Nails 101: A Student Blog

Week 1: A New Beginning

by NAILS Magazine | September 4, 2012 | Bookmark +

After getting my kids to school and watching my little Kindergartener cry because she just wanted to go home with me, I finally made it to my first day of school. I couldn’t wait to get to school and get my “kit”. I wanted to open it and play with all of the new things — I was so excited to start my new journey.   

My day was not a disappointment. After our first hour and forty five minutes of theory we took a short break and came back to class. My teacher announced we were working on manicures and asked me to prepare my station and my “SMA”. “Huh? Who me? It’s my first day! Are you kidding???” She must be talking to someone else, I thought. Then I heard her call my name and say she was talking me. I was nervous and excited and scared all at the same time. I reminded her I had no idea what I was doing. (YIKES!!!) Her response, “Oh, don’t worry honey I am going to walk you through it step by step. You’ll be fine. You are working on a student and this is a place of learning.” All I could think was….“Uh, OK. Count me in.”

So, with both feet (and hands) I jumped right in. I did my first manicure on a male student at my school. Then I did a second, and a third manicure. I was on a role. I felt pretty good about the work I was preforming. She gave me a sheet with all of the massage techniques in order along with a sheet that gave the step-by-step procedures. After each manicure was done and all of the implements were sanitized, and the SMA was set up again, I was on to the next. It was amazing! I am the type of person who learns so much more by hands-on training. I can read and I can understand, but doing it myself felt great and with each one I got more and more confident. I have to say I felt like my teacher was so open to allowing me to learn and get the “feel” of everything and she just put her trust in me that I could do it. I might make a mistake, and if I did she was firm but caring in her correction of what I was doing wrong. 

After about four or five manicures on the male students (no polish) she gave me a female student (yeah!!!) and I got to polish her nails and give her a complete manicure. I asked her for her input on my massage. Was it too hard, too soft, too quick, too slow? I feel like I need honest feedback on my services so I can improve where I need to and leave things alone where they are good. (At this stage of the game there is always room for improvement.)

I did the polish and she wanted to add glitter on top, which I thought was adorable, but I was nervous about the texture of the glitter being too thick or chunky. I thought it would be hard, because her nails were quite short as she is a massage therapist. But with a coat of clear on top it was perfect. It was a very fine glitter and it looked awesome! The polish texture and manicure I thought turned out great, as did my teacher and my client. I used a pretty pink color from Orly and I am hoping to see her soon and ask her how she felt about the polish and how it stayed on. Of course as a student I need feedback on the products I am using so I can determine which products work the best. At the end of the day my client was happy and so was I.

I feel like I am learning so much. I feel my teacher has so much experience to offer and I am looking forward to getting as much knowledge from her as I can.

The perfect end to my first week of school (and on my birthday!) was getting a notice in the mail box that I had to pick something up at the post office. I was frustrated because it was at a post office that wasn’t near my home. I went ahead and picked it up not recognizing the sender’s name. To my shock and excitement it was a box from Gel II. I won one of the Freebies from NAILS Magazine. So I received two boxes of gel — one a pretty blue color and the other a clear top coat. The funny thing is I was telling the girls in my class I was very interested in learning more about gel applications. So, needless to say I was overjoyed when I picked up my box and got two free bottles. A great big thank you to NAILS Magazine for the contest and a great big thank you to Gel II for sponsoring the contest. I can’t wait to try it out! 

— Nikki

 

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