GlamityCalamity

You finally got that second top coat on on your nail polish and one single, first-class, clumsy move royally wrecks it with a nasty dig?

Of course you can remove the polish completely and start from scratch with your base coat, first layer then second layer of polish – another 10 minutes (because you need to allow the polish to dry sufficiently between coats) or, if you are impatient like I can tend to be with my own nails, you can opt for a quick fix.

Tip 1:

1. Wet the finger pad of a strong, stable finger – perhaps your index finger of the opposite hand, in nail polish remover and tap the smudge lightly with the remover, using quick firm taps.

Your finger pad must be wet with the nail polish remover, or else you will just stamp your finger print on your wet nail polish. Dip your the finger pad again in the nail polish remover if necessary.

Careful now, tap don’t attempt to smoothen.

1. If the first coat was smudged, allow the quick fix to dry, then apply the second coat and base coats as you would normally.

2. If the second coat was smudged, allow the quick fix to dry, then just apply the top coat once the remaining two layers of nailpolish looks like you have already applied two layers.

3. If the top coat was smudged you can do the same and then apply another layer of top coat once the nail has COMPLETELY dried. If not then it would take very long for 5 layers of nail polish to dry rather than 4. 

Tip 2:

Alternatively, you can press the nail polish on top side of your tongue and smoothen out the polish in the appropriate direction. Sounds janky I know right? but I kid you not it works!

Now I don’t know about the health benefits of nail polish of course, so maybe you don’t want to do this on a regular basis, but you know… maybe if you are in a jam.

Allow the quick fix polish to dry completely and then finish with a top coat.

In the event that you do not have a professional nail polish remover dispenser, simply pour enough nail polish remover into the nail polish remover cap (more than halfway) that would allow you to wet your finger pad with ease without removing/ compromising the nail polish on that nail.

Of course this is for personal use, if you are charging people for your services then might I suggest you drink less caffeinated drinks and reapply the polish?

Might get you a larger tip.

Toodles!

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Apart from clipping or polishing, some of us don’t think about very much else regarding our nails. Here are some steps that we can take to protect their health. 

1. Don’t use your nails as tools

Invest in a can opener, staple remover, varnish remover and bathroom scrubber.

2. Limit water logging and chemical contact.

Water is not a nail’s best friend. The nail bed is relatively porous and  too much water will result in the nail becoming overly flexible and fragile.  Although it may be relaxing, resist the urge to have your nails soak for extended periods of time in water at your nail salon. Nails do not have to soak that long, or at all, for the cuticle to be pushed back and/ or removed. Also consider:

- Using rubber/ vinyl household gloves for washing dishes/ cleaning around your house/ apartment.

- Using disposable latex or vinyl, cosmetic or pharmaceutical gloves when washing roots of hair. This will protect your nails from the stripping effect of the cleansers present in most shampoos. 

Further to not water logging nails, use gloves when working with detergents, and other household chemicals. 

Acrylic nails also do a number on the nail plate and will cause some damage to it. This damage may be made worse if these cosmetic nails are not properly applied and removed. Any damage caused to the nail during this process may be irreversible.

3. Quit the biting habit

It’s unsightly, can damage nail bed and allows you to ingest bacteria. Ew. Come on, we’re grown folk now.

4. Nourish Nails

Whether or not you wear nail polish, use cuticle oil daily on natural nails, at least every night just before you retire to bed.

Cuticle oil is available at any beauty supply store or pharmacy. Alternatively you can use the following  oils that you may already have in your pantry/ skin-care cabinet:
- Jojoba
- Vitamin E
- Almond
- Grapeseed
- Olive

When applied along the sides of the nail plate (where the nail meets the flesh of your fingers/ toes), these oils condition the nail, as well as soften the cuticle and the surrounding skin, preventing the skin from becoming dry and brittle. This can also prevent the splits and rips that tend to occur  on the skin that surrounds the nail area.

When applied to the cuticle and rubbed on the natural nail, these oils also aid in preventing moisture loss through the nail plate.

5. Eat well and get physical.

The growth of your nail plate is affected by your nutrition, lifestyle and general health. 

Hydrate, take your multivitamins and eat your green and leafys.

Tappity Tap.

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Related GC Posts:
Fashionable Nails -> Holiday Glam: Nail Bling
Interesting nail tidbits -> Nail it 

The natural nail is a living organism.  It is composed mainly of keratin, which is the same protein that is found in the hair and skin, only the keratin that is found in natural nails is harder. 

Healthy nails should be whitish and translucent in colour with a pinkish colour showing through the nail bed. 

