Alina Symonenko | Nails |📍Warszawa
💅 18 years of perfect nails | Educator 🇺🇦
🏆 8-time Ukrainian champion
📜 Certified Akzentz instructor
❤️ My clients become my friends
📍 Warsaw | Center
Let me say this first: I am not telling you off. I know exactly how it happens. One nail catches on a jumper, the product lifts, you pick at it without thinking — and after that your hand does the rest on its own. By the evening all ten are bare, and in the morning you look at them and feel silly. Below I explain why you should not peel gel polish off yourself, even when it is “coming off anyway”.
So let us be precise about what you actually peeled off.
Why you should not peel gel polish off
When you peel gel polish off, the top layer of the nail plate comes with it. That is why the nail...
When a nail tech arrives at my course with a case of twenty bits, I usually know what comes next: half of them are never used, and the other half are used the wrong way. So we start with something simple — what each shape actually does. Let us start with the simple question: which nail drill bits do you actually need.
Nail drill bits: what you actually need
Nail drill bits come down to six shapes — and that covers 90% of the work. Below, what each one is for and what RPM to run it at.
The basic set that covers 90% of the work
Cone (truncated cone)
The main bit for lifting the pterygium...
I hear this question almost every day. “Alina, do I need extensions or is strengthening enough?” And the answer almost never depends on trends. It depends on the state of your nails right now and on how you live. So let us settle it calmly: extensions or strengthening for your hands.
Extensions or strengthening: the short answer
Extensions or strengthening is decided by the state of your nails and how often you can come in, not by trends. Both options are covered below.
The terms first
Strengthening means working on your own nail plate. I apply a denser base or a gel and build a thin but...
The most common question from people who are only thinking about entering the profession. So let us count honestly what nail tech startup costs look like in Poland.
And the most common mistake in the answers is quoting a single number. Because the number depends entirely on what you buy and in what order.
So: not a number, a list. In three parts.
Nail tech startup costs: the short answer
Nail tech startup costs depend on where you plan to work. Below are three levels of spending and the items you should never cut.
What you cannot start without
Cutting instruments. Nippers, scissors,...
When the coating lifts on one client, it happens. Let us go through the causes of lifting one by one, from the most common to the least obvious.
When it lifts on half of them, it isn’t the clients. It’s the system.
Over years of working and teaching I have narrowed this down to six causes. They cover almost every case nail techs bring me.
Causes of lifting: the six most common
Almost all causes of lifting come down to nail prep rather than to the product. Here are the six I see most often.
1. Incomplete preparation
The most common one. The plate isn’t evenly buffed; shiny patches remain...
Nobody likes asking about this out loud. They should. Below is a simple way to judge whether nail salon hygiene is where it should be.
I teach sterilisation protocols to nail techs, so I see from the inside how it actually works. Let me be blunt: the difference between salons here is enormous, and it has nothing to do with price or how nice the interior is.
Here is what you can check yourself. It takes no time and requires no special knowledge.
Nail salon hygiene: what to look at first
Nail salon hygiene shows itself in the first five minutes: the pouch is opened in front of you, files are...
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