Questioni have just started doing my own acrylic nails at home. i have a problem with my nails lifting almost immediately. i use the following steps:
1- glue on tips and cut to size
2- dehydrator on nails
3- primer on nails
4- 2nd coat, wet prime each nail as i go
5- acrylic application with mono liquid and powder
6- file to shape
7- ibd top coat
8- uv light to dry top coat
9- cuticle oil and wash up
is it the brand? is there a best brand for me? one other thing is that my hands sweat profusely. i was told by one tech that the sweating affects the adherence of the acrylic, but overnight? please help with any tips. thank you!
AnswerFirst of all, as a professional, I must recommend that you find a skilled, licensed nail tech to do your nails for you. There are so many things that can go wrong that an untrained person probably won't know about (until it happens to them, of course). Overexposure to the nail chemicals is the top concern. If you always touch the monomer to your skin, you can develop an allergic reaction which would only get worse the more you tried to wear acrylic nails. The allergy never goes away once you've developed it.
That said, this is the real world, and sometimes people want to do it themselves anyway. :) I'd rather have you learn to do it the right way (on yourself only please!) and avoid as much as possible the overexposure risks.
So, what occurs to me first is how you are preparing your nail plate. I don't see anything in the steps you listed about removing the non-living tissue from your nail plate (around the cuticle area). Leaving anything like this behind will instantly cause lifting, because the product needs to bond directly to the keratin in your nails. Skin, oils, and debris are all barriers to adhesion. I recommend finding a good cuticle remover. I think you can get one called Blue Cross at your local Sally's. This product dissolves the cuticle from the nail plate, and you must follow the directions for its use very carefully, as it can be a skin irritant (another reason why I'd rather see you go to a professional. :D). Use a good cuticle pusher or curette to gently scrape away this dissolved tissue.
After that step has been performed satisfactorily, dehydrating and primer are good steps. Be very careful with the primer also, as it can burn you if it touches living tissue. You shouldn't need more than one coat of this, and it should look chalky before applying the acrylic bead. Do one hand at a time.
Another thing that can cause lifting right away is if the acrylic runs into the sidewalls and/or cuticle area. Once it touches skin, it is guaranteed to lift. So use smaller beads, make sure they are not too wet, and you should be able to control them better.
Lastly, about the excessively sweating hands: yes, this can interfere with adhesion. One thing that will help is to use that dehydrator two or three times. The trick is to have an almost chalky-dry nail plate right before you apply your acrylic. This indicates that there is no surface oil to interfere with adhesion. So dehydrate a couple of times, and if the nail plate doesn't look dry enough, dehydrate once more before applying the bead. This is yet another situation where a professional would likely get better results than you trying to apply the product yourself. It's hard enough for a professional to put nails on herself!(speaking from experience! :D)
Well, hopefully that reply wasn't too long and complicated. :) But if you have any other questions, feel free to follow up.
