The Beauty Pro Book Club: 4 Reads to Inspire Growth and Success
Four publications for beauty industry professionals to enhance their leadership skills, financial awareness, professional growth, and joy!
by Anne Moratto
Tales of Travails: My Longest Nail Service Ever
You don’t ordinarily think of doing nails as a test of endurance, but sometimes it can be — especially when you’re first starting out. We asked our Facebook friends to tell us about the set of nails that took them the longest to complete — whether due to their newbie status or the intricacies of a special design.
by Staff
November 30, 2016
Nails by Monique Scott
3 min to read
Nails by Jamie Peery Warren
The nails I spend the longest time on were a set of form-sculpted acrylics I did for a dancer at a nightclub. I did all handpainted nail art and they took about four hours.
— Jamie Peery Warren
The first time I did a French manicure it took me two hours just to paint it. Plus it took me another hour to do the manicure — for three hours total. And it didn’t even look that great in the end. — Cassidy Stewart
Nails by Hope Szymanski
A coworker and I did nails for a salon photo shoot that had a zombie pop art theme. We continued the theme from the nails to arms using paint. It took us three hours to paint our arms and four days to complete the detailed press-on nails we put on each other.
— Hope Szymanski
When I was a newbie in a high-end salon, a client who was one of the owner’s closest friends sat in my chair. After I applied each nail, she would pull her hand away, shake her head, and say, “They’re just not right.” A new set would usually take me an hour and a half, but this woman exhausted me! After a few months and extra training I had become a very good technician, but I refused to allow her to sit in my chair again.
— Kathy Skeens Parris
Nails by Monique Scott
Recently my client spotted a Gelish how-to in a magazine. We started on her fill at 9:15 and then I started to create my masterpiece using the latest colors from the Street Beat collection. We finished at 12:45 — after a few great photos of course.
— Monique Scott
My first full set in nail school took five hours...and it sucked! I was so sad since I thought I was going to be a natural talent. I was wrong! Thankfully, over 21 years I have improved my time and the quality of my work.
— Jill Neely
One of my first sets of sculpted nails took me 11 hours. It was at the client’s house surrounded by her family with little children taking my products and playing with my glitters while my client was snacking on tacos. Instead of relaxing her hands she wanted to follow the whole application and kept her fingers very tensed and pointing up. It was awful. But the worst part was that she wanted extra-long nails and her nails were very small (she was a nail biter). When I was finally done she changed her mind and wanted her nails shorter. I just wanted to run away from there.
Nails by Lucy Spalding Mardres
— Bella Martinell
I did these nails for my new salon menu. It took me four-and-a-half hours because I don’t do extreme nails often, but I love them and want to offer them.
— Lucy Spalding Mardres
I was new to acrylics. I had just finished my course and the mom of one of my friends asked me to do her nails. It took me five hours and three files. I also did some 3-D nail art.
— Perla Muñoz
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