This could either be gel polish, or gel extensions. Although they feel very hard, they will break like a natural nail if not treated with respect. So to keep your natural nails healthy, you need to take good care of your enhanced nails! It may take some time to get used to the new length of your nails, yet try and protect them by wearing rubber gloves when cleaning for example. Maintenance appointments are a maximum of 4 weeks. Fortunately this isn’t a permanent colouring and it will grow out if it hasn’t already come off the nail. If you experience lifting of an enhancement, bacteria can fester in the dark damp environment and when you glue a lifted nail down, you provide such bacteria with a luxurious new home where it happily breeds and causes havoc with your natural nail – turning it an unsightly green or even black colour! Gross I know, but true. It’s so important to attend maintenance appointments and what ever you do, DO NOT PICK, BITE OR PULL AT YOUR EXTENSIONS, moreover, DO NOT GLUE ANY LIFTING DOWN! It’s so tempting to push your maintenance appointments whether it be due to lack of time, or even money, but trying to extend the longevity of an extension isn’t a good idea. Coloured acrylic, it takes a bit more filing to remove the coloured acrylic to its clear base, and then its redesign again.Įxtensions need to be maintained if you wish to keep them up. Extensions with gel polish is very easy at maintenance appointments, I file off the gel polish, complete an infill and re balance of the enhancement and re polish.

When you apply gel polish, it can round off the sharpness somewhat. With coloured acrylic I personally find when filing/shaping you can get a really sharp tight finish to the nail. There’s the type of extension where I create the length and shape with acrylic and then paint on top, or there’s the use of coloured acrylic. You can always build up over time to a longer length nail but believe me, if I ever wanted to debilitate someone, putting a set of extreme length nails on them would be the way to go! Nail biters have very little nail to apply an enhacement onto so the longer the extension is, the higher the risk of the extension lifting or coming off completely. If your not used to extensions, never had them before, or are a nail biter, I wouldn’t do an extreme length nail on you. However it is always your choice, I will just advise you. This is because it’s not always practical to have an extremely long set of nails if youve maybe just had a baby or your work includes a lot of typing for example. Now if you’ve ever booked an appointment with me for extensions, you will know that I will discuss with you your preferences, expectations and I will also ask about your lifestyle and complete a client care/info sheet (which I do with every new client). This is purely my preference, I’m rubbish when it comes to nail glue and I just end up sticking my own fingers together so for both you and I, – trust me, sculpting is the better option!

I sculpt every set I do rather than glueing a tip on. I’m dual trained as in I’m qualified to create extensions with hard gel as well as acrylic, yet my skill level in acrylic far outweighs that of gel, so I use acrylic. I use acrylic to make an extension of the nail length.

So here’s some simple explanations as to what these three service options are and why you would choose to have them…Įxtensions or “enhancements” are simply extending the length of your natural nail. It’s so easy to get carried away with nail jargon when your a tech and sometimes you forget that not everyone knows as much as you about a service. I get many messages from potential/new clients asking me that they would like an appointment with me, yet they don’t really know what it is exactly that they need/want!

Gel nail overlay