Will It Stick?

Even though I don’t really know what system/scale/criteria is used in testing nail products, I do have a working understanding of the ways that substances are tested for things like strength and hardness.

So the other day I was dealing with a particularly lift-prone client — I don’t have many, but every so often they bring their nails back to me and I look at them and just close my eyes and shake my head and wonder, “WHAT the heck do you do to these when I’m not looking?”— and I found myself wondering what other product might work better for her.

And that’s when I got to thinking, “If I try another product, which one?” Short of just going out and collecting a thousand trial kits of different products and working my way through each one and hoping for the best, what’s the best way to make an informed decision based on scientific criteria instead of the hunt-and-peck method?

I think we all go through this — especially in the beginning of our careers. We try lots of different products, looking for the one that’s easiest to work with and returns two weeks later in the same condition we last saw it in.

Mostly, I think what we end up settling on has more to do with the level of practice and experience we’ve acquired by the time we choose our favorite product and technique than it has to do with the actual product itself.

And, throughout our careers, most of us will find ourselves rethinking our favorite product choices now and then as we come up against problem cases and less-than-usual obstacles we think we ought to be able to breeze through by the time we encounter them.

I think the fine scientists behind the creation of all the many fine products on the market should give us some sort of chart we can look at that would give us, like, maybe, a 1-10 rating of a product’s adhesiveness, hardness, flexibility, and other various properties.

And stop all this “one size fits all” nonsense of products labeled “extra sticky, good for everything” that doesn’t really give any of us a true indicator of how a product will perform before trying it for ourselves.