Monday, February 25, 2013

Shellac...our second choice

Shellac...our second choice

In the last blog, we talked about Why Natural Nail care is better than using any artificial enhancement.  This time, I want to address our newest service offered in the salon, Shellac manicures.  Shellac is a type of long wearing gel polish.  While it is still recommended to get natural nail manicures, at Natural Nail Care Salon, we recognize there may be occasions when a longer wearing polish is needed.(weddings, vacations, etc...)  

There are many types of gel manicure products on the market.  All of these require curing (hardening) the polish under a UV lamp.  The time under the lamp varies with each brand.  Some brands require the nail to be "gently filed" to remove shine and rough up the nail plate.  Others require the use of a primer or nail dehydrator.  The filing of the nail thins the nail plate, weakening the nail.  Primers can dry out the nail making it weaker.  All gel nails have to be soaked off.  Some gel nails require filing off the top layer prior to soak off.    Others require the nail to be buffed after soak off to remove any remaining gel polish.  Soak off time for most gel nails is usually at least 10 minutes.  As stated in previous blog post, soaking off artificial enhancements can dry out the cuticle and weaken the nail plate.

Shellac is one of the least damaging of all gel nails.  Total time under the UV lamp for Shellac is 6 minutes 10 seconds while most other brands require about 8 minutes under the UV lamp.  Soak off time for Shellac is around 5-10 minutes.  Shellac does not require any pre-filing of the nail to rough up the nail bed.  Primer or dehydrator is not required prior to application.  Post removal buffing is not necessary.  Shellac is also formaldehyde free.  

All of us at Natural Nail Care Salon want to stress that we still believe natural nail care is still the best way.  After much research, we chose Shellac as our long wear gel polish because we found it to be least damaging to the natural nail. If you do get a Shellac manicure, we recommend a full natural manicure after removal of the Shellac.  Our goal has always been and will remain to help your natural nails be healthy and beautiful.  

No comments:

Post a Comment