New Year; New Goals

I don't make "resolutions"... I believe setting goals & making plans are a better way to work toward achieving success. So, this year, I sat down and made a few plans for this year.


1. Take the remaining two CND certification classes: Master Architect & Master Sculptor.
2. Download the SQUAREUP app so I can finally take credit cards.
3. Take more photos of my work (preferably, *all* of my work).
4. Get my retail up to par, and sell, sell, sell!
5. Attend at least one networking event.
6. Repair the few holes in my walls left from the previous techs, and give my room a fresh coat of blue paint.
7. Get my room fully reorganized (which *will* happen as soon as my husband builds me that corner polish rack I've asked for).
8. Buy a new pedi chair OR a massage/heat pad for the current one.
9. Add at least five more regular clients.
10. By the end of the year, I will need upgraded brochures & business cards -- 2013 brings price increases, and I'll be a "CND Certified Grand Master"!

I'm sure I'll add more as I think of them, but this list of ten is a good start!

I'm also curious: What are YOUR goals within your business this year?

GelColor, Review Part Three

The reviews are in: OPI's GelColor is a great gel polish; very similar to CND's Shellac!

My client, M, who wears gels (Brisa, by CND), has tried Gelac (by ibd; you've read my opinion, and no longer made by the company because of how bad the product was), Shellac, Axxium, & now GelColor over her gels. She has no complaints; says it wears about the same as either Shellac or Axxium. She's excited to have even more color choices for her UV-cured color!

My clientfriend, C, bumped out her appointment a full extra week; I will see how well they held up at that point (in another week).

My client, J, has very beat up nails due to improper removal of acrylics. We keep them short, and originally, she wanted Shellac. When I asked two weeks ago, she decided to try GelColor. Friday, when she came in for a redo, her opinion was, "Seems a bit stronger than Shellac; I like having more color choices, and I don't mind that the removal time is a little longer."

My clientfriend, S, is a mother of three year old twins. As you can imagine, she's very on-the-go & does a LOT of laundry & dishes! Before I found out that I wasn't supposed to be, I was layering Shellac's colors with Axxium's top & base to give her a bit more strength... with GelColor, I don't have to do that. With Shellac (if she wants one of those colors again), I will just double-topcoat her.

I now carry 14 GelColor, 30 Shellac (6 more in March), and 31 Axxium --> all UV-cured! And, as a quick reminder, please do your research, ask questions, make sure your tech's products are in the original containers & that you know what they are, and PLEASE stop going to the cheapy places to get your nails done... they are cheap for a reason!

GelColor snippet...

Bought the "Sirens" box set, plus A Grape Fit... Add those to the other seven I already had makes 14 GelColors. Hopefully, that will entice a few more people to give it a try!

OPI GelColor... Review Part Two

This one's just a quicky, because I haven't had many clients wanting to try the (now seven) GelColors I have... Also, remember that I'm using my CND Shellac/Brisa lamp (I now own two of them), because I'm saving up for OPI's new LED lamp.

Removal was tested with OPI's "Expert Touch" remover (part acetone, part glycerine) on one hand, and pure acetone on the other. Expert Touch was 15 minutes; nails were hydrated and there was no white skin around the fingers from the drying effects of the acetone. Acetone was tried at 10m, then left on another 5m... drying effect was there, product seemed to remove a little easier with Expert Touch. Will use ET in the future.

Pregnant Hairdresser Friend -- Her review: "It's shinier at the end than Shellac was, and seemed to stay on about equal to Axxium." From a VERY busy hairdresser whose nails currently grow super-fast due to pregnancy hormones, that's saying a lot (at her appt today, her two week growth looked like three weeks). She loved "OPI Ink" and chose "Pompeii Purple" today.

Me -- "I got a good 6 days on my thin, weak, super-short, naturally-peeling nails before it started to wear at the tips." Please note, I am a super-busy nail tech and 90% of my clients are Shellac (or other UV polish) users. I am using acetone to wrap my clients, so the most wear I saw was my right thumb; it bubbled at the outer edge. ALL to be expected with acetone use.

