Can Shellac damage nails? Nail technician explains what happens

Even though you Prep amzn.to/3POz3yY gently and remove it gently damage can happen. In this video I will show you how.
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[@cherylsykes660]

Several years ago, I learned that my thin, weak, and very “ridgy” nails are healthier without any type of polish. Dazzle Dry is not as damaging, but still some damage, so in the past year since discovering your channel, I’ve used 2 tubes of Kerasol, oil applications several times daily, and very gentle pushing of the living skin. My natural nails look better than ever and for me, I’ve embraced the totally bare nail look in exchange for damage free, healthy nails.

[@fromscratcheewithstef]

This happens to me, too, sometimes with gelish polish removal after 7-10 days. I also LOVE that you go back to even the previous removal!! You are a science channel now.

[@rynfiaryn]

I have a client that gets these damaged white spots with Dazzle Dry. I'm pretty sure it's from leaving it on too long since it doesn't chip, similar to Shellac. She, unfortunately, is in the care of her daughter due to being 91 years old and disabled, so her daughter decides when she comes to see me. I saw her this past weekend after 2 months and her poor nails were so damaged. The polish was perfect, if a bit discolored, but as she uses a sheer color, you could see the white spots through it and she told me someone complimented her "nail art" because they were so prominent. Because of her age, mild memory issues and physical disability, she can't do regular polish as it will get messed up before it can dry, so the Dazzle Dry has been amazing for her and her natural nails are very strong, thick and beautifully shaped. I just wish her daughter would take the time to bring her in more often... ☹️ I'm not sure if there's anything I can do to help the situation seeing her so infrequently.

[@sherric7860]

I found you from my search for the reasons behind the white marks/spots (not nail bruises) on my nails. I searched on and off for years and couldn’t find the answers. I knew the spots/marks were from wearing polish because I am too lazy to polish my toe nails in the winter. White marks grow out in the winter and come back when I start polishing again. I also don’t get white spots on my fingernails if I don’t wear polish. I learned from you that the white marks/spots are surface damage from wearing polish. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you talking and educating about surface damage. It was such a relief to me to learn it wasn’t just I who got them and that they are surface damage. Thank you so much, Anna!! I have learned that gel, acrylic, regular polish, etc can be applied, worn, and removed perfectly and some people get surface damage. They can also get more than just surface damage. It doesn’t always happen due to bad application or removal but just because of something with their body chemistry and the way their nails react. Some people can wear any kind of nail enhancements they want and it doesn’t damage their nails at all.

[@TheSalonLife]

Exactly, 100%. I'm not talking about it or doing videos about it to badmouth the companies or the products. Just to show people what are the pros and cons so they can make educated decision if they want to use certain products or not. I also don't like when nail techs get blamed automatically for the damage or the clients for using their nails etc. It's a complicated situation where many things can contribute to this. And yes, I had clients who peeled off the product from their nails and their nails were absolutely fine and still super strong. And then I had clients whose nails started breaking and peeling after 2 back to back manicures with Dazzle Dry. It happens.

[@Marta_Maeldeis]

I love how you break down this video like a detective. Surprisingly my thin bendy nails never get white spots or surface damage with Shellac - it's very interesting how different nail types behave with gel polish systems.

[@TheSalonLife]

This just happened recently with this client after a year and a half of wearing Shellac. Mind you, since I think I switched to Wear Extender she wears it for a month each time. I don’t think it’s base coat related really. This happens with the original base as well.

[@HelenMitchell-vw9jb]

You are the first person who actually has the answers for people like me, whi have weak , brittle, ridged nails. Realistic honest caring advice. Amazing. 15th December 2023

[@1heatdish]

I’m truly upset. My whole life I had long, beautiful nails I manicured myself, using only regular polish or no polish. I decided to try a salon and got fooled into trying shellac, I need cheater glasses and thought I’d treat myself. I had no idea what it was. Because it lasted, I had a total of 4 manicures and my nails are now ruined. Damaged, splitting, gouged by the electric file. I’m so glad I found your channel when I went looking for answers. It will take a year to regrow what I had, but your advice is helping me learn. Never again.

