Today I want to tackle the issue of how
you should dissect the misconceptions and downright deceptive information which
is published in all sorts of periodicals and magazines about manicures. I
recently retrieved a full page article I found in the November 2013 issue of
Prevention Magazine titled, “Your Healthy Manicure How-To”. The following is
the article verbatim:
Avoid salon chemicals
(and potential infections) with these five simple at-home steps
1.
File your nails Hold an emery board
parallel to your nail’s edge. File across, then round out the corners.
2.
Soften your skin Microwave a bowl of
lotion for 10 seconds, then soak your fingers in it for 60 seconds.
3.
Care for cuticles Don’t trim cuticles;
they protect nails from infection. Gently push them back with a damp cloth.
4.
Smooth ridges Run a nail buffer, like OPI Brilliance Block
($6; ulta.com), back and forth across your nails to smooth vertical lines.
5. Polish Polish fortifies the nail. Try
peptide-infused toxin-free Dermelect ME in Sophisticate ($14; dermelect.com).
It further states, on a side bar, to
reconsider your polish remover by advising you to try a nourishing one like A Beautiful Life Soy Polish Remover ($20;
abeautifullife.com), stating that the acetone is replaced by soy!
*
Most of this article is not only in error,
a large amount of it is even dangerous advice and naïve, at the least. The
first premise which is completely false is that you will be avoiding potential
infections without proper sanitation and educated precaution. None of
the info in this article alerts you to this fact and given the likelihood that
readers of this magazine consider it to be backed by medical professionals- the
premise is totally inexcusable.
No less than three sources were listed for
the support of this article. They are Zoe Draelos, MD from Duke University;
Richard Scher, MD, Weill
Cornell Medical
College and last, but not
least, Donna Perillo from Sweet Lily Natural Nail Spa. The latter source could’ve
lent a credible and experienced source were it not for the fact that many nail spas are not regulated by
Barber/Cosmetology Boards nor any other licensing board at present. In fact,
the words ‘nail’ in conjunction with ‘spa’ may be an indication that the nail
technicians hired may not be professionally licensed personally. State boards
across almost all states in the U.S.
require a person’s license to be displayed prominently in or above their
stations. To know for sure, look for them and if you don’t see credentials that
match your techs name with the official state logo on it then most likely you
are not safe from potential infections. Look to see if implements to be used
are actively soaking in disinfectant solution. Is the table clean? Both
manicurist and patron must wash their hands prior to the service. These are
just some of the precautions.
Assuming that you still want to try to
work on yourself, re-read the five steps above and I’ll tell you why they’re
wrong and written by someone who did not speak with a licensed professional at
all- leave alone two doctors. Emery boards cannot be sanitized and therefore
are potential hazards. Licensed professionals use materials kinder to the nails
than a standard emery board and most of these filing implements can be sanitized.
Microwaving a bowl of any lotion you have available will create a disastrous
effect. Professionals use preparations specifically formulated to emulsify when
they are heated and they have apparatuses which will heat the hot oil nail soak
to a proper temperature which can be controlled.
Licensed
professionals can trim your cuticles and generally do if anything
is extraneous and a potential to worsen if the cuticles are unkempt or forward
growth needs to be cleaned off of the nail plate. Cuticles unattended need
softening and to be trimmed where they are loose or jagged. This is our job and
is best left to us because we were trained how to deal with these issues with
our specific implements. It is our raison d’etre. Compris ? If you must
do this yourself, wash your hands thoroughly being sure to wet the hands
thoroughly for five minutes in warm water. When you dry your hands just gently
push back on the cuticle lines with a towel and then leave them alone.
The rest of the article starts pushing
products which are generally only used by professionals! This article is
suggesting that perhaps it might be a good idea to use products that you have
not been educated to use correctly- and then tells you the wrong way to use
them- to the tune of no less than $40. I’m fairly certain that a manicure of
this caliber in a licensed salon would not set you back that far in cash and
you’ll rest assured knowing that this person most likely knows how to use them
correctly.
The OPI Brilliance Block is intended for
finishing artificial nails- not to try to excoriate ridges on a natural nail.
What may initially feel smoother to you will eventually start cracking right
along those ridges or lines because you have removed the top tissue which fuses
the nail together as a layered unit- being as how your nail is actually
epithelial tissue- (horny tissue)!
Regular polish is a fortifier for
nails-true! But a peptide-infused version without the so-called toxic three
(dibutyl pthylate, formaldehyde, toluene) will most likely bubble after a
manicure done with heated lotion. I
doubt that anyone is going to like spending $14 on a bottle of polish only to
have it look like they have some weird nail disease. I’ll be brutally honest
here and tell you that probably an old polish you have on your vanity table
would do just fine and won’t hurt you a bit. Here’s another hot flash! I
haven’t a clue how soy could be formulated to take polish off ! Whatever they’d
have to do to the soy I’m sure it wouldn’t work or if it did you may not want
it to. So much for avoiding salon chemicals. It might be worth it to try
taking off that insidious gel polish that chips but won't come off. In that case, it would be
worse than ketone from which acetone is a diluted version- right!
Just
setting the record straight !
The Castle Lady
