Can you turn out a professional polish job?

[Bev Rose]

Great thread Gigi!

I have a few regular polish clients (for fingers) and a few more for pedis.

When I did my Spa Mani & Pedi with CND in Leeds - Kirsten used the Nailfresh trick on my toes - I'd never seen it done before and thought - blimey, how neat was that little trick - and how professional it looks and the results were perfect.

I used to use a polish corrector pen - one for french and one for colours and keep dipping into acetone.
I still use one of them if I catch the skin under the nail as it's easy, but I use a fine detailer brush dipped in acetone - didn't want to 'spoil' my nailfresh, but I will decant some into an old bottle and use that instead.

I love to wear polish but do tend to shy away from it because I end up scuffing it with my files or wiping it off when using my scrubfresh, so it looks a bad advert after a couple of clients!
That's me needing to take more care and hold my file better. I have a habit of putting my thumb so close to the clients sidewalls when filing, so as not to cut them, I end up with sore thumbs and scuffed polish:irked:

 

[Nco London Gina]

To be honest, I much prefer to work with coloured gel and do a french manicure in gel.

This is for a few reasons...

1 - I think you can create a more perfect french with gel without having to clean the smile lines off with any special product

2 - It's more commercial from a business point of view.. to do a manicure properly will take most people more then 1/2 hour - say 40-45mins at least.

When you have clients back to back and work by the hour, you can do a gel colour change that lasts for 3-4 weeks and is instantly dry (with no risk of the customer knocking it and asking you to redo it!) For this we charge £30

Because this is our main business, it means that an hour slot is too long for a £17.50 manicure and not long enough for two manicures.

3 hours = 4 manicures @ £70 or 3 gel customers @ £90

£30 is cheap in our area for gels and £17.50 for a manicure is expensive!!

The problem is that most manicures are too cheap I think!!

3 - your gel (or acrylic if that is what you do) clients will have to return for infills/colour change and are more likely to make a standing appointment.. I couldn't tell you when I next have a free slot before christmas and ALL are gel customers

Gina xx

 

[geeg]

NO .. SORRY ... this thread is about the lost art of polishing with POLISH :lol:

No way could I be bothered to file off gel to apply a coat of another colour gel at the next appointment. Time saved on the drying aspect would be lost on the removing aspect in my opinion. I know that you have made this a niche service in Your salon Gina, but what you do is not refective of the industry as a whole, in my opinion.

 

[Nco London Gina]

I agree we have made it a niche in our salon and it works for us.

My post was about what I prefer to do personally and obviously not a reflection on the industry as a whole.

Gina x

 

[sknight]

I think I can do a half decent job with polish but thats not good enough for me. I would love to attend a class in just polishing alone to learn tricks and techniques from the past and present. Could we do this?

Great thread, it really made me think about what I am missing out on. It seems from this thread that it would be really popular. I am fired up after my course with EzFlow and want to learn more and more each day.

P.S as a guy is there anything I can do to get clients to notice polish too. I would love to wear the colours but it's not as easy for me LOL

 

[cro-mari]

This thread really left me ashamed and thinking :green: no, I don't have art of polishing in sense you described, Gigi, for several reasons (not excuses :green.

Firstly, precise polishing is not what I have been trained to, teachers were referring to polishing as something from 'old days when we didn't have coloured gels and powders', and 'ah, surely you know how to polish a nail...'. Well, now that I heard all those tips and tricks, seems to me like I don't.

Secondly, this kind of attitude among teachers and techs (I'm talking about my area, looks like things in UK and SAD are different) produced that trend, or fashion, of doing only gel manicures, and clients don't ask for that service, because they feel like 'polish won't last as long as gel'. Distributors did not encourage me to buy much polish, so retail suffers also.

But it certanly gave me stuff to think about, chalenge to learn something new and surely I hope that Polish Class will come in written form :hug:

 

[Mrs.Clooney]

Based on this thread, can I make a suggestion and ask if Gigi can be involved as much as possible please ....... and yes, it requires critiquing and teaching.

I propose that as many of us as possible (who love, loath, fear, think we are fab but we are not etc....) offer pics of polished nails up for critique? I would suggest French or colour, although the colour should probably be dark as this is less forgiving in terms of errors.

All polish jobs should be on natural nails, not nail trainers as I don't feel this offers a true representation of a real nail. I think it would also be helpful to say how long the actual polish application takes. This needs to be as if offering this service to a real client.

This is not a competition and there are no prizes, but we can all crituiqe and help eachother as well as learn from comments about other peoples work. Honest, constructive and helpful!

What do you think?

 

[sian1979]

right i just popped to do a repair and took a pic of the nails i painted the other day can i post it here and you tell me what you think i am doing wrong??? Now i can see for myself that they are not great..... so no need to state the obvious, hahaha!! just want to know what to do to fix it.....please......

 

[geeg]

Based on this thread, can I make a suggestion and ask if Gigi can be involved as much as possible please ....... and yes, it requires critiquing and teaching.

I propose that as many of us as possible (who love, loath, fear, think we are fab but we are not etc....) offer pics of polished nails up for critique? I would suggest French or colour, although the colour should probably be dark as this is less forgiving in terms of errors.

All polish jobs should be on natural nails, not nail trainers as I don't feel this offers a true representation of a real nail. I think it would also be helpful to say how long the actual polish application takes. This needs to be as if offering this service to a real client.

This is not a competition and there are no prizes, but we can all crituiqe and help eachother as well as learn from comments about other peoples work. Honest, constructive and helpful!