The nail plate, the most visible part of the nail which you cut and file, is relatively porous to water. It allows water to past through it much easier than water would pass though normal skin of equal thickness.

The water content of the nail varies according to the humidity of it’s surrounding environment, i.e. if you are in an area with high humidity your nails will contain more water than if you are in a drier, less humid atmosphere.

Although it may look dry, a healthy nail has a water content of about 15 to 25 percent. Any less and nails become dry hard and brittle, any more, for example when soaked, and nails become water-logged, overly flexible and susceptible to damage. 

To maintain optimal hydration of the nail, an oil based nail conditioner, rubbing the nail plate with oils such as:
- Vitamin E 
- Jojoba oil
- Olive oil or
- Almond oil for example.

As nail-polishes coat the nail plate, they too reduce water loss and allows the nail to maintain flexibility. 

The natural nail unit consists of many parts.

Probably the most important part is called the matrix, which is located at the base of the nail plate. It is a non-visible portion of the nail, just where the nail plate grows from the finger tip. 

The matrix is where the natural nail is formed, and where the nerves and blood vessels that nourish the matrix cells are located. It is important that the matrix is well nourished and kept in a healthy condition as this is the only way that it can continue to create new nail cells.

If an individual is in poor health, has a nail disorder or disease, or has damaged the matrix through aggressive nail treatments, or injury for example, the growth of the nail can be affected. In some cases this damage can be permanent 

The shape of a normal healthy nail plate, (its thickness, width, and curvature)  depends on the length, width and curvature of the matrix. For example, a longer matrix produces a thicker nail plate and a highly curved matrix creates a highly curved free edge.

Nail growth varies, but in the average adult, it is about 1/10″ or 3.7 mm per month. Nails grow faster in warmer months, like summer, than they do in cooler months, like winter. Children’s nails grow more rapidly than those of an elderly persons.

Due to changing hormones, nail growth decreases rapidly during the last trimester of pregnancy. As do hormone levels in the body, the nail growth rate decreases even more dramatically after delivery, and then returns to normal.

It is a myth that prenatal vitamins accelerate nail growth; Nail growth rate will accelerate whether or not a woman takes these vitamins.

And finally of course, toenails grow slower than fingernails, but they are thicker and harder.

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Interesting tidbits.

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Works consulted: 
Milady’s Standard Nail Technology 

Related GC Post -> Nail Salons: Infection control    

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Prevention & Control of Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs)

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Healthy, well manicured, buffed, natural nails are always in. Just tend to your cuticles with cuticle oil, vitamin E, almond oil or any such oil nightly and you are always set.

However if you choose to wear nail polish here are some looks to rock this holiday season:

1. French manicure. 
Year-round sophisticated chic

2.  Shimmer
This is grown up glimmer, not your 5-yo glitter-glue nail polish. Coat with a top coat to maintain frost/ shine.
If you choose to wear the more trendy glittery polish, keep your clothing simple and streamlined. 

3. Embellishments
Gems and nail art. Just keep it simple.
No need to have New Year’s fireworks on every nail, choose to highlight one nail on each hand, index or ring finger perhaps. Understated glam is sexy.

DO

- Keep nails a reasonable length.
Regardless of what you see on TV,  people in general, including men, don’t find claw-like nails attractive. 
Plus it screams ‘high-maintenance’.  

Keep nails short to medium length and  squoval (love child of an oval and and square) work best and put less pressure on nails as they require minimum filing when compared to pointy nails.
Shorter nails work well for dark colours. 

- Rock the season’s nail colours. They include: 

- Deep, richer hues of Red
- Black and look-like-black colours
- Metals – Gold, Silver, Champagne, grey
- Purples and Plums and 
- Rich ‘nudes’
- White on darker skin tones.

Candy coloured nails are so summer vacay.

- Maintain nails
If nail colour is chipped remove it and replace with a clear base coat, or rock natural until you can get to polishing them later.

- Maintain cuticles
As with natural nails, maintain cuticles by applying cuticle oil. Almond oil, vitamin E and olive oil all work equally well.
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If you bite your nails, just stop.

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Nail it!

Supernova

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Let us imagine that it’s Thursday evening, shall we? You are on your way to get your nails did, because after all, the weekend begins today. HOLLA!!!.

It’s your routine way to destress and catch up with your nail tec on the latest happenings of all the clients, most of whom you know, of course. Safe, Simple, Easy right? Not so much.

