Today is one of those rainy Mondays. The schedule has been slow, but I don't mind because I get to stare out the window all day at the clouds moving across the sky.
I did get my website blog updated — told my story about my NAILS Magazine cover shoot, so you might want to check it out: http://artofnailz.blogspot.com/2012/02/cover-artist.html.
Here in the salon, my latest battle has been dealing with gel polishes — still and again.
One of my most successful gel mani clients has suddenly developed an immunity to gel polishes. For the last two years, her manicures lasted up to four weeks. No chipping, no peeling. Now they are lasting about a week.
Looking for answers is trying. Everyone tries to be helpful — but it's not my lamps. If it were my lamps, I would be having similar issues with all my light-cured products. I'm not. It's just one client. And it's all of a sudden.
I have gotten some input that has been helpful and gives me something to start looking into, but I can't help but wonder if soaking off and re-applying every two weeks is eventually going to prove non-beneficial.
Introducing people to the "miracle" of gel polish only to then inform them (and us) that they need to "take a break" from the products every so often is maddening. For the client, it means they won't be able to maintain a nice manicure. For the tech, it means these clients are likely to wander off during these "breaks." Either to other salons, or to home kits, or to giving up on it all.
If I use a traditional gel as a base for gel polishes, then that isn't really a gel manicure anymore. It's a gel overlay with gel polish. And that's more expensive than just a gel manicure.
I just feel like either there's more information that we should be getting, or — more likely — we are the long-term field research team, gathering information, making observations, reporting back to the manufacturers so that they can learn more about how their products work in the real world ... and hopefully tweaking them to work better.
I don't really feel like I can blame anyone for not having the answers that I need. It's just so frustrating to look in my clients' eyes and have to tell them that nobody knows.
Print | posted on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 12:06 PM