Is A Dip Manicure Bad For Your Nails

If you've e'er gone to the salon for a manicure, it'due south likely you've experienced the frustration of smudging your smooth earlier you even make it dwelling house, or having it flake ahead of the consequence for which you lot got your nails done, only because of the habiliment and tear of daily life.

Powder dip manicures — one of Pinterest'southward recent top trends — promise an enduring mani that won't fissure, and co-ordinate to manicurist Anna Csetri of Time to come Nail Sisters salon in Manchester, England , the Instagrammable tips have overtaken gel manicures in their popularity with clients.

"Almost 2 years agone we started to do dip powder and nobody went back to the gel," Cestri told HuffPost. "We still do gel equally well, but more often than not use the dip powder."

So what are the pros and cons of powder gel vs. regular gel manicures? The experts bankrupt information technology down for usa.

+1 for powder dip: At that place's no harmful UV light

Clients flock to powder dip manicures because they don't require UV calorie-free to dry like traditional gel varieties, Csetri said.

While the UV light "isn't a concern so much for [skin cancer nether the nail] because low-cal does not penetrate the nail very well," said Shari Lipner, a dermatologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian, "it is risky because y'all're exposing the tops of your hands to UV light that over the long term could exist very detrimental." A study from the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that during the gel manicure UV drying procedure, one'southward hands have in an energy dose equal to the daylong recommended limit for outdoor workers.

+ane for gel: A longer-lasting mani can exist damaging

Powder gels have garnered favor considering of how long they stay pristine. "It doesn't chip or break and information technology lasts longer than gel polish," Csetri said. "It lasts nearly three, four or even five weeks."

Merely Lipner pointed out that a manicure'southward extreme longevity can actually be a detriment. "You're covering up any issues that could be under the nail and information technology won't give you fourth dimension to check the nail," she said.

+1 for gel: Dipping nails into powder can cause bacterial infection

"Subsequently clients wash their hands, I push upwards the cuticle and trim the dead skin," Maryland nail technician and esthetician Kayla Nguyen explained of how she starts the process. "Then I make clean the nails to remove excess oil so the dip volition stick better. I'll shave, put the base gel, and and then dip the nail in the color the customer chose. Very thin, two times. The concluding coat is the clear glaze to protect the colour and afterwards the clear, I put on the activator to make the powder harden and dry out. After that, I volition shave a little chip. I utilise a very fine drill bit to smoothen them around the cuticle."

New York City dermatologist Michele Green said the initial pushing back of the cuticle in any manicure, gel or powder, could crusade initis (inflammation of a voluntary musculus) and/or infection. "They're pushing it back roughly," Light-green continued. "When I get a manicure, I e'er tell them, 'Don't push back.'"

Just the base of operations used in pulverisation manicures specifically can cause harmful reactions to the peel around the nails. "These systems apply cyanoacrylate (monomer), which tend to be a liquid or gel that's applied with a brush," New York dermatologist Dana Stern said. "These monomers are allergens and can cause redness, swelling and blistering of the skin surrounding the nail. Sometimes the smash bed volition burn or throb and so the boom will lift off and divide from the nail bed. The powder itself is less probable to cause an allergy, but it'due south still possible."

The deed of dipping one'southward nail into the aforementioned container of powder every bit other customers can spread infection, as well. "It's not like people's nails are fungus-costless or bacteria-costless before they dip them each time, so it's actually contaminated," Light-green said. "It spreads disease and bacterial infections."

If a customer's nails are brusque plenty, Nguyen will cascade the powder into a dissever, smaller container so that "everybody uses their own powder," she said. Lipner commended that technique equally "the all-time fashion" to employ the pulverization. "That, or pouring the powder onto the nail," she added. Unless yous plan to bring your own personal powder, "avert double dipping," Stern said. "If the salon doesn't provide individual dip containers, don't do information technology."

You might be wondering if traditional gel polishes will also spread bacteria, since yous're using the same brush on multiple clients. Simply a study by the Smash Manufacturers Quango of the Professional Beauty Clan found that "microbes do not survive in boom polish," so lacquers used during gel manicures exercise not raise a threat of giving users a bacterial infection, fifty-fifty when shared amid clients.

+one for gel: Powder dips require a harsher removal procedure

After weeks with a slick, unchipped manicure, it will eventually come time to remove the powder, which should be done at a salon. "They shouldn't utilize boom polish remover considering that doesn't soak at all. Information technology makes the pinnacle coat dull," Csetri said. "Nosotros use an east-file to take off the thickness and and so we soak it off with acetone."

The acetone process resembles that required to remove gel manicures. "We know from laboratory studies that soaking in acetone for long periods of time can thin out the nail and irritate the skin around the boom," Lipner said. "Y'all're basically losing many layers of your nail and so you wind up with a much thinner nail that'south weaker. It's more prone to breaking and splitting, which could be uncomfortable. Nearly people getting these gel pulverization manicures find that their nails are quite sparse and brittle."

Smash dehydration could as well result from the acetone used to accept off gel and pulverisation manicures. "Acetone soaks are extremely dehydrating to the blast and cuticle and tin can cause brittleness," Stern said, adding that the additional filing chemical element of pulverization removal poses business too. "Aggressive removal with filing or scraping the surface of the smash tin outcome in nail plate thinning and consequential weakness."

To continue nails moisturized, Nguyen recommends her clients use cuticle oil nightly earlier bed. "Night is a good time for the vitamins to absorb," she said. Lipner said petroleum jelly works for the same purpose.

Last conclusion: Traditional gel manicures pose fewer health threats

While the use of acetone to take off both gel and powder dip manicures puts one at equal adventure for dehydrated, brittle nails, the added utilize of an electronic file during removal, forth with the possibility of bacterial infection from sharing powders and potential allergic reactions to the base of operations used in pulverisation dip manicures makes them more dissentious to nails and skin than gels. "I like powder too considering your nails look so adept and the shine doesn't come up off, simply it'due south worse for your nails," Greenish said of how powder dips stack upward against gel manis.

Ultimately, anyone because incorporating pulverisation dip manicures into their routine should pay attention to how their nails react to the process.

"If yous're tolerating the awarding of frequent dips and your nails don't look dry out, stripped and brittle, then there's no reason to alter your routine," Stern said. "If you lot are seeing damage then limit enhancements to a maximum of in one case monthly. Just like skin care, your smooth will perform better if your sheet is healthy, smooth, exfoliated and vibrant."

You heard her: Stay vibrant.