What do you think?

I am only here for the next few days before I go off to the States so I don't know how useful I can be but here are some criteria to aim for:

For applying colour

The finished job should be 4 coats of polish only.

1 thin Base coat
2 thin coats of colour
1 super shiney top coat

There should be no visible brush marks
side walls should be straight as an arrow with a free margin
cuticle line should be perfect with no wobbles
free edge should be coated with no polish underneath

for applying a French:
1 thin Base coat
1 thin coat of semi opaque pink
1 coat of white (and not too long) you should be able to do this in one coat
1 futrther coat of semi opaque pink
1 super shiney top coat

A further suggestion is to always apply your colour to the edge of the free edge BEFORE you apply your colour (this applies to the French white too). Doing this saves marring the surface of the polish.

Premium geeks can post pictures here in the thread
Non premium geeks can post in their albums

Non premium geeks should become premium geeks and help this site!

 

[Mrs.Clooney]

Thank you Gigi. If you are not available, then we can all help eachother. I will make an effort to go ahead with this. My eldest daughter is not available until Sunday evening, so I will collar her ASAP and do a paint job on her. Poor kid, she is long suffering :lol:.

 

[sian1979]

ok ...here gos......(im scared, lol!!)
now i am not making excuses...but i have done better.....its just that i am so used to using CND enamels that i find opi quite think in comparison....but even so...i am still gonna post it......

 

[geeg]

OK here is my verdict (from judge gigi) lol

I think you could go a little closer to the sidewalls in zone 3 so that the nails do not look narrow in that area making them look slightly flared OR you could accomplish the same effect by leaving more of a free margin down the sides. See what I mean?
Polish is used to create an illusion so create it.
The top coat does not look as shiny as I think it should either in the photo.

But the colour looks to be applied evenly and smoothly and not too thickly and the finished result is clean and professional looking.

 

[Southerngirlspa]

I like this thread! I loved polishing in school and usually got way behind in my testing because all the other girls were getting me to polish their nails and do funky designs. I spent tons of money on polishes...I love my polish collection. But then I kind of got away from it once I got into the salon, trying to perfect acrylic and gel techniques.

But then this past couple of weeks dealing with a hateful rash on my arm from acrylic dust is making me wonder if I even want to fool with enhancements. Maybe I should just stick to ultra lux manicures and pedicures. The thought was kind of getting me down as I was looking forward to doing enhancements and I was kind of bummed at the thought of my skin being so sensitive that I might not be able to.

But this thread has reminded me how much I love polishing too! I love doing cool polish jobs and funky nail art. Yay! I think Im going to give all the girls at the salon an awesome flashy polish job this weekend!

 

[alan27]

P.S as a guy is there anything I can do to get clients to notice polish too. I would love to wear the colours but it's not as easy for me LOL

cant you wear dark polish? or put black on then a glittery polish over it?

i alays have my nails ploished black/blue/navy/grey/dark green./black and a glittery topcoat!

or could you do some sort of nail art on one finger?

i have black nails just now and the amount of people in college today who asked me who did the red nose on my ring finger!

just an idea....

 

[deanosnana]

Two things drive me nuts: when a client WANTS the polish touching the eponychium (sp) and sidewalls and when a client brings her own polish and it's some crappy drug store brand that has three bristles in the brush.

IMHO, a professional polish job is one that leaves a SMALL margin around the whole nail. I've actually had folks complain that the polish didn't go far enough.

I'm so used to professional polishes, sometimes I have a diffucult time polishing with OTC procucts. I deal with it tho and do the best polish job I can.

 

[Natural Beauty]

Two things drive me nuts: when a client WANTS the polish touching the eponychium (sp) and sidewalls and when a client brings her own polish and it's some crappy drug store brand that has three bristles in the brush.

IMHO, a professional polish job is one that leaves a SMALL margin around the whole nail. I've actually had folks complain that the polish didn't go far enough.

I'm so used to professional polishes, sometimes I have a diffucult time polishing with OTC procucts. I deal with it tho and do the best polish job I can.

I love this tread!! I have also had people complain and ask for the polish touching the eponichium!!

My polishing IMO is pretty good altho looking through this site im sure i can improve! We also at college were marked on polishing right down to how we held the pot whilst applying the polish!

I really enjoy polishing, used to be nervous about the darker colours but now im much more confident. I love dark colours on myself but also find i wreck them ( must learn to do my manicures more carefully!) Where ive just started doing enhancements the acrylic in zone 3 isnt so smooth and rounded so i think polish will look pretty rubbish at the moment but hey, keep practising!!

**Off to paint own nails now!**

Lisa
xx

 

[Violet Star]

Lately ive been in a right ole pickle about good polishing...And struggling allot realised it wasnt my fault it was the polish i was using as ive just used OPI and they look amazing. glad i got that sorted was getting worried :irked:

 

[Nails Plus]

What a good thread!!
I have felt for some time now that some women now days feel not catered for, as so many nail bars give the impression that everyone should have extensions or overlays. I have made a point to state in my advertising, "Natrual Nails can be beautiful too".

 

[glitz]

O.K guys GO FOR IT! I have 3 pictures in my nails album which are polish a french after an acrylic soak off & the pink ones which were a maintainance appointment finished with a colour polish.

 

[Nco London Gina]

I actually wish we could find a way of making polishing more commercial for us in the salon.

We looked at the possibility of having minx maybe as an alternative.
Has anyone else found a way of generating the same income from polishing and manicures as they do with enhancements?

I would be really interested to know.

Gina xx