How to Have Beautiful Natural Nails

Beautiful, natural nails start with taking care of them. If your nails are peeling, they are most likely dry and dehydrated. This mainly comes from your hands being in a lot of water or in a lot of harsh, cleaning supplies. Most people never realize that your nails can become dehydrated from being in a lot of water, since water is hydrating. What happens, though, is that your nails are being stripped of their natural oils.

To solve this problem, two simple things will help. One, you should be using a cuticle oil at least once a day. It will help your natural nails replace the oils that they have lost. Two, you should wear gloves when your hands are in ANYTHING that you would never consider washing your face with. If you wouldn't put it on your face, it shouldn't be on your hands.

At the Purple Pinkie, we retail Haken oil. As you would expect, it is PURPLE! It also smells like the beach! Regular use of cuticle oil will not only replace oils, but it will keep your cuticles soft and help to diminish hang nails.

For those of you, who were not blessed with strong natural nails, you can use a system to help strengthen them. One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they overuse strengtheners. They are then left with dry, brittle nails, which is a whole new problem

We retail Zoom Nail Food system. It consists of Nail Eat, which is a strengthener and Nail Drink, which is a moisturizer. Depending on if your nails are soft and peeling or dry and brittle, you will start with whichever one you need. You will use it daily for two weeks, then switch to the other one. After four weeks, you will now be in the maintenance period, where you will use one daily for a week and then the other and keep on keeping on! This is one of the best products I have found that will allow you to grow beautiful, natural nails.

Respect your Nail Professional's time.

Most people aren't aware that if a Nail Tech doesn't have anyone in her chair, she doesn't get paid. If you have an appointment and you are not able to make it, you should give your tech as much notice as you can. Life throws you curves, we understand that, but there are just some people that just don't show up. We reserve the right to not book those people again.

Some clients are chronic reschedulers. They take up space in your book and constantly move their appointments, often leaving you with gaps that can never be filled. They then end up with appointments that are weeks after they should have had one and can't understand why their nails are a mess. We reserve the right to not rebook chronic reschedulers.

Please be on time. If you are late, it can throw the whole day off. Should the clients after you, who are on time, have to wait? If you are more than 15 minutes late, you appointment may be rescheduled or you may not receive a full service. We reserve the right to cancel standing appointments with people who are consistently late.

On the other side of this, don't come too early. If you are coming more than 10 minutes before your appointment, you are too early. Many techs schedule breaks throughout their day. If you come early, you may end up sitting, watching phone calls being made or lunch being eaten.

Please inform your technician, well in advance, if your appointment is going to involve something different than what you had scheduled. If you show up with your full set picked or chewed off, depending on the damage you've caused to your nails, you may not be able to get another set. You may have to settle for a manicure, which requires less time.

Basic common courtesy is the key. Ninety nice percent of clients have it, it's the other one percent that throws a professional's schedule all off.

Do you really have gel nails?

We have been getting a lot of people asking if we fill gel nails. After some questions, it is determined that these people DO NOT have gel nails, they have acrylic nails with a gel top coat. These salons are purposely misleading the client and charging them more for a service they are not getting.

If you truly have gel nails, you will know. Gel is in a pot and looks like really thick hair gel. It is clear, translucent pink or white and you don't mix anything. Your technician will put a layer of gel on and you will have to put your hand into a ultra violet light. She will apply two to three layers of the gel, placing your hand into the light between layers.

If your technician takes a brush and puts it into a liquid and then into a powder, this is not gel. This is liquid and powder acrylic. Most technicians will finish pink and white or pink and glitter tip acrylic nails with a gel top coat. This top coat will stay shiny until it is filed off.

Applying a gel top coat to a set of nails does not make it a set of gel nails.

Caring for Your Acrylic Nails

Acrylic nails are wonderful, however, the success that you have with them is up to YOU and your at home care. Too often I encounter people who have acrylics that do not take care of them and it creates more work for their technician as well as limits their ability to fully enjoy having beautiful nails.