Nail salons can be a breeding ground for bacteria – warm water, exfoliated dead skin cells, possible nail conditions unknown to clients, blood exposure incidents involving nipped cuticles… Yummy!!! A grand old infection party just waiting to happen.

Where do I sign up!

As a result it is important that nail professionals know what to do to keep clients safe. 

An infection occurs when body tissues are invaded by disease-causing bacteria. There are three types of potentially infectious migroorganisms that are important considerations in a nail salon:
~ bacteria
~ fungi and 
~ viruses

Milady’s Standard Nail Technology states that bacteria can live almost anywhere; skin, water, air, decayed matter, body secretions, clothing or under the free edge of finger nails. One of the most common human bacteria is staphylococi (’staph’), which is normally carried about a third of the population. Staph are more frequently spread through skin-to-skin contact, such as shaking hands or using unclean implements. It is responsible for food poisoning and a wide range of diseases, like toxic shock syndrome. Staph infections occur most frequently among persons who have weakened immune systems, but can occur in otherwise healthy people. The symptoms usually appear as skin infections, such as pimples and boils that can be very difficult to cure and have resulted in death. Some bacteria are resistant to certain antibiotics.

The most common viruses cause the common cold. Other viruses found in humans cause  chicken pox, yellow fever, hepatitis, influenza and HIV, which causes AIDS.

Bacteria, viruses or fungi can enter the body in many ways including through broken skin, such as a cut or a scratch. It is not uncommon for accidental cuts to happen when an esthetician is in the process of trimming cuticles. 

Here are some of the things to look for to keep you and your nail tec in check!

1. Surroundings
Take a good look around when you walk into the nail salon. Does it LOOK clean?
~ Are the garbages covered/ concealed? 
~ Are the surfaces clean? 

If the surfaces that are visible to you aren’t clean, chances are the ones that aren’t, aren’t. 

2. Clean hands
The first step of any manicure ought to be clean hands – both those of the client and the nail tech. 

An alcohol-free hand sanitizer will do just fine. This should be offered to you by the nail tech, after which s/he should do the same. This is a great way to significantly decrease the number of bacteria that will be up for grabs. 

3. Furniture
We are exhausted. Just the thought of the fancy, comfy, cushy pedicure chair gives us a mental high. *Ahhhhhhhhh…. Yes*. The warm water jet stream massaging the feet. Noooice! Right?
Wrong. Well not absolutely, but it can be.

Correct practice dictates that all surfaces that come into contact with a client need to be sanitized/ disinfected after each client. Proper cleaning of these types of foot basins require that the basins to be stripped down and the water tubes that recycle the water are disinfected after each pedicure. This virtually never happens at a salon/ spa because, well lets face an hour downtime between pedicure clients does not a profitable salon make. At best these tubes are cleaned once a week, but normally they aren’t ever cleaned until the tubes require changing. *side eye*.

Sometimes simple is best – a stainless steel basin that is fitted with a disposable cap, much like a ‘shower cap‘. The disposable cap is discarded after each use and the stainless steel basin is washed clean  with a detergent, wiped dry and done. Easy peasy.

4. Implements
 These are all the stainless steel tools used by the nail tech. The cuticle pushers & nippers and nail clippers are the tools that are most commonly used.

These tools are disinfectable and need to be completely immersed in an appropriate disinfectant for 15 minutes after each client, as dirty nail implements may spread infections from client to client. Especially the use of cuticle nippers, as it is not uncommon for the cuticle to be cut, resulting in a small but open wound(s). Disinfectant solutions should be changed at least once a day, more often if the solution becomes soiled or contaminated. So the next time you are waiting in the lobby for your nail tec to finish a client, and your service is started right as the last client leaves, using the same unclean implements, run.

At the very least ask that the implements be disinfected. It is your right to protect your health.

5. Non-disinfectable items
These are other items used in the service that are not disinfectable, for example nail files, nail buffers, foot files and orange sticks. Because these items can neither be sanitized nor disinfected they need to be discarded after every client, or given to the client after each service. This usually isn’t done as they are often re-used. If this is not done at your salon you can opt to walk with your own. You will not have to replace them after every service because your germs present no danger to you. 

For general health reasons, nail technicians are usually not allowed to work on nails that are infected with fungus. It is usually left up to the nail tech to examine nails before starting the manicure/ pedicure to detect any signs of fungus. 

If you suspect that the yellow/ green spot under your nail bed is NOT because your nails are stained from red nailpolish, please consult your doctor to see to that that situation is dealt with STAT for the benefit of everyone, including yourself

Lets get sexy and protect our health.

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Toodles!

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