Good Morning hunny pie dumpling sugar foot! How are you today? I do hope you’re staying warm as the season is really starting to show its frosty side! Unless you stay in Florida, then well, I hope you get some of that fake Disney snow I love so much. Today I wanted to talk about nail critiques versus criticism. I think this is very important for as nail techs because it will help us grow. Let’s talk about how, and for reference I will use myself as an example. And lastly, as a disclaimer, this is a learning opportunity, not me putting ANYONE down or discrediting their work. Let’s begin.
When I first start doing nails I produced work like this, full of designs but no real clue on shape and structure. My cuticle work was crusty, and they were thick as bricks. I was still in nail school so of course I just produced whatever I thought was pretty. You come to find out, you learn all about that other stuffs later.
After nail school I began to practice more often, learning that each finger must be symmetrical to the next creating a cohesive set. This is very important, because each nail must be the same size, length, and shape as the next. No wonky fingers please. The best way to do this is to stop, look at the entire hand and ask yourself, does this finger match the one to the left, to the right, and the whole hand? If not, continue to shape before you apply decoration. This is how you can achieve a better look.
Now when you start to gain clients, that’s when you’ll receive more help, if you work for yourself and don’t have other techs to help guide you. Clients will give input such as shorter, longer, this one is crooked and so forth. Be patient, listen to them, they will make you better! You will not, once again, you WILL NOT HIDE MISTAKES WITH GLITTER! That’s a cop out and makes you seem unprofessional, jokes on you, they see incompetence, learn to do something and do it correctly. Much love, Madison.
After clients you’ll start to take classes. This is very important! Classes give you structured ways to do things, let’s discuss. When you take classes, they’ll teach you about filing the correct angle of a nail, apex position, encapsulation, and possibly photography. For free, I will tell you to: 1. stop having busy photos backgrounds, it makes it hard to focus on the nails, 2. stop holding everything, it’s distracting, 3. stop taking photos on towels, it’s not professional. And before you fight my critiques, remember how strongly you felt about DIY nail techs in the community and their unprofessionalism and capability of causing diseases? Well I’m telling you, the licensed professional, stop taking photos without proper lighting, and too much cuticle oil on the hand. It’s greasy, and should be rubbed in. Much love, Madison.
Now that you have gotten healthy critiques from taking classes, you have improved with practice, and also learned many techniques. Your nails should like the picture above. Because you as a licensed professional are capable of diagnosing your problem areas and attacking it. You have learned that backgrounds are noisy, and how much lighting plays a pivotal role in showcasing your best work!
Now here you are! With nails that are different like night and day! Wow! Who made those? It was you! Because time and perseverance showed you, you can do it! But you have to put in the effort and be willing to listen to others and know when you are being critiqued and not criticized. If someone ever comes to you and criticizes you, don’t get offended, say, well what you do on this set? How would you improve it?
Let me to you, I had a brand, tell me I could not use my ambassador logo for them because my nails were bad. I felt so offended, but I turned it around and said you know what? I’m gonna work harder to do better for you all and myself, and it paid off, because now I love the nails I do, I take my time, and I practiced to get where I am! And I am gonna continue to practice, so I can outdo my own self. My clients will be thankful, and so will my wallet when I charge higher prices. But the quality has to be there.
So let’s work on our nails, let’s take time to improve them, I see work on my Facebook and Instagram that’s absolute shit, but it’s not my place to tell you, hell my nails looked like shit, and I just simply practiced. but I’m glad I did, because I love to hear how good they look, I earned that. And you should too. So if you want healthy criticism you can always message me your nails, and I will gladly help you improve, for free, and at any time of day. If you want to post in my group, or even anonymously, you can. It’s a healthy space for constructive criticism, I want to see us all grow and be better. You deserve it. So I hope this helps you, just like it helped me. I’ll see you later sweets!
Well said!! ❤️💕