Nails Magazine

DEC 2012

Magazine for the professional nail industry.

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Avoid Nail Damage With Proper Gel-Polish Removal "Gel-polish should come off easily with no heavy- handed or forceful scraping," says Doug Schoon, president of Schoon Scienti⇒ c and renowned nail industry chemist. "If you have to force the product off at all, you are doing some- thing wrong." Schoon is passionate about this issue because he's concerned that the improper removal of soak-off gel-polish is rapidly becoming the biggest problem in the nail industry. Incorrect removal is causing pits, cracks, and scrapes on clients' nail plates, often appearing as small white spots on the nails. And many nail technicians are failing to identify this as a problem. According to OPI chief scientist Paul Bryson, the most common reason why nail plates are injured during a soak-off gel removal is because nail technicians do not let the product soak long enough to fully break the bond to the natural nail. "Most of the time they're not letting the nails soak for a long enough time, and when they go to remove the gel they pry or peel it off," notes Bryson. "When they do this, they take part of the natural nail plate off with the gel." This result is a thin layer of the natural nail getting pulled up and causing divots and pockets in the natural nail bed. What's worse is that when clients notice the damage and ask their nail technicians about it, many technicians respond by saying that it's a natural part of the gel process and merely a dehydration of the nail plate from the acetone. "This is misleading," says Jim McConnell, president and head chemist of Light Elegance. "Because acetone does remove oils from the nail, but the nail plate itself is not damaged by the acetone. The culprit here is the keratin layer in the nail enduring trauma when the gel-polish is forced and pried off the nail." Nail professionals do care about their clients' nails, but all too many are passing this problem off as being caused by the acetone and that the nails are ⇒ ne for another application. But acetone is not the problem causing these weakened nails. "You can soak nails in acetone all day and you won't see any white spots," says Schoon. "The whole nail might look dry if you leave it in there for days, but the acetone is not the issue. It's when nail techs see that these gels are not coming off after 12 HINTS HELPFUL With the biggest problem being inadequate soak-off times and nail damage during subsequent forced gel removal, there are some things you can do to help expedite the soak-off process without compromising eff ectiveness. 1 Apply heat. A hot moist towel can be draped over the fi ngertips after they have been wrapped. Or you can put the client's wrapped fi ngers and hands into plastic gloves, and then soak the plastic gloved hands in warm water. These techniques are reported to cut the soak-off time down by as much as a few minutes. 124 | NAILS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2012 2 Break the seal of the top coat to help the soak-off solution penetrate all the way down to the nail plate. Note that not all gel-polish manufacturers require this, but taking a light grit fi le (180-grit) and gently removing the surface shine can help. Jim McConnell explains, "The glossy layer is shiny because it does not have many pores. Removing it helps the soak-off solution penetrate through the gel-polish."

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