Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Professional nail files - what grit?

Hi All, I need to get a variation of nail files for my nail technician course but I'm unsure which ones to buy. What grit is a light, medium and coarse file? Is it best to get a file just one grit or different sides? I prefer the sponge files rather than the emery boards. Any help appreciated.Professional nail files - what grit?
Here are a few links to help you decide what you need in terms of files. Personally, I use Entity Beauty files %26amp; buffers - for the most part anyway. Well, when I use files that is. Mostly, I have been using an electric file for the past couple of years and love it. Shaping %26amp; finishing the nail is reduced by about 50% using an e-file. But really, that is a whole different topic in itself! E-files are quite expensive, and one should be properly trained on them or they can easily do more damage than good. Back to Entity Beauty now... Their Shiner is unbelieveable! It shines both natural %26amp; acrylic nails quick, easy, and fast. But, of course, you must progress from a lower grit file to a higher grit biffer - then finally to the shiner itself. But this is true for any brand of files %26amp; buffers. I usually use a 150 grit to take down acrylic, a 180 grit to refine it, and then move to a 100-180 grit buffer to remove deep scratches before finishing the nail with a UV gel topcoat - or sealer. If I was going to hand file the shine on, I would use the 220-280 grit buffer after the 100-180 Perfecter as the final step prior to using the shiner. Buffers from this company, and many others have two sides - and two diffferent grits. It's important to perform the filing and buffing in a 'progressive' manner. In other words, use a lower grit file first, then a higher grit file, then move up to a low grit buffer, turn it over and use the higher grit side on it, and so on.


For gel nails, buffers are not really necesary, but one can be used. Usually, I just use a 100/180 file for gel filing since the UV gel topcoat, sealer, or finishing gloss will fill in any scratches anyway. Plus, a UV topcoat, etc will not go on as smoothly when the nail has been buffed out too much. This creates a finish on the nail which is too smooth for the finish gel to adhere well to, and apply easily without imperfections.


Anyway, here are the links. Just click on the item you are interested in, and a page will come up with detailed information about the particular file or buffer. The Tropical Shine files are not bad at all and I know quite a few techs who use them. Its really a personal preference type of thing, and it comes down to using whatever ones work best for YOU.


http://www.entitybeauty.com/c-6-files-im鈥?/a>


http://www.tropicalshine.com/file.html


I hope this helps!


PS: Entity Beauty has excellent acrylic products, and their Studio brush is the absolute best brush I have ever used. It's quite pricey, but it lasts forever (well, almost forever, LOL). You must be a student, or a licensed beauty professional to buy from Entity. Tropical shine is available in Sally Beauty, and anyone can buy from there. I think Entity is a far higher quality product though. But then, that's only MY opinion, and nothing more.


Also, the rectangular zinc files/buffers at Entity last longer than the other ones shown. I bought some of them and yes, they were great files. But they wore down very fast. The absolute longest lasting file I ever used are Tammy Taylor's Purple Terminator files. My gosh, those things just do not wear down! They really last a long time. But, I don't think her other files are really anything special. And her acrylic products? Well, I won't go there...

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