Last Thursday, I put it on a gel client. She chose "Miami Beet" (I *did* add a little glitter, but that won't effect wear). And, this morning, I used just one coat (instead of the recommended two) of "Passion" with some nail art (the art got a double-coat of Top Coat). Next blog (Part Three) will have their reviews & my final word.

OPI's GelColor... review part one

First, let me start off by saying that I currently own 25 shades of OPI's Axxium SOG (soak off gel lacquer), all 30 shades of CND's Shellac (they call it "power polish"), and only 4 shades of OPI's GelColor (a gel polish). Second, let me remind you of my product cost -- .25oz Shellac bottles are $15.95, most Axxium are .24oz for $19.95 (however, some packages are only .14oz, & when on sale/clearance, they can be as low as $11.95), and GelColor is currently .5oz for $17.95. Third - lamps - I currently own CND's Brisa lamp (4 fingers or your thumb) as well as their newer Shellac Lamp (5 fingers at a time). I will own another Shellac lamp after my Master Painter class next week (included in the cost of the class), and am saving for a new LED lamp ($400 is a bit more than I want to spend at this time). I really hope they come down in price fairly quickly.

Axxium* SOG is basically a true gel (cures under UV lamp) that has pigments in it, but is much thinner than traditional gels. There are some brands of traditional gels which also have pigments in them, but they are not soak-off; they must be filed off. Axxium SOG can be applied over bare/natural nails, or any type of enhancement, but it needs a scuffed surface before it can fully adhere. Cure time for each hand (not including prep) is 8 minutes for base, two coats of color, & top coat. Removal is a bit of a pain; you must scratch the top coat before using an acetone-soaked cotton ball placed over your nail & wrapped with foil (I've used CND's wraps, as well), and wait a full 15-20 minutes.

Shellac, on the other hand, is basically a polish with only enough gel qualities to make it cure under the UV lamp within minutes. There is no scuffing of the natural nail, but like Axxium SOG, it can also be used over enhancements (see Pro instructions on CND's website for details). Cure times are shorter for Shellac than for Axxium; not including prep, you're looking at only 6 minutes & 10 seconds. Soaking Shellac off is much quicker & easier than Axxium's soak off, as well -- acetone-soaked cotton placed over your nail & wrapped with foil, or using their special wraps, wait about 10 minutes, it slides right off.

NOTE -- author really likes BOTH of these products equally. One is not better than the other; they are both great, but different. Also remember that there are a TON of other gel/polish products out there; some better than others (I used to use ibd's Gelac, but the product sucked big time -- wouldn't stay on, kept curing in the bottle, etc; I finally sold my remaining colors & my first lamp to a woman on Craigslist 'cuz I was just so frustrated with the whole thing, I didn't even care). I just haven't USED anything else because (1) nothing else is as readily available as these two products and (2) CND & OPI are two of the biggest names in the nail industry for a reason; they make great products.

So, then OPI decides to get into the gel/polish line (still selling their Axxium SOG, mind you). A lot of techs were excited! Finally; a gel/polish made by one of the biggest & best nail product companies in the world! My biggest questions were: (1) How much is is going to cost? and (2) How will it be different than the other two lines I already have? For some reason, OPI or distributors (I'm not sure which) required pre-order AND pre-pay for GelColor, so I bit the bullet, and ordered the base coat, top coat, and four colors. They came two weeks ago.

After swatching them (putting all four layers on a nail wheel), I asked a few clients if they'd like to test them out for me. All said yes, but only AFTER Thanksgiving; I didn't have any traditional T-day colors (oranges, browns, deep reds...). Ok, I get it; I have since pre-ordered (& pre-paid for) a classic red, as well as a creamy white & a sheer pink for French. Anyway, I decided to remove my own (traditional) gels about a week before Thanksgiving, and also didn't want to try a new product; just in case there were issues with it, I wouldn't have had time to fix them.