First, quit picking and playing with them. So often I can tell that someone is picking their nails. It's like the dental hygienist knows if you haven't flossed. I will see someone picking right if front of me and say something only to hear "That's not picking!". Ah, yes it is. Picking, is picking at edges, running your nail under the free edge, separating the nail from the acrylic, all of the above.

Next, keep them out of your mouth! Quit chewing on them! Do you realize that 85% of people have feces under their nails at any given time? It's like having a "Poopsicle" in your mouth!

If you get lifting or lose a nail, for goodness sakes, DON'T glue it! If you trap bacteria between the nail and the acrylic, you WILL get a greenie, which is a bacterial infection. Call to have your nail repaired. If you can't get in to get it repaired, keep the lifting dry or but a band aid on the finger.

You MUST use oil daily. Period. You will FAIL with acrylic nails if you do not oil daily. I do not state this just to sell you oil, heck for two years I gave everyone oil to prove how important it is. Oiling keeps your acrylic flexible. It keeps it from drying out. It keeps your natural nail from curing away from the acrylic. Oil should be applied to cuticles and under the free edge at least twice a day, especially right before bed.

Ask yourself......Is my acrylic brittle, is the free edge of the natural nail pulling away from the acrylic, do my cuticles look crusty? If so, you aren't using enough oil!!

Finally, you MUST wear rubber gloves when your hands are in any harsh cleaning products. A good rule of thumb is if you wouldn't wash your face with it, you should be wearing gloves. Bleaches and cleaners will breakdown the acrylic. I am talking RUBBER gloves, not the latex gloves. If you are wearing latex, you may as well wear nothing. Don't forget gloves when gardening as well!

In conclusion, don't pick, don't chew, don't glue. Wearing acrylic nails and not oiling daily or wearing gloves when cleaning or gardening is like getting $500 of dental work done, then never brushing your teeth again.

Is Your Nail Salon Safe?

Is your salon safe??Do you have rings of fire? The picture at the left shows a nail that has a "ring of fire". It was damaged by a person using an electric file improperly.

You should never feel burning and a new sanding band should be used on every client. Electric files are safe when a properly trained, technician uses it, ask for their certification!

It's your safety! Know what you SHOULD expect and expect NO LESS!

Do you have MMA (Dental Acrylic) on your nails?

Why should MMA not be used?

There are four main reasons:

• MMA nail products do not adhere well to the nail plate. To make these products adhere, nail technicians often shred up (etch) the surface of the nail. This thins the nail plate and makes it weaker.


• MMA creates the hardest and most rigid nail enhancements, which makes them very difficult to break. When jammed or caught, the overly filed and thinned natural nail plate will often break before the MMA enhancement, leading to serious nail damage.


• MMA is extremely difficult to remove. Since it will not dissolve in product removers, it is usually pried from the nail plate, creating still more damage.


• The FDA says don't use it! This is clearly the most important reason. The FDA bases their prohibition on the large number of consumer complaints resulting from the use of MMA nail enhancements in the late 70's and they continue to maintain this position today.

MMA is a widely used monomer with a long history of safe use in medical and dental products. It is fine for making bulletproof windows and shatterproof eyeglasses. However, we believe that artificial nails should not only be beautiful, they should not damage the natural nail. They are enhancements, not replacements!

We also believe it is the responsibility of all professional nail technicians to protect the health of their client's natural nails. A good place to start is by using responsibly formulated products and to learn safe and proper techniques. (Information courtesy of Douglas D. Schoon, Chemist Creative Nail Design)

How do you know if your salon or technician is using MMA?

• MMA has an unusually strong or strange odor which doesn't smell like other acrylic liquids. Odor is present during application and when filing cured product (for fill-ins or repairs).


• Enhancements which are extremely hard and very difficult to file even with coarse abrasives.


• Enhancements that will not soak off in solvents designed to remove acrylics.


• Cloudy or milky color when cured. Severe yellowing will appear after a couple of weeks.Additional warning signs though less definitive:
  


• Low price of fills and full sets (MMA cost 1/3 of EMA)


• Dust or ventilation masks used (many technicians use dust masks today who do not use MMA)


• Unlabeled containers - technician will not show or tell the client what brand of product is being used.

For more information on MMA, please visit this site: Beauty Tech This site has many articles relating to nails for the consumer, and is very informative.

