IBX Bootcamp at Nail Camp Day 3

Sunday at #nailcamp is day three and there is a lot more going on in terms of classes. At this point, attendees have choices for a three-hour morning workshop, two 75-minute afternoon workshops, and a three-hour evening workshop. After teaching all day, it was a nice change to attend a class that night. I decided to have a go at the IBX certification class taught by Victoria from Canada. I’m a big fan of information, education, and scientific explanation so I had lots of questions and was ready to get my nail geek on!

The class began with a quick history of the company behind IBX, which is Famous Names. It was founded in 2010 by Jim and Linda Nordstrom with Ken and Lisa Cooper. The company had product launches in 2010, 2012, and 2014 and is based in Las Vegas and distributes to 22 countries. You may recall my recent blog about taking IBX for a test drive in the salon. Due to the requests for more information, I took lots of notes during class to share with you and made a point to note the things I found especially helpful to know when using IBX. Following the history, Victoria gave reasons for using IBX and when to know when it was needed. Something that I found helpful and something she has corrected me on a few times since is, that you want to think of IBX as a nail treatment. Rather than it being a thought of as a nail coating, IBX is applied. The explanation given for IBX is that it is a penetrative, curable, monomer system that penetrates into the upper layers of the nail plate. Gentle heat is used to aid in that penetration. I wanted to know what constituted gentle heat as the easiest source mentioned was a 75-100 watt light bulb. If you want to be sure your heat source is sufficient without being too aggressive, a gentle heat is 105-110°F. I’ve always been familiar with jojoba and squalene as carrier molecules for nail penetration via Doug Schoon, so when IBX is said to penetrate my ears perked up. Victoria informed us that it contains jojoba and avocado oil as carriers. When talking about IPN’s (interpenetrating polymer networks), note was made that the IBX is not attaching to the keratin, it is filling in the gaps of approximately the top four layers. It is not acetone soluble and helps block some water out of the nail which in itself can be beneficial. There is quite a lot of value packed into each little bottle as both products in the system boast 100 sets per bottle! Suggested pricing as mentioned previously is $10-15 for the first application and $8-10 for the maintenance. When looking to differentiate the two products; IBX is the workhorse that fuses the upper layers of the nail plate together, while Repair acts like a sealant for those areas with visible damage. IBX is the only one of the two that can be used as a standalone. Maintenance for IBX can vary from client to client, depend on the condition of the nails and can be anywhere from two to four weeks.

I learned more about application now that I’ve had a demo from Linda and absorbed the info, then used it in the salon. With that experience I picked up even more from the class with Victoria. Application is more like dry brushing, not so much coating the nail. I’ve been using it way too thick and laying it more like base coat. When applied thin enough, there really wasn’t much shine after the heat step! The next thing learned was that blotting is not like when you blot sweat off your face in attempt to save your makeup, it is more like you are picking up a speck of dirt from someone’s eye with a cotton swab – very, very little pressure. I was too aggressive with this step as well. After all this learning I have high hopes that I will be even more impressed with the product now that hopefully I will finally be doing everything correctly. Ha! I hope this helps you and answers all the questions you’ve had. I highly recommend the certification class, for the cool fact of adding to your geek certificate stash and the info!