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Nails in the news
MMA v's EMA
Cheap nails are everywhere, make an informed choice based on quality not price.
As you may know, acrylic nails are created using mix of acrylic powder (polymer) and liquid (monomer). The molecules of the polymer and monomer form a bond to create a solid structure that will serve as your artificial nail.
There are 2 standard types of monomer available:
EMA- ethyl methacrylate and MMA- methyl methacrylate.
What is MMA acrylics?
MMA acrylic is a liquid monomer USED IN THE DENTAL INDUSTRY to make false teeth/veneers. Its used by some nail bars as a cheap budget alternative to EMA monomer in the application of acrylic nail enhancements. It is NOT designed for or safe to use for the application of nail enhancements.
WHAT DOES IT CAUSE?
This acrylic product is illegal in many countries when being used on nails, it can cause permanent damage and loss of the natural nail, as well as numbness, burning and allergic reactions.
After prolonged usage, this dangerous chemical that's deemed poisonous by the FDA, can cause miscarriages, lesions on the kidneys, liver problems and respiratory problems.
WHY IS IT USED?
Plane and simple... because its CHEAP. It costs 1/4 of the price of the safe alternative EMA liquid that we use.
SIGNS A NAIL BAR IS USING MMA.
* Usually a strong odour (strong, sharp and fruity).
* Milky or cloudy appearance.
* Practically impossible to soak off. They will usually have to pick or drill it off. It can take hours to safely remove.
* The tech will usually always wear a mask (regardless of covid etc) and will always have to drill the surface of the nail excessivly to prep, as the products won't adhere unless there nail is deeply etched.
* Often cheap or with no need to book or wait too long to be seen.
* The tech will refuse to discuss the products with you, as they usually have very little technical knowledge of the product as it id probably poorly labelled, if at all.
* Will use products from unlabelled containers.
Nail allergies
A while back on "this morning" Sarah Jossel (beauty director and columnist for style magazine) did a piece about home manicures. Some of her advice regarding nail strengtheners and cuticle oils was fine, however, she also talked about buying one of the cheep gel kits and LED lamps to do your own nails at home.
Unsurprisingly this kicked up a bit of a storm within the nail industry. Talk about kicking us when we were down.
But that's not the only reason we are concerned.
These cheep kits available from places like eBay, amazon, wish, Groupon and even some supermarkets?shops etc are NOT professional products. They are mass-produced in china, where they don't have to follow the strict laws regarding chemical ingredients that they do in the UK/EU/US. Most of the gels contain very high levels of of ingredients that are known to cause allergies.The lamps will not have been tested to properly cure the products, but you won't know this as the gel "sets hard" at only 50% cured, but you could have uncured product sat under the cured top, eating away at your natural nail plate (also, getting any product on your skin can lead to a reaction as well).
The thing with allergies is once you become allergic to one ingredient its highly likely you will go on to to develop more allergies to other ingredients in gel polish and will get o a point that you may never be able to have nail products on your nails again. BUT...even worse than that it could prevent you from having certain dental procedures and bone surgery as they often contain some of the same ingredients.
So please take our advice.... Please please please don't risk using these kits. Use a professional nail tech who will be using safe, professional products and have a high standard of related education.
Awards
We were so honoured and humbled to win 3 awards in 2020.
In February we won Yorkshire Nail salon of the year and the inaugural English NBL awards.
Rachel was lucky enough to be there to accept the award in person at a glitzy ceremony in Manchester.
Unfortunately we all remember what the rest of 2020 looked like, but in June The British hair and beauty awards were held, minus the glitzy ceremony, but we walked away with 2 silver awards for entrepreneur of the year and community champion of the year. Both these awards were very meaningful to us as they acknowledge the hard work we have put into the salon and the work we have done fundraising for multiple good causes.
Then in 2022 we toped the silver for entrepreneur of the year with a gold.
This was such an emotional and greatly received award, we can't wait to see what the future has in store for us. But with these successes under our belt we are feeling like nothing is impossible.
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