The freeze weather of the winter does not only damage to health, skin but also to fingernails and toenails. Frequent contact with the cold weather makes the structure and membranes of nails affected seriously.

Brittle Splitting Nails

In regular weather, a healthy nail set contains an average of 18% water and 5% natural oil. However, in the winter the levels of water and oil reduce, causing the humidity shortage of the nails.

Besides, in winter, the nails are affected by the continuous changes of the temperature, such as the sudden contact with the cold and then hot water, the switch between the warm indoors and cold outdoors.

All of the factors are the reasons for the brittle and easy-to-crack nails during winter.

Fungal nails

Low humidity of winter is the favourable conditions for bacteria, nail fungus to activate. Contacting with humid environment or wearing gloves often without cleaning frequent would create the humid environment for the bacteria activate onto the structure of nails.

Once infected by fungus, the nail surface is ridge, lined (vertical or horizontal). The damaged part usually is brightly yellowish or black and smelled badly. Under the damaged one, there is

Bare foot walking in humid environment in cold-dry weather is easier to let the fungus develop and spread from toe to toe.

Raynaud’s phenomenon

Raynaud’s phenomenon is an issue damaged to not only nail – health but also your hands.

When the body overacts with the cold, it could not deliver enough blood to the limbs. Thus the heads of fingers and toesbecome cold, frozen and change their colors into white or purple. This phenomenon happens from few minutes to an hour, and normally it stops when the hands are warm and the blood flow works again.

Wearing gloves is the effective way to keep warm in winter, which supports the blood delivery to all the limbs evenly, and guarantees the pink for nails and palms.

Preventive methodology

To keep nails healthy in winter, you have to do a good care and right protection to your nails:

Cut and trim your nails frequently. If you do it at home, you should sterilize the tools carefully. Clean your feet and hands every day and always keep them warm and dry.

Change socks every day to avoid creating good environment for nail fungus development. Use cotton or wool gloves or socks, they help absorbing the moist.

Wear the right size of foot gears. Avoid wearing shoes and/or footgear too tight, which prevents the “breathe” of the nails but encourages fungus.

Avoid bare foot walking in wet area. Using shower shoes or flip flops to keep the feet away from directly contacting to floor.

Use often a hand moisturizer - contains alpha hydroxyl acids or lanolin, especially after contacting with water and cold air. Every night, soak hands in warm water for 10 minutes then apply lotion or oil to nails (olive oil, coconut oil, jojoba oil, sheabutter)

Take 2,5 mg Biotin (vitamin) every day: nourishhealthy nails, reduce the dry and brittle accountably.

Winter is always a phobia for health, skin and to whom that love beautifying, including nail caring. With a little more patient and carefulness, we can nourish our nails in cold winter; keep our love of beautifying ourselves.

Dipping nails is now a popular and developing trend. This trend is considered as an important change in terms of aesthetics and health benefits. Thus, what is special about dipping nails?

In-need change

Before, acrylic nail and gel nail could be considered as two most attractive services in the market. In fact, the techniques to do the two could bring the satisfaction of beautiful nail sets, but they also have a lot of weaknesses, especially for the health of customers. Many customers complaint about unhealthy nails, such as the membranes and structures are damaged.

In the other hand, while doing such nail services for customers, the technicians suffer from the odor of toxic chemicals, such as acrylic (monomer), or Primer (the substance helps a powder adhere to a nail), and other substances that could have a bad affections to nail technicians.

The nail technicians and customers all want to find products for nails which do not damage to their health as well as not to the real nails. Thus, dipping nails is an in-need change. And the born of dipping nails is a necessary change.

What is special about dipping nails?

According to many people’s opinions, dipping nails are favored due to its outstanding properties such as:

The dipping powders contain Vitamin E & Calcium, which help the fingernails grow healthier, so the nails would not be cracked or yellowish.

It is odorless and does not contain toxic substances as liquid (such as sulfur) nor primer, thus it does not affect negatively to the health or customers and technicians.

Do not need drying time under UV light.

The nails made by dipping techniques are strong and light. And theycould last for 2-3 weeks whilethecolors remain bright and natural.

According to the nail technicians, the dipping nails converges the advantages of acrylic and gel nails: shining, light as gel and durable as acrylic; besides it has the least harm to the nails.

