicure for her in a couple of days.. when she turned up she had lost a further two enhancements (All there were on the same hand, her non-dominant hand.) and the rest looked bloody awful! When she said that it looked like they had grown fast, I think she meant that because the acrylic nearest to the cuticle was showing an obvious gap, like it was a 3 week infill due or something..

Then I looked at a couple of nails that were lifting and one pinged off completely (From the same hand as the rest.) leaving no marks on the nail plate at all, in fact all of her nails that needed replacing were smooth with not pot marks or trauma indications.

So I rebalanced the ones she had left and replaced the missing 4.. PREPPING and PREPPING throughly as I had done previously.

Yet I get this mail today a week later:

"Just to let you know all my nails have come off over the weekend, I have kept them for you this time...I am not sure what is happening!

I think it might be the solar oil coz they just seemed to slide off after getting out the bath...so its when they are softer! and when you see them they are whole nail so you can see they have just fallen off..... "

What am I doing wrong?!! My Mum's nails are still going strong as I say, and she is all I have to compare to (Besides me. - Mine are fine too.) and I daren't do another set on a new client now in case the same thing happens.

I think I may be losing my confidence. :cry:

In case this helps I am using:

• The pink powder that came with the Creative stater kit
• The shimmery glitter acrylic on the tips (Creative.).
• Rentention Plus.
• Star Nails tips.
• Creative Cuticle REMOVER. (Acid based one.)
• Scrubfresh.

Sorry I have not got the proper names to hand, I am at work at the mo.
My friend is going to get her nails done by another mate of hers that had just passed the Creative foundation course.. So we shall see if the same thing happens I s'pose.

I'm gutted.



Any advise or ideas greatly appreciated.

 

[geeg]

Well I wouldn't be 'gutted' at this stage of the learning curve.

The more people you work on the more you will realize that it is generally the difference in clients and not the difference in what you are doing that counts.

It is true that in very rare circumstances, one runs across a person who just cannot wear any type of nail enhancement and keep them on. It can happen but man it is one in a million. Maybe you found her.

It may be that you think you are doing your prep sufficiently but that you are not in fact removing all the cuticle from the nail plate. Some barrier between the product and the plate is still there.

But ... if you are sure you are doing everything correctly, then you have stumbled on one of the few. Bad luck if you have.

The nails she shows you must be clean as a whistle on the underside (don't so much look at her natural nails as the nails that have come off). If there is any nail sticking to the underside of these enhancements, then they were given some help along the way.

 

[naturalnails]

As Gigi says - dont lose heart after this short time ish!

You say that you have been doing nails for 3 years previously - what, if any training did you have before, what products did you use?

Is it possible that you are still possibly using the techniques used previously and have not yet unlearned your other systems ways?

Are you making sure that the Cuticle Remover is washed off.

These may be other things to consider over and above what has already been said.

I presume you did your training with Anne/Kelly - maybe you could do an hour 1-2-1 or talk with them on the phone to see if they can lend any other help.

 

[Sam Biddle]

I have read, what you have said and I would agree with gigi, don't get to dispondant. One thing that has occured to me, is have you checked what your client is doing, to keep her nails in ship shape. You mentioned she has problems when she gets out of the bath, too many times the client say she understands the aftercare instructions, and really she wasn't listening. re-check your aftercare with her, and maybe go through what she does day by day, for example, I had one client who kept getting this yukky brown stain on just two of her fingers, and I couldn't work out why, eventually after alot of appointments and questions, I worked out that she was using these two fingers to squeeze the t-bag when she made cups of T, problem solved, I took her into the staff room and had to show her how to do it with a spoon, can you beleive it...?.

 

[Bryony]

Could also be a problem if your client has particularly oily skin? If you are prepping all the nails at once is the oil in her skin having time to 'resurface' onto her nail plates? Can't think how to put that correctly but hopefully you know what I mean!

Is she touching something (hair/face) to re-introduce oils to the nail plate after you've prepped them, which the L & P then won't stick too?

 

[Miss_Biscuit]

Thanks for your replies ladies, very helpful and much appreciated.

I think that she poss could have an oily nail plate naturally as I asked her how long nail varnish normally stays on her natural nail for (Less than a day.) and previously she has gone to those salons that are like a production line with a different "tech" for each stage where they use MMA and drills... And she said that those nails went the same way as my set did but after two weeks.. And I know that sets done with MMA are meant to be harder wearing. And obviously I am using EMA.

The only thing I didn't do as I wasn't aware that you could do, was applying the acid-free Creative primer... That is because I was told that you did not need it with Retention +. But if you ARE able to use it I wouldn't know whether to use it before or after Scrubfresh anyway.

I just really hope it her (Don't mean that in a nasty way!) as I really did PREP as well as I could, and the crap I got off her nails was unbelievable, compared to my Mum's whose are quite dry.. Which might explain why even though she is a biter that her set is still going strong.

My friend had another set done on Weds just gone, by one of her mates that also just did the 4 dayer... So she said that she would let me know how this set goes for her.

 

[geeg]

Thanks for your replies ladies, very helpful and much appreciated.

I think that she poss could have an oily nail plate naturally as I asked her how long nail varnish normally stays on her natural nail for (Less than a day.) and previously she has gone to those salons that are like a production line with a different "tech" for each stage where they use MMA and drills... And she said that those nails went the same way as my set did but after two weeks.. And I know that sets done with MMA are meant to be harder wearing. And obviously I am using EMA.

The only thing I didn't do as I wasn't aware that you could do, was applying the acid-free Creative primer... That is because I was told that you did not need it with Retention +. But if you ARE able to use it I wouldn't know whether to use it before or after Scrubfresh anyway.

I just really hope it her (Don't mean that in a nasty way!) as I really did PREP as well as I could, and the crap I got off her nails was unbelievable, compared to my Mum's whose are quite dry.. Which might explain why even though she is a biter that her set is still going strong.

My friend had another set done on Weds just gone, by one of her mates that also just did the 4 dayer... So she said that she would let me know how this set goes for her.

It is certainly in your class notes and will have been covered in class, both when and how to use the Acid Free Primer, but to refresh your memory:
Creative Acid free Primer (any primer for that matter) is always the last thing to be applied before product application. The purpose of it is to remove any excess oils and to aid in bonding, so naturally it has to be the last product applied before application. HTH