Nails 101: A Student Blog

Summer Break=Acrylic and Gel Practice

by NAILS Magazine | July 12, 2012 | Bookmark +

There was no school this week because of summer break. I felt 50/50 about this break because on one hand it delays graduation a week, but on the other hand a few of my classmates have been having some personality clashes (I blame the heat), which has created a negative energy at school and I could use a break from that.

The plan this week was to study for finals and practice. So I set up a YouTube video marathon and got my practice on. I watched videos from several nail professionals including Young Nails and Robin Moses (which led to Robin Moses-inspired zebra stripes). I also love the NAILS Troubleshooter series. I would definitely recommend them if you haven’t already checked them out. The acrylic overlay, and smile line videos are my favorites. They are easy to understand and to the point.

In between studying and watching videos, I practiced acrylic. I’m still struggling a little with gel, so I feel like I need to do well with at least one enhancement system while I’m practicing the other. I worked on some overlays and embedding. I have seen people create their own custom acrylic mixes, and finally tried it myself. I created a few glitter mixes and am now thinking about creating some color mixes to try out. I was so busy working with acrylic and gel that I didn’t really work on nail art this week.

Gel is my current obsession. I don’t know why this product is giving me so much trouble. I’ve been practicing my gel application on myself because I can tell what is going wrong on my mannequin fingers. I don’t know what is going wrong. I prepare the nail and follow the directions, but then a few days later I start lifting and then I start the process over. I spoke to my instructor about it and the only response I received was that the gel is too thick, when surprisingly it isn’t. After racking my brain, I realize my lifting is coming from getting the product on my skin. This reminds me of something the Nailogics educator said when he was doing a gel demo; he didn’t have us pull the gel all the way to the side or the end of the nail because the product moves. I thought that was just for that product, but maybe it applies to all gel. And I’m not sure if always having my hands in water matters, but I guess it could definitely speed the lifting process up. It would be all too easy to just give it up and specialize in acrylic, but I am determined to figure this out.

— Starr 

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