Simple techniques

The dipping nails could be made easily and fast. This is the perfect opportunity for the nail technicians who are weak on acrylic nails. By using dipping techniques, the work for all kind ofnails such as: overlay, natural, glitter tip, color tips, pink & white, etc gives excellent results.

Depending on different techniques of dipping, the nail manicurists will have detailed steps with different stages. However, basically, a dipped nail is conducted by 3 main steps:

Apply gel base onto the nail

Dip in powder

Apply gel to top finish

Dipped nails could be used to make the full-sets or fill-ins types, such as refill, re-new nail outlook, or repair the damage from gel or acrylic nails.

One of the famous nails dipping powder is SNS (Signature Nail Systems). The company majors in research and manufacturing the dipping powder for nails with 100% natural ingredients. SNS is also the first company introducing to the market the dipping powder for nails, with many outstanding advantages, aiming for healthy natural nails.

Nails dipping powder with many colors that suit the styles and choices of customers for four seasons. With the outstanding properties for aesthetics and health, the technique is considered as one of new techniques, an achievement in nail industry and it is worthy to be care of.

According to the Miami Herald, the Vietnamese community in the U.S. has become the control force to most nail jobs in the country.

Mr. Linh Huynh used to be a taxi driver in Ho Chi Minh City. 13 years ago, his relatives worked in a nail salon in the U.S. invited him to join the business. Since he arrived to Miami, Mr. Huynh has worked 10 hours/day, 6 days/week. His job is cutting and taking care of nails. After saving an amount, together with his wife and a friend, they bought a nail salon called Lovely Nails in Kendall last year.

 “In the U.S, I think the gap between the rich and the poor is low. The rich has car, so do I. The most important thing to me is that I have worked very hard for my daughter’s future. She has a good opportunity to study”, Mr. Huynh, 44 years old, said.

Mr. Huynh and many other Vietnamese in the U.S. have followed the similar path of the Latin and Caribbean migrants in South Florida. That is finding a particular type of business to grow the family’s economics. In South Florida as well as many other regions in the country, there are many Vietnamese people working in nail industry.

Thanks to nail, our family life now is stable”, Ms. Dieu Nguyen, who has been working 3 years in International Nails in Doral, said. Dieu’s husband also works in another nail salon in West Miami. At the moment, they already bought their own house. “When I was in Vietnam, I worked pretty hard but the income was not high. Being here, working as nail technicians, my husband and I could save 2,000 – 3,000 USD per month.”, Dieu shared.

 “An inspiring story”

The United States is the country having the most migrants in the world, up to 14 million people. The American population is only 5% of the world population; however 20% migrants in the world live in the U.S. – the data from the Migration Policy Institute of the country.

Bearing “American dream”, the migrants often follow the footsteps of their fellow countrymen, looking for work and acquiring business establishments in the same field, creating distinctive communities. Dominicans, for example, own several wine shops in New York, Koreans work in dry cleaning in Los Angeles, or Ethiopians are taxi drivers in Washington, DC.

Similarly, Vietnamese have formed a powerful force, which has a strong foothold in the nail industry in the United States. Statistics from the US Nail Magazine show that there are 374,345 Vietnamese people certified as nail technicians, accounting for more than 40% labor force of the nail industry in the United States. By 2010, Miami had 279, while Florida had 1,152 nail salons owned and registered by the Vietnamese.

In last November, there was a publicity scandal that concerned many people. A group of armed robbers stormed into a nail salon called the Hong Kong Nail Salon in Miami-Dade, killing a 10-year-old son of a Vietnamese owner’s. The shop owner is Mr,Hai Nam Vu also injured and is currently in the process of recovery. This nail salon has not yet reopened.

After the incident, Vietnamese nail communities in the U.S. have worried. Some salons started to close earlier at night. Some lock doors and open only when they have customers. “Please lock the doors. Who knows there could be robbers.”, Mr. Huynh told to his colleagues at Lovely Nails after a customer stepped out.

Statistics in 2012 show that in Florida there are about 54,597 Vietnamese born in Vietnam, accounting for 1.5% of the approximately 3.75 million immigrants in the state.

