Manicure hard skin removal help!

[steph4rose]

Hi, so I am qualified in spa manicure, and UV gel polish and have been going well with starting up my new business however I have had 2 clients who are European and have asked me to cut/removal hard skin from their finger tips / side of fingers near nail wall and I have never been taught this! I have googled and seen some people use a nail file to do this, any help would be most appreciated!!! Do you do this as part of a standard manicure or is this extra treatment and how do you do it?? Thanks in advance!!

 

[rachelizabeth]

You're not qualified to cut the skin off fingers there's a chance you could really hurt the client, cause infection, or cause calluses to develop.

I think what you're referring to is the 'Russian manicure' ? I've seen it a lot on social media lately where they use e files all over the skin and nail. I think there are courses for it so if it's something you really want to do I guess you could look into it.

I've found that with regular manicures and use of solar oil, clients hard skin and dry cuticles always look ten times better without the harsh method of filing it all off.

I remember in my first salon job I had a client take the nippers out of the barbicide jar and started hacking away at the hard skin around her nail!! Still makes me feel nauseous lol

 

[steph4rose]

I am so grateful for your reply! I have been going mad wondering why I have never been taught this or heard of it anywhere else. Yes my client was Russian so perhaps that is why she was asking about it. I also am finding I am losing confidence in cuticle cutting because when I have done the European clients they have asked for every tiny bit of skin off, I am becoming a bit paranoid about whether the cuticle at the base of the nail and nail edges is tidy enough. Did you find this when starting out? Also one last thing! I advertise Gel application and also a SPA manicure where you can add gels, for the gel application I only usually push back cuticles, do you think this is OK? I only cut them back when I do a full manicure? Thanks so much in advance! X

 

[rachelizabeth]

I am so grateful for your reply! I have been going mad wondering why I have never been taught this or heard of it anywhere else. Yes my client was Russian so perhaps that is why she was asking about it. I also am finding I am losing confidence in cuticle cutting because when I have done the European clients they have asked for every tiny bit of skin off, I am becoming a bit paranoid about whether the cuticle at the base of the nail and nail edges is tidy enough. Did you find this when starting out? Also one last thing! I advertise Gel application and also a SPA manicure where you can add gels, for the gel application I only usually push back cuticles, do you think this is OK? I only cut them back when I do a full manicure? Thanks so much in advance! X

You shouldn't really be 'cutting cuticles'. Only use your nippers if you need to get rid of any bits of dead skin hanging down after cuticle work...never cut the eponychium! I was trained with CND so have always used cuticle away before applying CND Shellac™ to make sure there is no dead cuticle left on the nail plate x

 

[Leggibone]

I am so grateful for your reply! I have been going mad wondering why I have never been taught this or heard of it anywhere else. Yes my client was Russian so perhaps that is why she was asking about it. I also am finding I am losing confidence in cuticle cutting because when I have done the European clients they have asked for every tiny bit of skin off, I am becoming a bit paranoid about whether the cuticle at the base of the nail and nail edges is tidy enough. Did you find this when starting out? Also one last thing! I advertise Gel application and also a SPA manicure where you can add gels, for the gel application I only usually push back cuticles, do you think this is OK? I only cut them back when I do a full manicure? Thanks so much in advance! X

I was taught with gel only you're essentially preparing for the best possible gel application, so pushing back all the cuticle/dead tissue off the nail and clipping any little 'bits' but you'd do it dry, if you wanted to use a remover you'd have to get one that's safe with gel (like the cnd one)
For a spa manicure your still only getting rid of all the dead tissue and tidying up with the clippers, I'd still never clip anything more then the dry hanging bits that we created pushing them back. The difference with a full spa manicure is you do it wet as part of the other treatments.