What on earth?

[Chickafish]

M'kay. So normally I consider myself pretty wise when it comes to products and the methods NSS use to apply to nails considering I used to work for one. But I was totally baffled at work trying to figure out what the heck was on my client's nails.

Initial inspection- It was just a regular french manicure/pedicure that needed redoing. Client confirms it she just had regular polish.

I tried to remove it. Took a bit of muscle to get it off. Noticed there was still some base on the plates, but they were cracked, and was not budging. I use just straight acetone for removal. Asked if they used anything else that would've involved her putting her hand under a UV lamp (pointing at my lamp as I explain) during the application process. She said no. She just went under one of those long drying units most NSS have buckled down to a long table after they finished polishing everything and left when it was dry. She said she doesn't get anything else but normal polish. (She's visiting the UK from Australia and said she wasn't keen on getting anything fancy in case it chipped so she could remove it herself) Puzzled, I continued on by just buffing the cracked mysterious base as smooth as possible and continued on with the service.

Tried to remove the French polish on her feet, same issue but twice as hard to remove. The whites budged a little easier than the pinks. I noticed the pinks just were NOT budging at all, and on the ones where I did manage to remove most of the product, there was that mysterious cracked base. She swore up and down she's never had gels or anything. I started thinking it could be shellac (fake or geniune... who knows with these places right?) but she said she never had shellac before or any type of gel polish. In fact, one of our conversation was regarding finding a legit nail tech for her to get properly shellac'd when she gets back home.

So anyway. Sorry for the long post, but has anyone ever stumbled across this ridiculously hard to remove "polish" or have any idea what it could be? (I did gently scratch the surface with my nail and it wasn't even rubbery like how their acrylics usually are. It was rock solid, very thinly applied, and cracks when acetone is swiped over it but it doesn't flake off. Needed to buff with a 180 to get most of it off.)

 

[Pretty Geeky]

YES!!! Not long after I first started a woman that my husband does work for came to me for a pedicure. She lives in Crete for some of the year and had had some nail art done there (all paint, no stones, glitter etc.). Like you I could NOT get this stuff to budge. The white was the first colour to come off but the rest was awful. She also swore blind that it was just normal polish and no lamps etc had been used but it took me over 45 mins to buff whatever it was off. To this day I still done know what the heck it was. I hope someone else can answer your query!! PGx

 

[Chickafish]

Ah thanks for your input. I thought I was going crazy! The only thing I could think of was this kryptonite green base my old boss used to use. It smelled awful and strong, and had a homemade label (literally a piece of paper held on to the bottle with scotch tape) that had the generic hand holding a rose and it read "sticky base coat". I had to re-polish some of his clients, and I remember having a hard time getting the base off as well, but that one didn't crack or stay put in a rock-solid state. It eventually dissolved. Puzzling...

 

[amurphy105]

Possibly an air or heat dried top coat. I haven't used it, but I know there is one acetone resistant top coat that dries under a normal 40w bulb. It's a pain to remove.

Sent from my Desire HD using SalonGeek

 

[Chickafish]

Do you think they would use that as the base coat though? The base was harder to remove than the top. And from her description the whole service was carried out as normal polish, so the only times he went under anything was at the very end in the drying unit.

 

[Lolly22]

I had a client in asking me to remove her shellac because she was having a really hard time. I had my doubts that it was shellac as its pretty easy to get off. And this is what happened. The base was really shiny and it just didn't budge with acetone at all. Like you I ended up having to buff it off. And the girl says she never went under a lamp at any point. I couldn't work out what was used either. Crazy!

 

[Chickafish]

Update:
The client returned for a lash treatment, but while she was laying there, I snuck a peek at her toes and fingers. Thankfully, none of the tiny cracks surfaced, but it's still worrying me what it could be...

 

[Feline]

I have also come across this :O

I dont know what on earth the stuff is, but whatever it is I got the idea that its purpose was so that the 2 week manicure could just be buffed off and re applied quickly over the extreme tough stuff.

I had a client who I began to soak off her manicure - it went rubbery but did not want to budge off the stuff, she later told me that the previous tech would buff it off and simply re apply over the cracked stuff.