 "They started out as hired laborers in nail salons. Then, when they have enough regular customers, they turn to open their own shops. Before everyone knew it, they were able to do higher quality services and use it as a platform to expand a system.", said Mr. Alfred Osborn, a professor at the University of California, about Vietnamese people working nail. "They came to the United States, worked hard, and got better off living the American dream. Being able to overcome all obstacles and occupy a niche market is truly an inspirational story. "

Start of the story

Many people might not know, but the popular that Vietnamese works in nail industry in the United States started from the effort of job training initiated by Tippi Hedren, a Hollywood star. Ms. Hedren is also the mother of the Hollywood actress Melanie Griffith.

In 1975, Ms. Hedren visited the Hope Village refugee camp in Sacramento, California, where 20 Vietnamese women were sent. Noticing that the women interested in her nails, Ms. Hedren, an international relief coordinator back then, thought of helping them to do nail job. "I saw the women were very skillful. I thought,” why didn’t they learn to do nail work”.", Ms.Hedren told the Los Angeles Times in an interview in 2008.

Later on, Ms. Hedren took her manicurist to the refugee camp once a week to teach the Vietnamese women here the manicure. She also asked them to learn how to apply a silk wrap, a technique that would bring more durable and natural-look nails. Later, Ms. Hedren persuaded a nearby beauty school to help these women find work.

"She helped these women build a niche in the nail industry, and the craft grew. As a result, the nail profession is now a service to the masses, "said Professor Osborne.

From the fact that only 20 Vietnamese immigrants were trained in the United States at the beginning, there is now a Vietnamese community working in the industry in the country. They own nail salons in every corner of the country, not much different from Starbucks or McDonald's fast food restaurants – Mr. Osborne makes comparison. "There are people who hold a monopoly on the market in certain communities in the United States and own multiple shops, and they are capable of creating jobs for many." Mr. Osborne said.

For many, nail salons offer the opportunity to work with minimum education requirements and and investment. Once employed in the salon, they could be able to live with friends or relatives and still earn a certificate. Then, when they have enough money, they move out to open their own stores.

"I choose nail job because this work does not require a high degree, nor high capital, and I can help other Vietnamese -Americans looking for job," said Mr. Thanh Huynh, owner of the Expo Nail in Southwest Miami- Dade. "My plan is to become the owner of a big store at a good location. I will save money to realize my dream. "

Second generation

Compared to luxury spas and hairdressers, Vietnamese nail salons in South Florida are usually located in lower cost locations and offer better service prices, such as 10 USD for trimming, 20 USD per nail care, and 30 USD for nail polish.

The USA Nails salon in Biscayne Boulevard, Miami offers a wide variety of services, from pruning, nail care, to nail art-drawing. The owner, Mr. Huy Van, who left Vietnam in 1988, went through Hong Kong, the Philippines, Honolulu, Chicago, and Detroit before stopping in Miami in 1998. "The climate here is the same as my country: warm and no snow, "said Mr. Huy Van. Before having his own shop in 2010, he had been employed twice in two different stores. Currently, his sister and niece are working in his nail salon.

Mr. Huy said that even though he is now shop owner, he still works 60 hours a week like he did before. He declined to disclose the income, just mentioned that 60% of revenue is for technicians and 40% for the salon.

"They do very well. I would like to come here more often.” Ms. Toni Hunter, a customer who visits Mr.Huy’s salon for nail care said.

In the north of Biscayne Boulevard, the Nail Capital offers full range of services from nail to hair removal. The owners are Mr. Loc Nguyen, 43, and Ms. Hang Phan, 41. They employ 3 non-relatives. Mr. Nguyen bought this shop from his uncle, who taught him to do nail work after he moved from Miami with his parents and siblings in 1998.

Like those store owners above, Mr. Hieu Truong opened T-Nails in Kendall in 2006 after many years of working for salons in Minnesota and California. Now he and his wife is the boss, hiring 7 employees.

"Nail-care helps stabilizing the lives of many Vietnamese who come to America. However, the second generation, like my son, will probably not choose it because they have degrees and good English; they can find a better job." he said.

Ms. Jeanne Batalova from the U.S. Immigration Policy Institute says it is part of the American dream.

"Their children often rely on the success of their parents to develop. The second generation will shift to intellectual work. This process has been repeated in every wave of immigrants of all nationalities, from Italians, Nordics, Jews, to people from other countries to the United States. Their children have now become part of the American middle class, "said Ms.Batalova.