[@daughterofsekhmet81]

Same here. I've always done my own nails but got talked into getting a salon mani with a friend. The salon absolutely destroyed my nails, and to add insult to injury they charged me an extra $10 for a third coat of shellac to even out the numerous bald spots. I left $60 poorer with sore cuticles, paper-thin nail beds, nails filed to the quicks when I told her not to shorten them, and one of the sloppiest, bumpiest, butt-ugliest gel polish applications I've ever seen. It looked like a 5 year old did my nails. Thank god they grow fast so it only took about 3-4 months for the damage to grow out but I definitely learned my lesson. Never setting foot in a salon ever again!

[@sallywilton2236]

Happened to me too. My previously rock hard nails are so soft and damaged since I let a technician remove shellac with a drill. Never ever again.

[@YamIa3gypsy]

Even my dazzle dry doesn’t last more than a week. The minute I see a tiny chip I remove the polish. Been embracing the natural look, no longer cutting my nails or PNF using jojoba oil and weekly manicures. But as someone who loves colors, textures and fabrics I am always attracted to all those colors for nails. I could sit for hours and peruse your awesome collections of colors in your salon. It usually is several things not one that can create damage to our nails. Good of you to point this out so well. Thank you, Anna! 🌸V

[@TheSalonLife]

Thank you so much Vicky!

[@NinaRibenaMixedMedia]

I have naturally soft and bendy nails. They have always been this way despite a healthy diet. I will never have gel nails again as each time I have tried, I have been left with damage that takes months to grow out. Thanks to your channel my nails have never been stronger and healthier. I have been using cuticle oil after every hand wash and hand cream regularly and my nails are in great condition. I will now only ever use ‘gel type’ polishes, and find the CND ones with their base coat, last for well over a week without chipping. For a more natural look I use Nails Inc Glow Naturale which I think is fabulous, and also Dior Abricot base coat which I love and looks great with the Nails Inc Glowing My Way on top. Have also recently purchased Nailberry Açai Nail Elexir and hate it! I find it sticky and difficult to apply and chips within a day or two.

[@sandrahardisty341]

I’ve worn shellac for years and also had gels and dips. I’ve sworn off all of it. Now just polish. Much better.

[@sallywilton2236]

Love your honesty.

[@elizabethkessler6664]

Love you using gauze to scrub the nail. It really works better than cotton balls.

[@suebabe100]

Hi Anna, I have strong nails, however, I tried gel polish and my thumb nail separated. I'm sticking to regular polish.

[@ievalibeka8171]

I'm years from being able to use gel nail polish, but this was very interesting (and will help to resist temptation). Thank You :)

[@Dannii20-zm1bl]

I have the exact same thing happen to my nails. I use the wear extender base coat and I remove the Shellac every 2 - 3 weeks. The first removal I noticed yellow staining of the nails and surface damage, but I couldn’t find any evidence of this happening to anyone else. I use the full CND system and lamp, but I don’t use Offly Fast to remove, I just use acetone. This is clearly a rare occurrence because I haven’t seen this happen on other nails, but it’s good to see a video that shows this can happen.

[@shannon5142]

I used to go to the salon. People raved about shellac nails. I tried it for almost a year. Fresh application every two weeks. Used my cuticle oil as directed. And on my last shellac removal was horrified at how bad my nails had become…I had the white spots on my nails. I refused shellac after that and started using Vinylux polish. Then I started back doing my own nails and never went back to a salon again. I’ve used gel polish at home and never got the white spots. However I never constantly wore gel polish. I would take breaks with no polish or apply regular polish like OPI, Essie, and etc. Could wearing the shellac for long periods of time with no “break” be a cause of the white spots? My nail tech was always gentle with me because I have sensitive nails.

