Four Weeks of Wear Is an Architecture Problem
Doing nails since 2008. Teaching since 2015.
Educator, American Nail Artists Association.
IBIA, Level 5 Judge
International Nail Judge (Nail Challenge, Teora Beauty, Pro Beauty).
Founder of Alphora Nails in Sausalito, California.
I judge nail championships, so I spend a lot of time looking closely at other people’s work. Here are three short lessons on the hard gel structure I build at my own table, and the tool list that goes with it. Watch them, download the list, take what’s useful — there’s nothing to sign up for.
The tools
The kit I use to reinforce a short soft square: rubber base against hard gel, what flexible and rigid actually do to retention, and the bits you’ll need for the demo further down. Five minutes.
The structure
On a short square, lifting is a lever problem. Where the apex sits decides whether the corners hold for four weeks — so I draw the reinforcement on paper before it goes anywhere near a hand. Five minutes.
The demo
One nail, start to finish: how I lay the hard gel down, how I file the square, and the filing from underneath that keeps it looking thin from every angle. Twelve minutes.
The tool list
Every bit, the lamp, the prep liquids, and the reason I reach for each one. Not a wish list — there’s a budget option next to the professional one, down to a $120 machine, because your hands matter more than what the machine cost.
Some links in that list are affiliate links — I may earn a commission, your price doesn’t change, and your code still applies. The two budget picks earn me nothing. I’m also a brand ambassador for Gel Point, and I only list what I use at my own table.
Student work
Work by people I’ve taught. Look at the sidewalls, and at where the apex sits.
There were prices on this page until recently. I took them off. I’d built a course page before I’d asked anyone what should be in it — that’s the wrong order, so I’m asking now.
Four questions
Everything above is yours — that’s the end of it, nothing to fill in.
If you have a minute, I’d like to ask you four questions. I’m trying to work out whether to build a course, and what would have to be in it if I do, and I’d rather hear that from people doing the work than guess at it.
There may be no course. I haven’t recorded anything, and if the answers say it isn’t needed, I won’t. If there is one, it’ll be a paid course — I’m not going to pretend otherwise.