Why do natural and gel polish coated nails chip?

Ellada Lutsenko , Ukrainian champion in modeling and nail design, European champion in modeling, judge of Ukrainian championships (Art Drive Nails School of Manicure, Odessa)

The portal’s editors’ request to write an article about the causes of chipping did not take me by surprise, because I had collected enough information and practice over 14 years of working as a nail technician and teacher to understand this issue very deeply.

So, dears, why do our beautiful clients break the fruits of our painstaking manicure labors?

And for better assimilation of information, we will divide the material into the following points:

• chips on natural nails;
• chipping when using gel polish systems.

A little clarification on the last point. If the nails under gel polish are covered with “strengthening” (or “wrapping” - that’s what it was called at the beginning of my nail career) with hard materials, we will classify them as artificial nails and talk about the main reasons for their chipping in the next material.

Chips on natural nails

If your client does not apply any artificial finishes other than the regular varnish base and the varnish itself, chips and cracks may occur due to the dryness of the natural plate.

Now I can explain for a long time about the overdried layers of cells in the nail plates, the leaching of connective substances and all that, but I will try to be brief and get to the point. There are several reasons.

Makeup: Vitaly Lutsenko
Model: Irina_zheloba
Photo and manicure: Ellada Lutsenko

Low temperatures

At low temperatures, chipping is possible. Have you noticed how easily you can break a nail in the cold? At low temperatures, any substance becomes hard and brittle, and nails are no exception. Under normal loads in the cold, chipping is quite likely.

Physical impact

Chips are also possible due to excessive physical impact. There’s nothing we can do about it - we’re girls, and our task is to carry ourselves like a queen. And if it just so happens, proudly heading to the specialist to have one nail extended is task number one. And if a girl enjoys the gifts of feminism and tries to prove to the whole world that she can work as a loader, there is no comment.

Overdrying of nails

Chips on natural nails can also occur due to overdrying of the nails. As a rule, girls who preserve the “virginity of their nails for nail paradise” use ordinary varnishes, which are washed off with liquids that degrease and dehydrate natural nails.

And even if you don’t apply anything at all to the nails that are left to “breathe” convulsively, external irritants can easily cope with unprotected nails. And taking into account the latest additions in the form of aggressive soaps and antiseptics due to the pandemic, these processes go much faster.

If you are the lucky owner of such a client (a unicorn in the kingdom of debauchery of the nail industry), prescribe her an oil or wax for natural nails. These products are able to create an additional protective film on the surface of the nails and at least somehow protect the touch-me-not from external irritants.

Instill in your clients: a dry branch is easy to break, but one saturated with moisture is impossible.

Chips in gel polish coating

Thinning nails

Cracks and chips in gel polish are possible due to thinning nails. Remember the dessert marshmallows covered in chocolate. Imagine that marshmallows are a fingernail and chocolate is an artificial material. So, if you bend a marshmallow, the chocolate breaks, leaving a layer of marshmallow on itself. Let’s transfer this experience to nails: a soft nail does not provide a stable platform, and a hard artificial material, with a slight blow or squeeze, breaks off the remnants of the thin layers of the nail plate.

In gel polish systems there are more rigid bases and very elastic ones. Take this into account!

Image: Anna Malinovskaya

Model: Taanya_tanni

Photo and manicure: Ellada Lutsenko

Different densities of materials

Another rare but important reason for chipping may be due to different densities of materials. For example, when a broken piece of nail is grown with a hybrid gel or a classic system, and the rest of the nail is covered with a soft gel. In this case, most likely there will be a chip at the border of the soft and hard gel. This problem is also possible when correcting with gels of different densities.

Remedy: Apply a thin layer of hard gel to the middle of the nail bed and along the entire edge of the extension. Then cover the entire nail with the gel polish base. This will even out the load. And after the natural nail has grown to the desired length, completely remove the hard base and cover it with your usual base.

Well, if you strengthen the tip of your nail with hard gel and always file off the natural one from the inside, check the price order. This is an additional service that requires the appropriate material, skill and your time, which should be paid for as extensions, not gel polish!

Still have questions or want to chat further? I invite you to my Instagram account . By the way, on my page I regularly conduct live broadcasts on similar topics. You can also watch them on my IGTV.

Grateful and generous clients!