[@shelleyj3704]

Did the client decide to take a break from gel? It looks like the damage is a bit worse each time. (Gotta say I'm VERY jealous of her gorgeous nails and hands!)

[@TheSalonLife]

No, and the damage is pretty superficial. We will see how the nails are next time. I might do IBX Treatment. Ideally I would do IBX and then a break. We might do Dazzle Dry maybe... we will see what she says.

[@sylwiaSings]

@@TheSalonLife Does she think about coming back to you after 2 weeks instead of a month, because of the damage?

[@sarchstar]

This was so interesting. My nails damage sooo easily and it's interesting to know that it can be the product itself.

[@TheSalonLife]

Or even more precisely, wearing of the product

[@alicepicci7648]

Important question: can I hydrate the nails with oil and cream also with a nail polish/gel on the nails? Will it be effective anyways? Many compliments for your channel❤❤❤

[@Mir_Nohti]

I have always had very weak, chippy/flakey and bendy trapezoidal ski jump nails. Polish cannot stay. Gel polish only has a few days if unstructured. It's hereditary. All the women on my father's side of the family seem to have the same nails. My aunt even made the comment when I was 12 that I had 'worker' hands/fingers/nails like the rest of the family, her included. Because I enjoy long nails, I now use Kokoist Mega Stick soak-off base after a very minimal prep (light scratches with 180 sponge buffer followed by 90% alcohol, no other primers.) I have nerve issues in my hands, so it sometimes takes me several days to do my nails and I really do very little else since I cannot feel my fingers/hands. If I do have occasion to ram a finger into something, the base is forgiving and will release without taking my nail bed with it. The base also releases very easily with acetone, but I honestly try not to do a lot of soaking off out of general principle to save hand pain. I am a strong adherent to pushing back the proximal and side folds and keeping cuticle moisturized with lotion/oil/cream/Kerasal and thus avoid the very nasty skin tear 'hang nail' things I used to get secondary to very serious endocrine and hormonal changes. (Thank you, Anna. 🥰) When I do my fills (every 10 days or so because I have a very short nail bed,) I note my nail health and have noticed that no matter what, there is this type of flaking you are seeing with your Shellac clients. I think that the longer the semi-occlusive gel material stays in contact with the nail, the nail seems to be losing moisture, despite my borderline obsessive compulsive use of oils and moisturizers. For me, I could do a full acetone removal at any time for hospitalization needs and know my natural nails would really not be perfect, but would also not be super damaged. It's just the trade off that I consciously make to have the longer nails I prefer seeing on my hands. It isn't the technician necessarily. I just think, as with most medications, you 'break' something to 'fix' something else and nail decoration products are not exempt. Most things in life are some kind of trade off, I have found. It isn't your fault. Thank you again for all you do and share. 😍🥰❤

[@ajhenry9943]

Mir, I think you have a wonderful attitude. Others might give up but you will not. Bless you.

[@TheSalonLife]

Thank you so much for sharing Mir!!

[@Mir_Nohti]

@@TheSalonLife 🥰💝

[@sity2024]

Thanks to your advice and videos, I was able to regrow my nails that suffered from virtually all the damages that you show in your various videos. My nails were so ruined after having shellac applied to them only twice during the last summer. Using Jojoba-oil soaks, treating the cuticles, pushing them back gently, filing when necessary, my nails are in much better shape presently. Some of my cuticles still tend to be very dry and overgrowing unfortunately, therefore I keep a small container of Jojoba-oil and a brush in the kitchen and oil my nails/cuticles numerous times per day. Since my nails still tend to tear quickly (usually my thumb or index finger nail), I was advised to use a calcium-gel (a Peggy Sage product) which I apply on the nails without touching the cuticles. I wonder what you think about it. I just want to make sure that the wonderful progress is not jeopardized again by a tear. Thanks again for your great inputs!

[@carolinecameron5710]

Wow amazing, thanks Anna 💅🏻👏🏻

[@TheSalonLife]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@Marta_Maeldeis]

Unrelated - your hair looks so healthy and vibrant. Are you using a new colour?

