Hello lovelies! Let me try to quickly get you up to speed on what’s been going on in my world as a nail tech student. In one word…everything. I’ll start off by saying that we had another OPI representative come back into our school to show us her techniques for an OPI mani and pedi! She was wonderful and the class was full of hands-on learning, which is what I like. She let students watch and practice on each other while she gave us some much-needed time-saving tips. If there are two things that nail tech students are always working on it’s our technique and our time.

Second, I finally got a chance to sit down and learn the basic concepts of doing a gel overlay and applying gel-polish correctly. The overlay, not to toot my own horn, but I grabbed the concept of that on my first try (toot toot), but not so much with the gel-polish. I was applying the polish too thick and it was burning my trustworthy nail tech student/buddies when they put their hands under the lamp. Finally after much cursing and finger kissing I was able to grab this concept also. I’ve been applying gel-polish to anyone who lets me come near them.

Third, I’ve gotten much better with the odorless acrylic and have given a few client overlays with it. I wanted to perfect this technique also because this is the acrylic that we have to use for the state board exam and I’ve started thinking outside of the box. What if I can only use an odorless acrylic if I’m servicing clients at a nursing home? I still want to give them the very best service so practicing this system as well as the traditional one (perfecting both) only makes sense to me.

Fourth, we’ve also been watching videos and practicing reflexology on each other. I tried it out when I had a headache and dreadful cramps and it really did work. A student was giving me a manicure and massaged in the area that stimulates the brain and lower abdomen and after a few minutes I was pain-free. (I didn’t tell her that until about 15 minutes later though…LOL.) I plan on taking continuing education on this subject because this would definitely be a service that I plan on offering. The DVD even came with cute little socks with drawings on them to help you learn the different regions of the body.

Lastly, I have become totally spoiled with the SNS system. I know I talked about it in my last post but if you can’t tell, once you learn how to properly work with this system, it’s heaven. My SNS partner in crime is Jessica. She takes one hand while I take another. I’ve included a picture of a set of pink-and-whites that we completed together. I think they look pretty good!

— Stacelyn