How To Prepare Fingernails For Nail Enhancements

Hello, my name is Laura Bliss. I have been a nail technician now for the last 12 years. I'm currently teaching at the London College of Beauty Therapy on the nail courses there.

I'm going to show you how to prepare a nail for nail enhancements. Ok so first thing you need to do, and the most important, is to make sure your hands, and your client's hands are sterile. I'm just using Steratane, but you can use any sort of anti-bacterial.

So first of all we need to take the length down of the natural nail. Using the softer side of your extension file, shape the nails into quite a round shape. So next we need to do the cuticle work.

You don't need to soak before extension, it makes the nail too porous. So work in some cuticle remover. We're just going to gently push back the cuticles and remove any nitching that might be stuck to the nail plate.

Nip any extra cuticle, making sure you don't take any live cuticle away. And we need to make sure there is no shine on the natural nail, at all. So I'm just using the white block to take away the shine.

Just roughen up the nail plate, so the acrylic or gel or whatever you're using will set on the nail nicely and doesn't lift. And now the nail is ready for extensions.