It was not good, looked awful upon removal and I advised the client that the colour and base coat would normally be able to be soaked off, with a re ap of the entire system, base, colour and topcoat.

What IS this stuff?!

 

[Fluffy socks]

This happened to me a while ago :o
I tried everything to get this mysterious clear base coat off which left my nails in a really bad condition so much so that I just had to let the remainder grow out
Needless to say I didn't go back there again

 

[Chickafish]

This happened to me a while ago :o
I tried everything to get this mysterious clear base coat off which left my nails in a really bad condition so much so that I just had to let the remainder grow out
Needless to say I didn't go back there again

Do you remember anything about the base at all? Bottle size/shape? color? Label? Was it applied just like normal base coat? (Sounding like a detective right now :lol: ) I was thinking about it, and you know what it reminded me of? Resin. Rock solid. And everytime I've ever used acetone to remove polish off my nails that have been fiberglass wrapped, the resin cracks just like that!

 

[Fluffy socks]

Do you remember anything about the base at all? Bottle size/shape? color? Label? Was it applied just like normal base coat? (Sounding like a detective right now :lol: ) I was thinking about it, and you know what it reminded me of? Resin. Rock solid. And everytime I've ever used acetone to remove polish off my nails that have been fiberglass wrapped, the resin cracks just like that!

There was no label on the bottle it was made of brown glass almost shaped like an opi nail varnish and was applied like a normal base coat
Lol nah I'm just as curious now to find out what it was

 

[woo87]

Maybe you could go the nail bar yourself and have it done just to see what they do??

It's so mysterious isn't it!

 

[Dol]

I'm pretty Orly made a rubberized base coat

 

[Knucks]

I had a nightmare removal once too. I discovered she had had Gellux on her nails, it took me an hour to get it off!

Acetone wraps didn't budge it and I ended up buffing it off.

Could this be what it is?

 

[sleepingbeauty]

I came across something similar and after research I was left with the belief that it was fibregel. Whether yours is the same who knows but it was really awkward to remove ! It didnt soak off & had to be gently buffed until I got the majority of it off....

 

[Studiosparkle]

wow guys, I am morbidly curious now!

 

[Dream Nails]

I had something similar a few weeks ago.

It was described as being in smaller bottles than the colour shellac bottles. 2 layers of clear followed but the colour ( she did not have a lot of choice but that's not saying this gel doesn't come in lots of colour) it was a similar colour to Shellac Tutti Frutti and then a top coat. All cured in a lamp.

The consistency when applied she said it has fibres in it. And it was so thick for a polish shocking.

Of course even after removing the top coat and wrapping it didn't budge. So I buffed the colour off. My lady said the it's usually all filed off and reapplied. To me though what I was seeing didn't see the point in filing that thick base layer off to put it on again. I could be doing it totally wrong for that system though?

So I thinned the bulk out to a nice natural look and then carried on with the Shellac service as normal. She has booked me again for two weeks time and I have explained that we can let the remaining gel grow out.

 

[ChelseaNails]

Okay I had a little root around and I found a product called Acrylic Nail Polish, which, as you probs got from the name, is a water based acrylic mix and supposed to be very very hard.
Guess where you buy it from? Lol

I agree though the base sounds like resin, could you mix resin into a base coat? Sounds evil genius I'm gonna give it a go tomorrow

 

[<3nails]

Maybe is that Seche Vite UV top coat? :?:

 

[Chickafish]

Maybe you could go the nail bar yourself and have it done just to see what they do??

It's so mysterious isn't it!

I'd rather not considering she had it done in Australia and I'm way the heck in London. :lol: Even if it was close, I'd rather not since I don't know what it is or what's in it. Whatever this mysterious (and ridonkulously hard to remove) base coat was, I hope I never come across it again! Alls I know is

- it was applied just like regular base coat, with regular polish over it, so it was air dried... NO CURING involved.

- it was applied very thin. Once the top and colour coat comes off, the nail is left with only this thin layer of mysterious base.

- it develops tiny cracks on the surface when you swipe acetone over it, but doesn't dissolve or budge. Only affective way to get it off is to carefully buff with a file.

I hope any geeks who come across this in the future get a little more info than I was able to. xx