Nails 101: A Student Blog

Pedicures, Nail Art, and Acrylic, Oh My!

by NAILS Magazine | May 21, 2012 | Bookmark +

Pedicure season is in full swing. WooHoo!! Doing pedicures is one of my favorite services. I love when clients leave the pedicure throne and say how much better their feet feel. Between clients and classmates, I am definitely getting plenty of practice and have even cut down my time!

Since summer is around the corner, the opportunity for nail art has increased. We spent the first three hours of class learning and creating nail art. Nail art always looks easier when someone else does it. But since I have been practicing and using different dotters, brushes, polishes, and paints it has been getting easier and I’ve been doing better.

I wish I could go on about how my week was so awesome being full of pedicures and nail art. But unfortunately that was not the case.

I have been dying to do a full set of acrylics since I’ve only been able to do acrylic on myself and my mannequin hands. Instead I was assigned a fill-in. Ok, not bad, almost the same thing right? NO!! My clients arrives and informs me that she has not had a fill-in in five weeks. She didn’t want to soak them off and she needed some length cut down. (Cue deer in headlights look.)

This is not what I was expecting for my first fill-in, but I’m thinking this will be good practice for me, so I got down to business. However, I was hand-filing so it was slightly challenging for me. I’m not against e-files; I just haven’t gotten one yet. I kept repeating the steps in my mind. I did my best and two hours later the service was complete. I’m unhappy with my time and know it needs to be better. I know I need more practice, and can usually find a classmate. Going to school part time leaves me without actual people to practice on outside of school. Having only moved to Charlotte a few months ago, I don’t have my family and friends to pull from. This has just motivated me to really go out and find some people to practice on. I can also see how e-files make the job easier and why most nail technicians prefer them. But until I’m able to get one, I need to get better files. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’m feeling a little frustrated, but I can only get better from here.

Ending on a happy note — I’m a little over the halfway mark and can now intern at a salon for 15 hours. How exciting is that?! So in addition to using my spare time to practice and study, I’m going to begin working on my resume and portfolio. Now, I just need to find a salon.

— Starr

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