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Pretty Geeky

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Sep 27, 2010
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Hi Geeks,

I currently have my own wee business working from home and would like to add some kind of nail enhancement to my list of treatments. I currently only "do" natural nail treatments; Shellac, Minx and man/ped.

Before doing my training I was under the (utterly wrong) impression that all "false" nails were damaging to the natural nail, they all looked hideous and fake and I wasn't interested in learning them at all. However, having been on this site for a while now and checking out some of the work you guys do I can see just how wrong I was! Nail work truly is an art!

So - I am after some clarification as to the options I have for taking on enhancements. I'm not even sure what all the different kinds of enhancements are so I'm finding it difficult to figure out which I should train in. Can someone please tell me what overlays, tips, l&p, gels etc etc all mean and a quick insight into the difference between them all. It's very confusing.

I hope someone can clarify for a relative newbie! :o Thank you! PGx
 
Hi Geeks,

I currently have my own wee business working from home and would like to add some kind of nail enhancement to my list of treatments. I currently only "do" natural nail treatments; Shellac, Minx and man/ped.

Before doing my training I was under the (utterly wrong) impression that all "false" nails were damaging to the natural nail, they all looked hideous and fake and I wasn't interested in learning them at all. However, having been on this site for a while now and checking out some of the work you guys do I can see just how wrong I was! Nail work truly is an art!

So - I am after some clarification as to the options I have for taking on enhancements. I'm not even sure what all the different kinds of enhancements are so I'm finding it difficult to figure out which I should train in. Can someone please tell me what overlays, tips, l&p, gels etc etc all mean and a quick insight into the difference between them all. It's very confusing.

I hope someone can clarify for a relative newbie! :o Thank you! PGx

An overlay is any product that is laid over a natural nail (called a natural nail overlay), a natural nail that has been lengthened using a tip ( known as tip & overlay) or a sculpted nail where no tip is used but instead a form is used to build the tip extension to make the nail longer.

The overlay material can consist of many different mediums: Liquid & Powder (monomer & polymer); Gel, soft (soak off) or hard (buff off); a wrap such as Fibreglass or Silk; there are a few fringe products that are not widely used such as powder and adhesive (tip n dip) etc but the three I have listed are the main overlay products used by professionals.

The most widely used system is L&P followed by Hard Gels and Soft Gels and wraps bring up the rear.

My advice is to go for L&P or gels (and I would learn both types). You already have a UV Lamp for Shellac so I suggest you learn how to use Brisa gel (a hard gel) for enhancements. Brisa gel is beautiful and easy to learn, and shares many of the same properties as Shellac (Brisa is hypoallergenic, it has no heat spike (most gels produce a painful heat spike for clients)and it has perfect clarity and colour stability (which means it does not yellow with age).

I hope that has helped you and answered your questions.
 
Last edited:
I have been thinking of the future and maybe enhancements being part of that, so this has also helped me a lot. Thank you.

Am I right in thinking that it would be Brisa, or any other hard gel that you would use with tips to add length to a nail?
 
I have been thinking of the future and maybe enhancements being part of that, so this has also helped me a lot. Thank you.

Am I right in thinking that it would be Brisa, or any other hard gel that you would use with tips to add length to a nail?

You can use any enhancement gel either hard or soft over a tip for extra length.

What would not be suitable as a full set of extensions over tips would be a gel polish as it would not last.
 
Thanks for clarifying Geeg. I was getting soft gel mixed up with gel polish, as I knew gel polishes were not suitable.
 

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