Hi DoubleDip Babes
Welcome back to another nail tutorial video. If you are new to the channel, thank you so much for stopping by with Double Dip. We are a small local business located in Dallas Texas. We share tips & tricks on how you can learn to do your nails at home. Let’s jump right into it.
Today I would like to show you some pro tips on
1. How to Prep your nails correctly
2. the toothpick method
3. how to avoid your powder from getting clumpy
4. how to correctly apply top coat
5. how to use our brush cleaner
For written instruction, please scroll pass the video.
Written instruction
With any nail product, whether gel or nail polish, acrylic or dip nail powder, your nails will eventually chip, peel, break or lift if it is not maintained consistently.
There is no such thing as permanent nail enhancements - no matter which product you choose to coat your nails with -nothing is forever
Your nails grow over time. The bond between your nail and the product will weaken due to the natural oils that are produced from your nail bed and your cuticle.
The stronger you can make that bond, the longer your dip powder nails will last.
And the key to a strong bond is in your preparation. Let’s get started!
ProTip #1: Here are the steps we use to prep the natural nail.
Step 1
Sanitize. Please remember to properly wash your hands before applying the product. A clean surface not only helps the product to stick, but it is essential to prevent fungal infection. This also helps to avoid premature lifting as our products are supposed to last around 2 weeks with the proper prepping method.
Step 2
Push back the cuticles gently using our cuticle pusher.
If there is a lot of pterygium (overgrown skin) on your nail, use cuticle remover to remove the dead skin.
Nail products don't stick to skin due to the natural oils on the surface. The tiniest bit of skin will cause your nails to lift. It is best to avoid getting any powder touching the skin as this will reduce the longevity of your nails
Step 3
With older techniques, nail techs were taught to 'rough up' the nail surface using a nail file -
Do not do this as this will cause damage to your natural nails and make them thin and fragile.
Our dipping powder is long-lasting and will adhere to the nail plate without excessive filing on the natural nail.
All you need to do is remove the shine/oil from the surface of the nail. You can use our gentle block buffer for this step.
This will provide a little bit of friction onto the nail bed which allows the powder to hold on better to the nail, whereas a very smooth surface will cause the powder to pop off easier.
Gently buff the entire nail surface making sure you don't miss any part of the nail. Any area that hasn’t been properly buffed can cause lifting later on.
Step 4
This is an optional step but would greatly help in enhancing the longevity of our nail product. Please apply a bonder to the surface of your nails to remove any leftover oil residue. Rubbing alcohol will work in a similar fashion. However, if you are interested in purchasing a bonder which is made specifically for this step, you can find more information on our website at DoubleDipStore.com.
Make sure there is no dust left on the nail. The nail plate needs to be clean of debris. Once you have completed these steps, do NOT touch the nail. This will put oil from your skin back on the nail plate and you will be back to square one. Now, that the nail plate is squeaky clean, you are ready to apply your dipping powder.
ProTip #2: The Toothpick Method- Prevent nail-lifting
After each dip, you can use our wooden cuticle sticks we provided to clean the areas around the cuticle. This will result in a cleaner look and prevent the nail product from getting on your skin. If the product touches the cuticles, it will cause early lifting of your nails.
After you dipped two layers of the powder, make sure to clean up your dip brush before putting it back into the #2 base coat bottle. Clean the rim of the base bottle as well to prevent the cap from being glued shut to the bottle.
Note: If you are working with red, black, glitter, or any staining powders, it’s recommended to clean the dip brush by wiping it on a paper towel before reinserting it into the bottle.
Protip #3: Clumpiness
One of the reasons behind clumpiness is applying a thick base coat. To prevent this, you can brush off one side of the brush every time you take it out of the bottle. This will reduce the excess liquid.
In addition, always remove the excess powder properly after dipping your nail into the product. Tap the excess powder back into the jar and then use a powder brush to brush off any remaining product left on the nail. This will help you achieve a much smoother finish.
What do you do if you already have a clumpy nail?
Apply a layer of activator to your nails. Make sure the nail has dried hard enough for you to file. If you attempt to file the nail too early before the activator dries, you risk filing off too much powder which can result in product loss. This could lead to unevenness and missing color on the nail.
Afterwards, take your nail file and begin to file off areas that you notice are too thick and uneven. Keep moving the nail file back and forth on the thicker areas until you feel it has smoothen out.
After your nail has been thinned out to your liking, use our block buffer to buff out the surface of the nails until it is smooth. Once you are satisfied, dust off your nails with your powder brush and you can wipe them with a lint free paper towel to clean any excess powder.
You can now move forward to the next step, applying your topcoat.
Pro tip #4: How to apply your top coat correctly
We have noticed that there have been a few issues among our customers with the top coat not being shiny, the top coat brush hardening, or the top coat not drying. No worries! In this video we will address these problems in addition to showing you how to correctly apply our top coat to prevent them from happening. Let’s begin.
Make sure to apply a thin and even layer of top coat on your nails. When you apply too thick of a layer, the activator cannot properly dry the top coat and your top coat will become uneven or streaky.
Our activator can be a little bit tricky to work with because you want to apply enough liquid to dry the base and top coat on your powder. However, you do not want to apply too little or too much which can make the drying process ineffective.
We recommend you to complete each finger one by one up to the activator step. You can work from your pinky finger to your thumb and vice versa. By the time you finish the last nail, your first nail should be dry enough and you can apply a top coat on it. For extra precaution, wait a few more minutes to allow the activator to completely dry.
We do not recommend anything too drastic such as waiting any amount of time over 30 minutes. This may result in the activator becoming inactive and resulting in a top coat that won‘t dry.
Pro tip #5: Brush got hard and how to fix
The mystery behind the hardening of your top coat brush exposed. As you can see, this is how your top coat brush should be. Your top coat brush should be soft and apply smoothly. Upon contact with the activator, the brush has hardened and is no longer usable
When this happens Please do NOT stick your hardened brush back into the top coat bottle as this will contaminate the rest of your top coat liquid. No worries! We have a brush cleaner available for purchase. There will be a link for this in the description box below along with our bonder. Switch the hardened brush with one of our replacement brushes or with the brush cleaner brush.
With the hardened brush, please stick it in the brush cleaner bottle and wait a minimum of 15 minutes. Use a replacement brush for your top coat cap, and you can polish the rest of your top coat as you soak the hardened brush in our brush cleaner solution. Please keep in mind that the wait time will vary depending on how thick the brush has hardened.
If your brush is very damaged, you may want to take it out of the brush cleaner every once in a while and wipe the residue on a clean lint-free paper towel. This will clean the hardened brush quicker.
After a while, your hardened brush should be good as new and can be reused similarly to the other replacement brushes.
How to replace your brushes. Simply pull on the hardened brush to take it out of the cap. Apply some force when inserting the replacement brush into the cap and it should fit in perfectly.
