Tips for painting after soaking?

[Chic*digits]

Does anybody have any tricks of the trade that I don't know about for getting nail polish to stay on nails after doing manicures/pedicures involving soaking in water? My school instructor told me that if I wanted to get lasting polish, I would have to just use a cuticle gel and rinse it with soapy water spray without soaking. My services have a good bubble spa soak, but I want my clients to have nicely polished nails for at least a week or so. (water expands nails, so when you polish them afterwards, the nail shrinks back to normal and the paint chips off). tips, suggestions, opinions, theories, anything that helps

 

[HeatherDavis]

Don't do a water soak

I have not done a water manicure in about 8 years, and my clients don't miss it. Especially once I explain to them exactly what you just stated. The nail absorb the water, the water evaporates, the nail shrinks, the polish chips.

I do all the same steps as a normal mani, even washing the nails off with a spray bottle filled with soapy water. I do a fab massage, then cleanse and dehydrate the nails with Scrubfresh, base coat, 2 coats of color, topcoat, then solar oil after a few minutes to keep the polish from sticking to anything ELSE

Another thing to know about enamel- the slower it dries the BETTER. Quick dry anything on enamel makes the pigment not come together as it should, with tiny holes throughout- spray dryers make that kind of permanent- so take a few minutes metween each layer of application, and let the client know that in order for the mani to last, they need to take it easy for a while

 

[Seraphine]

I still do brief water soaks with my manis and don't have this problem. After the nails are out of the water, I prep them with a bit of alcohol or scrubfresh before I start painting them, and I also use Orly Bonding Base Coat (my fave!) which helps a lot to avoid chipping.

Good luck!

 

[geeg]

I still do brief water soaks with my manis and don't have this problem. After the nails are out of the water, I prep them with a bit of alcohol or scrubfresh before I start painting them, and I also use Orly Bonding Base Coat (my fave!) which helps a lot to avoid chipping.

Good luck!

I agree. You need to dehydrate the plate after soaking with CND ScrubFresh or even better CND Nail Fresh. I do not find that alcohol dehydrates the plate sufficiently before polishing.

 

[Chic*digits]

awesome thank you! I've been using just non-acetone to wipe the fingers down, but I do have a bottle of NSI nail pure laying around. I'm pretty sure it's the equivalent to the CND scrubfresh. I still would like to offer water in my service, so I'll try that with the bonding base. I'll update later to let you know if that solves it. thanks for the input!