The morning after T-day, before my own family's traditional Friday Feast at my mother's, one of the salon's hairdressers decided to try OPI INK, which is a gorgeous deep purple (so dark, it's almost black) with glitter in it. She's a very busy hairdresser, as well! This should be a good test. Today, I finally had time to remove my Axxium SOG, and decided to try GelColor in Miami Beet (a cream purple-y red; very much like a beet). But, because I am NOT a cream polish kinda lady, I had to glitter over it -- I used a light coat of Axxium SOG in "Show It & Glow It" (fuchsia glitter).

So, that's two people (so far; hopefully more this week) with GelColor on. The process for prep is similar to Axxium SOG *EXCEPT* (& this is important to some clients) there is only BUFFING (as in, with a foam buffer) of the nail, not scuffing with a file! Cure times are the same for GelColor as it is for Axxium SOG. However, product is thinner; more of the consistency of Shellac without the wrinkling problem some of Shellac's opaque colors can have.

Stay tuned for Part Two of my review! By the end of this week, I'll have a report on removal and the condition of the nails...

*(Do not confuse this product with OPI's regular Axxium gel line -- that is a "traditional gel",)

Wow... Harsh.

So, there's been a big "brouhaha" lately about some of the different nail shapes. Square, squoval, oval, & round... we all get that. Stiletto, edge, pipe, lipstick, and (holy smokes) "duck feet" (I prefer the term "flared edge) have some people up in arms! What's that all about? Ok, so you don't like them; fine. But as a professional, why would you NOT offer something to your clients that (a) you *can* do, and (b) you can easily make a larger profit off of?!?! That's just crazy to me.

I admit, these specialty type of nails are OBVIOUSLY not for everyone; heck, they're not for MOST people. But, that doesn't mean there isn't a market for them. If you owned a grocery store, and your customers wanted goat's milk, would you refuse to supply it just because YOU don't like goat's milk? No. If you owned a clothing store, and your customers wanted corsets & knee-high socks, would you refuse to stock them just because YOU don't think they're attractive? No.

Seriously, people, unless something is honestly against your religion, morals, or ethics... why would you not offer something that the public wants? To me, it's like biting the hand that feeds you (or, in this case, slapping the hand that pays you). I may not like these styles on a personal basis, and they definitely aren't for everyone/everyday wear... but that doesn't mean that I will refuse to do them. I *will*, however, make sure to educate my clients so they understand all the pros & cons with the style of their choice.

Counting Chickens...

As many of you have, I learned years ago never to "count chickens before they hatch". In our type of business, when you're self-employed, you'd better make darn-well sure you have money in hand (or "in bank", as the case may be) before using that money to pay bills or purchase supplies (I *do* practice what I preach; we are a debt-free family). In this day & age, especially, salon services go by the wayside when you're trying to pay your rent/mortgage & keep food in your house...

This past week, I had 4 of my clients miss their appointments. Three rescheduled due to illness, but one just forgot completely. She literally thought her appointment was next week... Yes, I rescheduled her, but it made me think. I don't do reminder calls; I feel that if you MAKE an appointment, you should be responsible enough to REMEMBER them. Some techs disagree with me, but that's the way I do business.

But, here's the thing: the majority of my clients are over 50yo. With older clients comes missed appointments for a bigger variety of reasons: hip surgery, Alzheimer's, & late social security checks, just to name a few. Yes, I have a missed appointment policy, but it's rare I've had to enforce it. Most of the time, it's really not a big deal to rebook them (& they almost always make up for the loss with an additional tip next time).

I've already had two clients die unexpectedly (one more unexpected than the other... cancer took one, heart attack for the other). I know that it's going to happen again; many times before I retire myself. Until then, I take each day as it comes; even if that means rescheduling all my clients... and NEVER "counting my chickens".