Understand the customers

You should understand the reason that customers come to you, pay for you is you can provide the service they need. Saying straightforwardly, the customers only care about themselves. If they have what they need, they will continue to come to yo;, if you cannot provide it, they will leave you IN SILENCE.

You should continue to understand their needs, what they think, what they want. Products, services and the market trend always change and their tastes will change accordingly.

Be humble

If your nail salon owns a good reputation, loved by clients, received compliments from many people (congratulations!), keep going! Try to do your best to not let your clients down.

A complacent person in his or her work achievement often creates the feeling of “contemptuous attitude" towards the opposite persons. Your customers pay you to serve them, take care of them, not to despise them.

You should keep yourself humble even though your nail salon is at the forefront. You should remember that many competitors are chasing after you. Always think that you are in second place and you always try to reach to the first.

Carefully monitor your manicurists

Your manicurists are the ones serve your customers directly. All their action, behaviors, serving approaches reflect the salon’s serving style. There are many times because of different reasons the manicurists lose the love of the customers accidently. You should carefully monitor them to remind them work professionally.

Upgrade working skills

In the market, customers are divided into different categories, the “means” takes about 10% of the total numbers. Those people look for the cheapest place: whenever they find a cheaper one, they will come there right away. The “conservative” accounts for about 10%. These people once liked a salon, a particular manicurist, they will loyal to the salon and absolute no way you can lure them to yours. These two groups are difficult to invite, hard to get, hard to satisfy, and it is almost no way to entice them to you. HOWEVER, there are 80% of guests in BETWEEN, of whom you should focus on attracting.

They are willing to pay extra for value services. They love new things.

Thus, enhancing your skills, bringing new designs to your salon, enhancing the value of your service is the way to keep 80% of customers in the market.

Keep the relationship

According to a study from Harvard University, increasing 5% loyal customers will increase the profit from 25% to 95%. The most effective method to keep the customers is developing a good relationship with them, taking care of their concerns and hobbies. Most importance, you have to let them know that you care for them.

The result of our survey at different nail salons shows that 99% of the nail salons do not know any way to create the relationship with customers. That is a pity with the lost money a nail salon could earn. Do you know that building and keeping a good relationship with customers is not that expensive, there are even free but effective ways like FACEBOOK, EMAIL.

Through the survey, we also learned about 2 main reasons that most of nail salons do not keep in touch with the clients:

Afraid of bothering clients:

Perhaps we have seen a lot of ads ourselves every day that we develop aversion to it. Thus, we conclude that our customers do not like to be bothered by our email or our Facebook posts. It is true that you will bother your customers if you continue to send them the cheap and unvalued COUPONs.

Here we will instruct you, the 2^nd class members, the way that the customers not only feel unbothered but also love you more.

English is not good enough:

This is the second reasons that most of us are aware. We always busy with filing, and taking care of hundred things in our salon; thus, we could not have our minds to think, to write.

To keep our customers, you have to give them what they want, to create nice surprises to them with new and interesting services, also you need to let them understand the values you provide them.

If you need the support to develop your salons in a most practical way, join our MY NAIL SALON 2^nd class members, in which you will:

Learn how to communicate in English with clients

Enhance your technical skills and drawing techniques (easier to earn money)

Receive PR materials that your customers love

Have answers to all questions in a nail salon

Receive guidance on electrical techniques, internet to keep contact with clients (free)

A hand with 10 beautiful and healthy nails is a dream of the ladies in the “beauty conquering”. To have a healthy nails, the simplest and most effective way is taking care of them from the inside, by eating the foods that have rich protein, vitamin and minerals.

Fruit

Fruit have plenty of vitamins that support the health of the nails. They are also varied to choose, perfect as snack or dessert. Some provides the necessary vitamins such as dried blueberries/dried tangerines/dried berries provided vitamin A, kiwi with vitamin C and bananas with vitamin B6. Blueberries, grapes, black grapes also contain a lot of anti-oxidants good for health.

Vegetables

Vegetables provide a lot of vitamins and minerals required for a strong and healthy nails. Sweet potatoes, carrots and dark green vegetables such as cauliflowers and asparagus contain a high vitamin A. Carrots also have vitamin B6, while spinaches and other green vegetables bring calcium, iron, and other antioxidants. Iron is an important mineral, as if lack of it, the nails will be crooked.

