Speed
When you first ever learn to sculpt, it is a fiddly, time consuming process. It’s hard to put a form on!
Alisha Rimando-Botero from Artistic Nail Design once told me that when students learn to sculpt for the first time she tells them “Buy 500 forms. Put them on, take them off, put them on, take them off. Do it to your husband, your kids, your friends. When you get to the end of the roll, you’ll be good at forms.”
She’s right! Applying forms is like riding a bike. One day it just clicks and when it does… suddenly forms are by far the fastest way to do a full set.
Yes, it’s easy to pick up a tip and apply it. In fact, after doing 2 or 3 you’ll be well on your way to being a pro. But when you apply a tip, you need to size it, customise the well, stick it on, cut it to size, and then blend it.
Right now, maybe that’s faster than applying a form for you. But for me, after 11 years of doing both methods in equal measure, I can do a full set of nails with forms in almost half the time it takes to do a set with tips.
Stick with it, because in the end, time is the finite object that dictates your income, and the better you can manipulate your time the faster you will be able to make the money you need to survive and the more spare time you will have to live your life.
Damage
While tips may be easy, it’s not easy to do them well and that can be an issue. The many steps of tip application mean many opportunities to damage the natural nail.
Filing to blend the tip causes vibration on the nail plate, which in turn can cause irritation, or at worst case scenario, onycholysis.
That same filing motion is done very close to the natural nail and it’s near-impossible to blend an entire set without coming into contact with nail plate. We want to avoid filing the nail plate at all cost – when you sculpt, there is zero risk at all.
Another step that can cause damage is actually done before the tip goes near the nail – incorrect sizing can have major repercussions for the client and her nail bed. A tip that is too large will dig into the lateral folds, causing irritation or even breaking the skin, which in turn can lead to infection and dire consequences.
A tip that is too small on the other hand can put a lot of pressure on the natural nail as the tip fights to make the nail fit it’s curve and the nail fights to resist. This can lead to the enhancement popping off, or even worse, causing onycholysis.
Working with forms ensures that there is absolutely no pressure on the nail plate, as the product conforms to the nail itself. Sculptured nails are kinder to the nail and far more comfortable to wear.
Control
When you sculpt a full set using forms, you have complete control over the end result, which has benefits both structurally and aesthetically. You can curve the barrel in any way you want, create a brand new structure, or create a whole new shape altogether such as an Edge Nail.
When sculpting French, you can place the smile line near the desired hyponychium instead of having to match the free edge which may be really low on a nail biter or high on someone with long beds. You can also over-arch the smile line to elongate the nail and create a more elegant look.
Lastly, sculptured nails can be worn far thinner than their tipped counterparts. This is partially due to that tight C-Curve, which is much stronger than the flatter curve of a tip, but also just due to the obvious absence of additional plastic.
Strength
Sculptured nails are stronger both in structure and adhesion. Liquid and Powder or Hard Gel Enhancement products are far stronger than the material used to create tips. Therefore, the overall enhancement will be stronger if it is made entirely from those products.
By sculpting the entire enhancement, you also avoid creating unnecessary weak points in the nail. When you apply a tip, the glued area is a stress point that can crack and break more easily. When you sculpt, this is avoided altogether.
This is definitely a point where you need to be really good at sculpting though – if your form application is not flush with the natural nail you can create these same issues for yourself. Once you overcome that hurdle though, your sculpted enhancements will be super strong and durable.
One last characteristic that lends itself to strength? Tight C-curves. If you want a tight c-curve with a tip, you need to thin the tip right out, and even then, – after adding extra time, effort and vibration – might not have much luck. When you sculpt, you have full control over the c-curve. Curves are extremely strong and will give strength to your nail as well.
Prestige
Want to set yourself apart from the crowd? Not everyone sculpts. You know that! If you’re reading this, chances are you weren’t a sculpt-convert to begin with.
For all the benefits, sculpting is trickier to master. Put yourself on a pedestal and promote the fact that you care about the impact your work has on your clients and that you make informed choices that positively affect their experience with you. Promote the fact that you worked your butt off to be really good at something so that their natural nails would be left in good condition and their enhancements would last longer.
Be proud of everything you accomplish, even if it’s ‘only’ the fact that form number 357 went straight on your husband’s flat, square thumbnail like a breeze.
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