[@TheSalonLife]

Ah thank you! :). I use a box color from Deliplus. I should be a spokesperson for them lol. I just colored my hair and it always looks better when freshly done (with expensive hair color too) I do my roots every 3 weeks because I have to. Now every second time I water down the developer and I pull it through for few minutes. I also use Olaplex every weekend. It really helps manageability of the hair. I can brush my hair now very easily.

[@Marta_Maeldeis]

@@TheSalonLife It looks professionally done 👍

[@veronikajschroers]

Thank you for this video, it's great information! Do you think the damage to the nails would be less if the product was removed at 2 weeks as recommended instead of waiting the 4 weeks? Or do you think that would only simplify the removal and the damage would still be there?

[@TheSalonLife]

I think a bit less. Same with leaving polish on the toenails for 3 months. When you remove it by even obviously wiping it off there will be white spots, uneven surface = surface damage.

[@JDB2308]

Thank you so much! I've been looking for info and you sure deliver. I have a question, my nails are hard and sometimes I get these v shaped chips and they peel. I'm wanting to take your advice and do warm oil treatments that you have mentioned in several previous videos. Could you list a recipe that I can mix up at home of the different oils to use? I see where you name different ones to add to jojoba, but in what amounts? Thank you so much.

[@julieuthe7745]

What happens when you remove gel polish by just peeling it off?

[@TheSalonLife]

You will peel off the layer of nail that the gel polish is bonded to 😢

[@marinaalba1707]

I do know for a fact that if I leave shellac on my nails for more than two weeks my nails will suffer, usually from surface damage. Also I need to allow my nails to rest in between services for, at least, a couple of weeks. My nails can’t handle non stop shellac.

[@irynaharchevska4066]

Does your client has psoriatic arthritis? Could be flare of psoriasis

[@TheSalonLife]

No, she doesn't. Her nails are perfect now, the damage grew out. It's a surface damage from extended gel polish wear.

[@daughterofsekhmet81]

I will NEVER use gel polish ever again. My husband and I moved last year and I knew I wouldn't have any time to do my nails for a few weeks(I usually do them with regular polish 2-3 times a week), so I did a gel manicure so they'd be presentable till we got settled in. I only wore the gel for about 2.5 weeks, and my nails were _wrecked_ when I took it off. I soaked it off properly, I hadn't even buffed them before putting it on, but my previously perfectly healthy nails looked just like this lady's. Not worth it at all, if I know I won't be able to do my nails for a few weeks in the future I'll just leave them bare.

[@iahorvath]

Would you recommend taking a break between shellac applications to give nails time to recover? eg. days/weeks/months?

[@TheSalonLife]

Hello :) Nails can't really recover because they are dead ;) So for this to go away completely it would take about 4 months until the damaged part has time to grow out. It would be better to prevent this from happening by using oil on a regular bases (ideally after each hand wash, just a tiny bit) to plasticise the coating, also to keep the nails without any product on for 1-2 days and doing warm oil soak. That is not something that can be really done in a salon setting (adds to the cost and how many times you go to the salon) Ideally really the client would be able to remove Shellac 1-2 days before next appointment but usually clients cause even more damage. I don't know if there is a solution really. The reason why I'm talking about it is to show what can be a "side effect" of wearing gel polish and although gel polish looks good it can weaken the natural nail. It doesn't strengthen it really. I'm not saying Shellac is bad, but people need to be aware of these issues.