Cereals

Beer and barley wine are the two products made from cereals containing vitamin B complexes – biotin and protein, which help strengthen nails. Many cereals contain carbohydrate complex, an active ingredient that works with vitamins and minerals to form strong nails. Brown rices, oats, rye and buckwheat are also rich of vitamins A & B. The type of barley yeast used to make bread also provides a great deal of vitamins of group V and zinc.

Eggs

Eggs contain proteins and nutrition providing the energy for the body, which are also important for healthy nails. Eggs also have vitamins A, E and Calcium. Yolk is also a great choice for low calories and fat meal.

Meat products

All lean meat products are good and necessary for a healthy body. Calf livers and ovaries contain iron, proteins and biotin – all needed for a strong set of nails. High amount of protein and iron can also be found in meat from cattle such as cow.

Beans

For vegetarians or simply for those who avoid eating too much meat, soya and beans family is another source of great amount of protein for a balance nutrition meal. Soya is rich of biotin, while lentils are excellent choice to supplement vitamin B6 and amino acid sulphide.

Besides, the diet should be supplemented with rich zinc foods –a nutrient plays an important role in the formation of connective tissues, such as oysters, radishes, old copra, etc.

The shape of nails is considered as a soul of a nice nail set. The work (of filing nail) looks simple, but it actually has a major influence to the style-creation of the nail set. Furthermore, the improper filing might crack the real nails. In the following, there are some tips to file nails for new nail technicians.

Mini-tips: After filing, double check by looking along the hands from the customer’s view to avoid the uneven nails from his/her perspective. Palm up the hand to check if adding or trimming the tips unevenly, and then filing briefly to make them balance before filing them into proper shape. After filing, palm ups the hand to recheck.  

When filing natural nails, choose a soft file (file with high grit number) to prevent tearing of the nail. A 240-grit is the most used file.

Keep the file straight when doing. If you use a back-and-forth sawing motion, the tips could be weaken and cracked.

For weak nails:

1.     If nails are dry, brittle and tend to break easily, skip soaking fingertips in soapy water before the manicure
2.     Do not file too far into two sides of a nail. It will weaken the nail causing breakage.

Techniques of filing nails:

1. File the tip of the nail, holding the file precisely perpendicular to the nail.
2. When filing the sides of the nail, hold the file parallel to the side of the nail. Don’t edge the file into the corner; this can encourage breakage.
3. Finally, soften or round the corners to create a desired shape by gently filing edges at a slight angle.

4. Filing nail seems to be a simple and basic thing that anyone can do. However, if we do not pay attention and are not careful enough, the nails would be ugly and breakable. Be careful when we do the manicure for the nails!

Attention: It is advised to file the shape briefly so it is faster to check the shape after dipping powder.

Hope them useful to you - the novices!

The American says « There are two things you cannot hide. One is the death. The second is the tax”. The death depends on each person’s destiny, but the tax – all the people have profits have to pay it before the 15^th April every year. When you declare your taxes, if you work for other people, you will receive the W-2 or 1099 with a clear state of how many you have earned during the year. So what are the differences of the two? And which one will be better for you? 

W-2 and 1099

Basically, everyone that receives W-2 already has his/her tax deductive after each payment, and after declaration of the taxes, it is most likely you will receive some of that money back. Those receive 1099 the tax deduction has not yet made after each payment. Thus, when you declare your taxes, you will have to pay to fulfill your responsibility with the U.S.

However, this is not just that simple. The paper you receive also reflects your employment: a salaried employee or an independent contractor, working on contracts. A salaried employee will benefit a certain rights that an independent contractor will not.

What are the rights ?

First of all, all the salaried employees must be paid at minimum wage or more. Currently the minimum wage in the U.S. is $7.25 / hour or $2.13 / hour if you work in a regular sector which you can receive tip from customers. Depending on the state and city you work, the minimum wage could be higher than that specified by the governor or the council. For example, the minimum wage in California is $ 8 per hour and it will increase to $ 9 per hour in July this year. In Northern California, San Jose's minimum wage is $ 10.15/ hour, and San Francisco's city is $ 10.74 / hour.

Secondary, hourly pay workers must be paid overtime for more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week in order not to be exploited. In addition, a formal employee has the right to rest and to rest. In California, employees must have 10 minutes of paid vacation after every four hours of work and 30 minutes of unpaid leave after every five hours of work.

