000-000-0000 · closed Mondays
The real risk in this trade, described plainly
Uncured gel and acrylic monomers can sensitise skin. It is not common, it is not dangerous when it is handled properly, and it is the reason a good salon keeps product off your skin rather than wiping it off afterwards.
Itching, redness or small blisters at the side walls or the cuticle, usually a day or two after an appointment and usually on the same few fingers. Sometimes it shows up somewhere else entirely — eyelids and the neck are the classic ones, because that is where hands go.
Uncured product touching skin: a bead placed too close to the cuticle, a lamp that has not cured a thick layer all the way through, or a set filed while the top layer is still tacky. It is a technique problem before it is a product problem.
We work off the skin, cure to full time rather than to a light going out, and we do not use a product on you that we would not sit under ourselves. If you tell us you have reacted before, we will do a small patch on one nail and see you again in two days before doing a set.
We do not tell you it is nothing, and we do not tell you what it is. A reaction on your skin is for a doctor to look at, not a nail technician. What we can do is stop, take the product off and write down exactly what was used so you can take that with you.
A sensitisation does not usually go away. It is generally the end of gel and acrylic for that person, and there is still a manicure, a pedicure and regular polish on the list. We would rather say that plainly than sell you a set you will react to again.
Because almost no salon website has one, and because the people it would help are exactly the people who end up searching at eleven at night with itchy fingers and finding nothing but product marketing. It is not common. It is not dangerous when it is handled properly. And it is much easier to avoid than to undo.
Keeping uncured product off your skin. That means placing the bead away from the cuticle rather than wiping it back afterwards, curing for the full time rather than until the lamp's light goes out, and not filing a surface that is still tacky. It is slower. It is also the entire difference.
Telling you what is wrong with your skin. We are not qualified to do that and we are not going to pretend otherwise — a rash on your hands could be several things and only one of them has anything to do with us. What we will do is stop, take the product off, and write down exactly what was used and when, so you can take that to somebody who can look at it properly.
Tell us before we start. We will do a patch on one nail and see you again in two days rather than doing a full set and hoping. And if the answer turns out to be that gel and acrylic are finished for you, that is a real answer and not the end of the price list: a classic manicure, a pedicure and regular polish involve none of it.
There are nails we will not work on. There are nails we will not work on, and there is a page that lists them. Being told no at the beginning of an appointment is better than being told nothing and finding out in a fortnight.
Six tables · three pedicure chairs · a published price for everything
Pick the service and any add-ons and the calendar adds up the minutes before it looks for a slot, so the times you are offered are times that actually fit what you asked for. A pedicure also needs one of the three chairs, and if none is free at four o'clock on a Saturday it will say so rather than book you in and hope.