[@tinyme2428]

I always had GORGEOUS nails naturally but enjoyed length which with natural nails would lead to curling. Over the years techs have become less about the craft and more about squeezing in as many clients as possible. I gave one a chance after great reviews and recommendations…4 visits…every time i returned for a gel manicure at the 3 week mark yet another nail broken that she would glue with dip and paint over with gel. After noticing it with 4 nails and that she wasnt soaking and wrapping and removing appropriately but rather just shaving the gel off with the electric tool i said enough was enough. Stopped getting manicures in August of 2023, my nails despite the gel were splitting down the middle VERTICALLY. Within this past month two of them now have a single notable vertical ridge. I am DEVASTATED that the gorgeous shape my nails used to have and ridge free seem to be a thing of the past. People have told me the trauma they underwent by the last nail tech is irreversible. Any tips at all?!? Im constantly keeping them as short as possible in fear of more ridges developing but the shapes also seem forever changed. I’m in my 30s now.

[@sunnyrasa4315]

My nail salon also was just shaving off the shellac without any acetone. My nails are completely destroyed after 3 rounds. Could be age related, but this is so much worse than the damage I had from gel polish 10+ years ago. Though I would try again, but no luck :(

[@WalkTheVillage]

Hi. It's not actually about shellac related, but could I ask whether Powder dip nails are damaging? Apologies, wasn't too sure where to post this.

[@TheSalonLife]

Anything can be damaging. It has more to do with the application, wear and removal, less with the product. Please check this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHq3iGWQgtWfopI

[@WalkTheVillage]

@@TheSalonLife Excellent that's fantastic. Thank you so much. I am starting to realise that less is definitely more. My cuticles are very angry since I have just put clear on as I don't tend to wear polish very often. Your channel is wonderful thank you!❤️

[@serhataganer335]

I have another kind of question... is it safe to apply Shellac to someone who had chemo about 6 months ago?

[@TheSalonLife]

Hello Serhat. She should ask a doctor. Also I would only work on nails that look normal and healthy. I had a client who went through chemo and didn't have any issues with her nails. Her doctor said it was ok to keep getting her nails done (I was using CND Shellac).

[@serhataganer335]

@@TheSalonLife Ok, yes her nails are looking healty too. Her doctor said no problem to do so... but I have had a discussion with other nail techs and they say absolutely not! So I got confused... If the nails were thin and brittle I would not do it.. but they are in good condition and she doesnt have any adhesion problems... So I figured I ask you. Thanks for your answer

[@nailcreationsamanda]

This is what I see on my gel polish clients. When I try to get them to take a break for a week or switch to a harder product that I "fill" they don't want to. After that, it's just manicurist getting blamed for damage when it's all part of nails and what you must do at home.

[@TheSalonLife]

True but I don't think harder products are better either. In theory they seem better but in reality people bang the nails around creating pockets and lifting and peeling or free edge separation. Then we have to fix it and guess what? When we remove the product it will come off with layers of their nails that were stuck to the product. But OK, we hope they will be more careful. But it happens over and over again and more and more nail is removed. This is why you end up often just redoing the whole surface. People don't come back when the product still looks good (has a good bond). They only usually come back when there is lifting, breaks, pockets and separation. It was so frustrating for me I stopped doing gel altogether. I realised that clients come to the salon because they want the care part to be done by us because they can't be bothered. People who really care for their nails usually have nice nails and they don't end up in a salon. That is my sad experience ;)

[@ioanacazacu1266]

Something very simillar happens to my nail surface with regular polish. I don't even buff the damiged surface, just oil it and repolish the next day. My nails are naturally soft and bendy, but I manage to keep the polish on, with no or very-very little chipping, for 6 days. I thought polishing only once a week would help minimizing that surface damage... Do you think I should not keep the polish for 6 days? Is that too long for regular polish?

[@TheSalonLife]

6 days should be fine but it really depends on the person. It's very rare but some people don't do well even with nail polish. It also depends what you do after you remove the polish. Warm oil soak would help to plasticise the nail. Also if your nails are naturally very bendy and soft maybe a hardener would help? If you have doubts please check out the service I provide: www.thesalonlife.ca/services

[@ioanacazacu1266]

Thank you!!!

[@shirley-ann7164]

Mabye she had the shellac/gelpolish to long on her nails. Hopefully next time she will have less nail damage