The Help Desk Answers Your Technical Questions
This month our readers want to know about a shadown on a backfill, a client with a splitting thumnail, and yellowing acrylics.
Behind the Scenes: From Russia , With Style
This month’s cover comes to you all the way from Russia. Russian women are very fashion-conscious and feminine in their styles. With a full set of nails costing around $120 U.S. dollars (and rebalances costing $60) not all women can afford enhancements, but a growing number of women visit salons regularly.
Cure Competition Jitters
“What works for me is doing the polished hand first,” veteran competitor John Hauk says.
Help Desk
What am I doing wrong? Is alcohol a better polish prep?
Electric Filing Techniques: Removing Lifted Acrylic
Using an electric file to remove lifted product will greatly reduce the time spent on this common repair.
Electric Filing Techniques: Prepping for a Full Set
Getting the nails ready for a full set is one of the most important steps in artificial nail application.
Electric Filing Techniques: Repairing a Crack
Cracks appear too often on acrylic nails, but with the help of an electric file they can easily be removed.
Electric Filing Techniques: Backfills
Doing a backfill with an electric file can help you achieve faster and more accurate results.
Canada Coronates Winning Nail Techs
Jennifer Moon-Hillman of Methods Salon in Chatham, Ontario, took the top prize in the annual Contessa Awards' Nail Enhancement category.
Acrylics Are Your “Bread and Butter”
Salons could easily charge, and get, $50-$60 for a full set. Those increasing service prices helped the overall industry growth upward this year (after a year that saw the overall business fall, this year we saw an increase in salon business from $6.43 billion to $6.45 billion).
Troubleshooter: Removing Acrylics Without Damaging the Natural Nail
Whatever the reason your client wants to go natural, it's a good opportunity to maintain her as a client by preserving her natural nail as only a nail professional can.
Reader to Reader: How Have You Advanced Your Career?
NAILS Magazine readers share their secrets to success.
The Help Desk
"I have been a nail tech for a little over two years and I still have trouble blending the tips so that they don’t show through the acrylic at all. Do you have any advice?"
The Help Desk Answers Your Technical Questions
This month's panel tackles how to buy nippers, what's happening with a damaged nail, and how mood-changing polishes work.
Stamp Out Lifting
It isn't always easy to figure out why a client is lifting. Work through these steps to rule out some common causes.
Troubleshooter: Prepping to Prevent Lifting
The most common problem nail technicians face with nail enhancement application — especially those just starting out —: is lifting. If it isn’t the client’s fault, it may be a simple problem like improper preparation.
The Help Desk Has Answers to Your Questions
This month readers want to know about triple-priming, how hydrogen peroxide works, and why polish stays longer on acrylics than natural nails.