00:00Hello everyone! Big hello to you all! Alena Lavrentieva is here with you, and these are
00:04my mom's nails, which haven't had any gel polish on them for seven months. As you can see, the
00:10natural nail pattern has fully restored, they've grown out, and traditionally we have one super
00:15super glued together finger, and honestly that's the one we'll be dealing with today. Notice that
00:20the cuticle is glued down so tightly that it's not even clear where exactly, well, where it ends
00:26and where the nail begins. So we're going to do everything very gradually and very carefully.
00:32I did this manicure for her at home, so I didn't have many tools with me. Basically,
00:37I had to use an orange stick, and I don't really like orange sticks when it comes to
00:42this kind of stuck-down cuticle because they don't work quite the way I'd like them to.
00:46But nevertheless, if you work carefully and if you proceed gradually, then the cuticle line already
00:53emerges and takes shape. And right about at this point, you can already notice that the grow zone,
01:00that is the lunala area, is very very soft on my mom. So if you press on it just a
01:04little,
01:05the nail will grow out wavy. She even had this happen at one point. When she did her own nails
01:10and pushed her cuticles back too hard, her thumbnail was always wavy like that. But time has passed,
01:15and she knows now, of course, that you shouldn't do that, and usually I'm the only one who does her
01:19manicure.
01:20Well, to be honest, I kind of slacked off for seven months. But still, now, she doesn't have issues like
01:26that,
01:27of course. But I want to show how this stuck area behaves from here, and basically, I'll be showing
01:32the entire manicure on this stump specifically. And I didn't speed up this part with pushing back the cuticle,
01:38I didn't cut anything out here, meaning I showed it to you in its entirety. It took a little over
01:43a minute,
01:44maybe a minute 15, a minute 20 seconds, and now we apply the talc. As always, I'm using talc. Thank
01:51goodness, I have it both at work and at home. And now, a super super close-up shot. Here we
01:56have a
01:57flame bit with a red band. I would have taken a yellow one, but again, I just used what I
02:01had at home.
02:02And pay attention to the fact that all the work is done almost without touching the nail. I try not
02:07to touch
02:08or put any pressure on the nail. I managed to say that, yes. I try not to apply any pressure
02:14at all,
02:14because I understand that one wrong move and there will be, well, a hole or a ridge. And right now,
02:21right in the very center, you can see that the adhesion is still there, present. That is,
02:27you can clearly see how a piece of the nail plate and the cuticle are fused together. And on the
02:33rest of
02:34the fingers, notice that everything is more or less fine, yes? The cuticle is thin, but it pushes
02:39back much better there. But the thumb is always like this. I sped up the nipper part a bit here,
02:45because the main focus is still on the cuticle. I trimmed it, specifically with nippers, which is
02:50important because nippers provide the highest possible cut. I went over it again with an orange
02:55wood stick. But I don't aim to create some huge pocket here. I'm just trying to even out this line,
03:01because, well, if it adds up like that, a dimple or whatever, how should I put it along the cuticle,
03:06in short, if there's a dip like that in its line. Of course, during application, well, it might lift
03:11right in the middle. I'm doing a very light manicure, very, very gentle, since it hasn't been done in a
03:16long time. And on thin skin, on a thin cuticle. I don't recommend buffing the lateral folds to a high
03:22shine, just go ahead and degrease and everything is fine. Thank God I have at least some colored
03:28decorative gels at home. So, in our case, there was a gel from Butyx with flakies like that,
03:33and the base, my base here is from Runeil, and it's low acid, which means it's super, super gentle.
03:39And the moment when a client, for instance, has gone without coating for a long time,
03:43that's the exact moment when you can introduce an acid-free or low acid base,
03:48then everything will be fine. If you apply such a base on damaged nails, you most likely get lifting.
03:53And next we have gel. Well, it's a wonderful gel. It somehow ended up at my place from some unboxing,
03:59and thank God it stayed there. Because, well, I don't know, to me, it's a great option. Wait,
04:04didn't I tell you? I'm doing my mom's nails for the seaside. She's going on vacation with my kids,
04:09so basically they'll be relaxing, soaking up the sun and all that. So, I think that some sparkle and a
04:14milky shade is exactly what's needed. Because she'll have to wear these nails for a month. That is,
04:19they're leaving for a month, and only when they get back will I be able to redo them for her.
04:24And here I'm showing the gel build. I haven't filed the nails yet, and right now it's such a humped,
04:29unattractive little finger. But through filing, right now I'm showing how I position the file.
04:34I mean, the whole point is just that we bring the nail file in from underneath, and we get
04:38everything done pretty quickly. By the way, I did these nails in an hour. This is a typical average
04:44client manicure. Plus, I was also filming, so I could have done it even faster, because there's
04:48absolutely nothing to do here. It was super fast and super easy, so to all the haters whining about
04:54the nail structure being wrong or whatever, guys, I'm going to disappoint you right now. This is
04:59standard normal average architecture. The side walls aren't dipping down, which is already good. We
05:05slightly lifted them, did a quick light filing, and now we're sealing it with a top coat. This is exactly
05:11what you call a standard client manicure. For comparison, I'm showing the filed hand versus the
05:16unfiled hand. You can clearly see it now. So, I didn't waste time filing at the beginning, and I
05:21only file after the application. I filed everything down. Now both hands are done, and I'm just applying.
05:27The usual, cuticle oil. Applying it as usual. That was actually a lotion I had there, so it's a
05:33very light texture, because a lot of people, by the way, ask why there's so much lotion, why so much
05:36space for lotion, and so on. Well, to each their own, right? I mean, obviously, in the summer, you don't
05:41want
05:41greasy textures, and this gives us just the right kind of hydration. And we're filming, well, we just
05:47stepped out onto the terrace, filming in the sun, showing how the gel looks. I think it's a very
05:51popular shade, milky with flakes inside. Super cool.