In addition, employers are responsible for paying some funds to their employees. All firms, companies, and salon owners must pay half the Social Security tax for each employee, Unemployment Insurance and Workers' Compensation. And especially in Cali, they also pay to State Disability Insurance.

By listing out as above, it is to show that the official employees are entitled to many legal rights while those contractors are not protected at all. "Independent contractor" is not guaranteed a minimum wage, no overtime allowance, no guaranteed vacation or meal leave, and no employer-provided insurance coverage for all types of insurance in case he or she loses the job or loses the capacity of working for a while. The independent contractors' rights, if any, must be negotiated in the contract between the employee and the tenant.

Thus, because of this reason, there are many employers deliberately misrepresent the types of contract to their workers, treating their employees as independent contractors to evade responsibility towards the employees with the above benefits.

So why does the laws seem not to protect the rights of contractors, and why do some people choose to work in this way? Generally speaking, contractors are not protected by the law because independent contractors themselves are small businesses, and they sell their knowledge and skills to many different clients. A lawn mower can cut grass for many places; a brick lining professional can lining brickwork for many different houses; a manicurist can do nails in different salons; a taxpayer can file tax returns to many different people.

In these cases, the contractors have the right to negotiate the payment for each job, rights to accept or reject the job. They have the right to change and no one “owns” them. They work under contract and no one has right to manage them, as long as they work in line with the contract. Furthermore, independent contractors must be paid for the results, not their time. That is, if they finish a job fast, they can make more money.

Another advantage is that the contractor can assign the job to someone else, as long as that the job is completed as promised. A lawn mower can have workmen work for him, no need to cut the lawn himself. An independent manicurist may not go to the salon and ask for another person in the profession to replace him/her for a few days while the salon owner cannot do anything; since the owner only has the right to manage employees, not the right to manage the contractor Because they have full autonomy and negotiating powers, the law does not provide much protection for independent contractors.

Therefore, the type of work influences the rights. The two types of official employee and independent contractor have their own advantages and disadvantages. Employees must be managed, but given basic rights by law. Independent contractors must be self-supporting, not protected by law, but have autonomy. Suffering for the Vietnamese is that apparently many Vietnamese here do not know the differences. It is popular that many Vietnamese work as independent contractors without the legal rights as all salaried employees, but let the employers control and manage them as their employees.

We hope that everyone will check and act on the own’s rights.

Applying nail powder, even to the skilled and experienced technicians, there are times that a customer incidentally damages one or few nails. Sometimes, it is because the previous technician did not do it carefully enough. Of course in that case, we could not request the customer to re-make the whole nail set. Although fixing a nail is not paid well, it is a way to prove our skillfulness to strangers, or to keep our frequent customers. Below are some notices and repairing techniques of the powdered nails for the novices.

If the customer has recently made the set within a week but s/he cracks the nails, it is requested not to soak or remove the whole nail but to fix it only.

Remember: The skillful technician when repairing will ensure that the shape, the length and the color of the nail will be the same with the rest of the nails.

1. Horizontal cracked nail or cracked nail tips:

Cut it shorter

Use a sharp head diamond to slough down the powder, file it, attach tip and overlay powder to cover the whole nail.

2.Side-cracked and bleeding nail:

Rinse the blood with water, drop an antiseptic, softly wipe it dry, ADD GLUE to cover the crack, wait for it to dry. Use a sharp diamond side plough down the powder, file it and overlay powder to cover the whole nail.

3. White tip fractured:

Thin down the tip. While attaching a white tip, please pay attention to put it not too high. If the length is short, it is required to add clear tip first, and shorten it, round the clear nail and attach white tip into the edge of the clear tip. Until the new pink of the nail evenly with the pink of the rest then it meets the requirement.

Attention:

•          While cutting the tip, save some space for the file later, to ensure the nail will not be shorter than the rest.
•          If the customer is new, try to find the right color with the rest of the nails; or if s/he changes the color of the whole set - it is good. Do not repair without finding the color first.

1. Leave clean and dirty stuffs in one place

This is a common mistake. This could be due to lack of either awareness or carefulness; or it could be because he/she is too busy with work, thus s/he does not follow the rules properly.

It should be clearly understood that in the rules, it is required to put the clean and dirty in two different places (two boxes). Also there must be the label “clean” or “soiled/dirty” for each box. Otherwise, you will be fined from $100 up.

