QuestionHello-
I have had fake nails put on for almost 5 years now. I have always had acrylic put on and never had to many problems with them pealing at the edges. I started going to a new place because it much closer and the cleanest nail place I have ever been too! However, she has been doing what I think to be pink and white and I have had a heck of a problem with them lifting and pealing up at the bottom of my nail bed and around the sides. I can't even make it a week with out this happening and them looking like crap. What is happening and what can be done to prevent this?
Thank You so much!!
AnswerI'm happy to hear that you found a really clean salon! A clean salon is important, so I really hope you and your new nail tech can solve this lifting problem.
From what you've described, I think you are saying that your real nail is peeling away from the acrylic on the sides, and underneath the free edge, right? Or is the acrylic lifting around the edge near the cuticle?
First, use cuticle oil. Something that does NOT have mineral oil in it. No baby oil. Mineral oil is a very thick, heavy oil that is made from petroleum products. It does not absorb into your skin to rehydrate it, it just sits on top of your skin and makes you greasy. And a lot of skin care professionals say that mineral oil actually pulls moisture OUT OF your skin and makes it even drier! You want to use botanical oils on your skin. Generally speaking, if it's an oil you can eat, then it will be good for your skin too. Olive oil is a great oil for moisturizing your skin if you can't find a high quality cuticle oil like Solar Oil.
The oil moisturizes the skin and the natural nail so that it doesn't dry out and shrink away from the product. Oil does NOT cause lifting! It actually prevents it!
How does your nail tech deal with the lifting? Does she use nippers to clip away the lifted product? Does she drill out the natural nail or clip it from underneath the tip? Does she use tips-- the plastic nails that get glued on before the acrylic? or does she sculpt-- puts foil forms on your fingers and applies the acrylic directly to your nails?
Either way is good, but if she sculpts she'll have a better chance to custom-fit the acrylic directly to the nail. If there's lifting at the tip edge of the nail, the best way to fix it is to file or drill the lifted acrylic away and then put new acrylic down, pushing it to fit the natural nail.
If she uses nippers to clip away lifted product she runs the risk of creating more lifting. The nippers can never really get all the lifted product off because you have to keep shoving the blade of the nippers farther under the acrylic in order to grab it with the blades. So unless she takes ALL the acrylic off with the nippers, there'll always be a little bit of lifted product at the edge where the blade was holding the acrylic. Also, shoving those nippers under the acrylic forces product that was fine up, which means damage to your nail plate where the acrylic gets ripped up. Nippers are old school in a bad way.
The only other thing is that her method of preparing the nail for application of the product might need tweaking. She doesn't let you lean on your hands or eat while she does your nails, does she? Clients rarely realize how they can sabotage their own nails while we're doing them! But nail techs need to be more assertive by not letting our clients ruin our work and be willing to explain why we won't let you eat or rummage around in your purse.
Basically, everything we do before putting product on your nails is about getting your natural nail as clean and dry as possible. If you touch your nail plate to ANYTHING before the final product is set, you run the risk of getting oils, makeup, lint, etc on your nails which could cause problems later.
One big thing to keep in mind too, because I'm sure you're thinking, "but I didn't have this problem before" is that if you've been going to a salon where they used products that contain MMA, and this tech uses cosmetic-grade product, then that could be a reason you never had problems before even if you were still eating, leaning, or rummaging throughout your appointment. Because MMA is such a strong acrylic, it's very popular because techs don't have to have great application skills to get acceptable results. They don't have to understand prep, and they don't have to tell you to stop leaning on your hands. But believe me, you don't want MMA on your nails!
I'd be thrilled to talk with your new nail tech if she has any questions, but I really think if you use some cuticle oil and if she's meticulous with her prep-work, you should have the problem solved.