This information is provided by the Hooked On Nails site

Rhonda's Winning Nails

Salon Photos

Directions

Directions
Take Route 66 towards Ford City. Salon is located in the Scheeren Insurance Building in the front, facing the highway. This building is between Murray's Auto Electric and the Texaco station, which is down the road and on the same side of the road as Nite Courts and Sheetz.

Purple Pinkie Policies

Cancellation Policy
Cancellations or rescheduling of appointments must be made with a minimum of 6 hours notice. If the appointment is canceled with less than 6 hours notice, you will be charged 50% of the price of the service. No shows will be charged full rate. Fee must be paid before new appointment is made.

Returned Check Policy
There is a $25 service charge for all returned checks, no matter what the reason.

Arrival Time
To ensure that all clients stay on schedule, please arrive on time or a few minutes early for your appointment. If you are more than 15 minutes late for your appointment, your service will be shortened or your appointment will be rescheduled and Cancellation Fees may apply.

Please try to arrive, no more than 15 minutes before your appointment time. We sometimes schedule breaks to eat or stretch and would hate to have to sit and watch us do this!

Children in the Salon
This is your time to relax, so for your comfort and the comfort of others, please make other appropriate childcare arrangements. Children should only be in the salon if they are receiving a service and must be supervised at all times. We have a lot of chemicals that little fingers should NOT touch.

Nail Art Tutorials

You don't have to be a professional artist to do great nail art designs. Most designs I do in the salon are simple and can be completed in less than two minutes.











ACRYLIC PAINTS
I just use the cheap paints. I purchase the empty pots in the craft section and fill them with paint. When they get gunky, just throw them away and fill new pots. You can do most nail art with these 8 colors. You can very easily mix other colors.








BRUSHES
I use very few brushes. I love this set of nail art brushes that I got. I use the first one the most. These can be purchased from Atwood Industries.








SUNFLOWER
STEP 1 Scribble in brown for the centers of the sunflowers
STEP 2 While brown is still wet, scribble in some orange on one side of each center
STEP 3 With yellow, add petals around the centers
STEP 4 With orange, apply small dots around where the center and petals meet
STEP 5 With green add leaves, with white add shine to the center and veins to leaves








ROSE
STEP 1 Scribble in pink for the background of the roses
STEP 2 Add dark pink dots to the centers of the roses
STEP 3 Add dark pink swooshes around the dots
STEP 4 Add leaves with green
STEP 5 Thin white paint and add veins








LILAC
STEP 1 Dot in lilacs with dark purple
STEP 2 Add lavender dots to one side of the lilacs
STEP 3 Add white dots to top of the lavender dots
STEP 4 Add leaves with green
STEP 5 Thin white paint and add veins








CONE FLOWER
STEP 1 With orange, make an oval
STEP 2 With orange, pull down a "v" to form flower, make three
STEP 3 With white, add a "c" to top of each flower
STEP 4 With white add a line down the one side of each flower
STEP 5 With green, add leaves, with white add veins









SNOWMAN
STEP 1 Scribble in white for the snow bank
STEP 2 With white, add three circles to form the snowman
STEP 3 With blue, add scarf
STEP 4 With orange add nose
STEP 5 With black add hat, twig arms, face, buttons an detail to the snow bank









HEART DESIGN
STEP 1 With white, add three white swooshes
STEP 2 Using your stylus or paint brush end, add two circles of pink
STEP 3 While pink is still wet, pull down the paint in the center of the two circles
STEP 4 Complete three hearts
STEP 5 Thin white paint and add shine to the center of the heats and dot details









SHAMROCK
STEP 1 With green and your stylus or end of paint brush, make two circles
STEP 2 While paint is still wet, pull down the center to form a heart
STEP 3 Add another heart to the left
STEP 4 Add another heart to the right
STEP 5 Connect hearts and add stem, with black add veins









PATRIOTIC
STEP 1 Start with a shimmer on nails
STEP 2 With red, paint a triangle on the right
STEP 3 With blue paint a triangle on the left, overlapping the red
STEP 4 With white add stripes
STEP 5 With white add dots