This is a mistake that happens quite frequent in nail salons. This is also a regrettable situation that easily leads to fine.

In fact, there are many technicians got fined because in their working box (considered as pretty new and decent) but it contains small white acrylic powder. It is such an unexpected situation.

2. Dip the wooden stick into wax more than one time

While waxing, be careful to avoid a stick (such as wooden stick) dipping into wax more than one time. Each time you have to use a new stick for waxing, according to the law.

The action of re-use the stick will be fined by the time it is recognized.

The nail technicians doing the waxing often do not pay attention to this case. The salon owner sometimes does not notice because of the thought of saving. It is not until the fine to be sorry about the small saving action, which leads to bigger issue.

3. Don’t hang the nail certificates at the working place.

The law requests that the nail certificates must be hang on the wall or an easy-to-see place in the salon.

No hanging (for any reasons) will lead to fines, which is a pity.

There was a case that a technician took out the certificate to change the frame but she forgot to bring it in the next day. She thought it was okay and worked as usual because there was only one day. However, there was unexpected inspection, and she was fined … She could only blame on her carelessness. Such kind of risk could happen anytime without any warning.

4. Don’t change frequently the disinfectants or don’t keep it clean

There are many technicians and nail salons got fined from the mistake. The disinfectant is not clean or there is a strange thing inside such as dust, nail or the color of the solution is dirty, all have the high risk to be fined. It should be noticed to change the antibiotic frequently and keep it clean.

If there is sign of uncleanliness, it must be stopped using and replaced immediately.

5. Don’t leave the lid on the cream or powder right after use

This is also a common mistake and a reason that many technicians and nail salons got fined. This happens often due to the carelessness or underestimating the action. 

Keep in mind that the contaminated dust, chemical vapors can cling into cream boxes or powders very quickly when we do not cover immediately. No need to mention its consequences yet. When the first inspection is assessed as not good hygiene, the possibility of fines is almost certain.

To sum up, these 5 common mistakes are deserved to pay more attention and put more carefulness to avoid the fines.

Co-workers we remind each other. Salon owners notice to remind the technicians when we see the mistakes, to protect ourselves and help the business develop more stable and safely.

With a not white and healthy nail set, women would be less confident because of its non – beauty and ugly appearance.

Good news: if your nails has signal to be gray along time or be dull due to the external effect, you can remedy this issue with bunch of simple methods.

Below is the instruction to whiten your nails. You can also apply this method for toenails.

Soaking nail into the major remover water

Fingernails have a lot of calcium and other ingredients as same as your teeth’s. Thus, teeth cleaner is also effective to your fingernails or toenails.

If you need, go ahead to a medicine store and buy some common teeth cleaning tablets, then melting one in warm water and lastly, put hands into this mix.

After 5 minutes, get hands out and wash by warm water.

You will not suffer from skin irritation or other problems because this kind of medicine is very safe for teeth, so do hands.

The best way is to use this some times per week to get the good result.

Whiten nails by using lemon and soap

It is very effective to use lemon for the nail whitening because of its strong acid. When your nails are darker due to banana or tomato or different kinds of pus, you can use lemon or kumquat to completely remove them from your nails.

With the combination between lemon and soap, it is such a very high – advanced method to get the better result.

The basic principle in this formula is to use the lemon to break the links among dirt, polish and nails, then soap will help to clear them all from your nail.

Use the vinegar

Vinegar is light acid chemical to remove the dirt on the hard surface of fingernails or toenails.

In this case, you had better use the vinegar because it does not have any pigment that can react and make your nails to be darker/ uglier.

Whiten the nails by toothpaste cream

As mentioned, the ingredients of the fingernails are the same as teeth’s. So you can use this cream to whiten your nails.

Use a little pea of cream for each nail surface. Then, use the brush to work slowly on each nail within 5 minutes before washing by warm water.

Repeat your duty for nails per week to get the highest result.

Use salt and lemon to whiten the nails:

Salt is considered as a basic chemical that can connect with lemon’s ingredient to remove any dirt on the very hard surface such as your fingernails.

Use some salt and pure lemon water with 1:1 ratio, stir into the mix in a bowl.

Use cotton pad to take some and apply on the nails that are needed to be white. It needs to keep this work during 5 minutes before washing by the warm water.