Fashion is no longer just clothes and accessories. Nails made their place and set trends with seasonal colors that accompany the four seasons and designs of all kinds that put a personal stamp on them.
This trend that began in Korea, continued in the United States, reached Europe and is now also installed in Latin America leads to more Uruguayan women opting for gel enamel or permanent enamel every day. Proof of this are the hairdressers and places especially dedicated to beautifying the nails.
Its long duration and the immediacy of the finished service that is achieved when leaving the salon with the nails already dry make them an ideal solution to avoid wasting time and show off perfect hands.
The technique is achieved by alternating the application of semi-permanent nail polish with drying in a special lamp (LED or UV) and finished with a sealing product.
With more than 20 years of experience in the field of manicures, OPI consultant and owner of two beauty shops, Virginia Bascans, realizes that this permanent nail polish boom really began before the pandemic, then went down and since August last year to date grew again. “A year ago, 60% of our services were in gel, today they are 90%,” describes her Bascans. In addition, 40% of its billing is explained by these services.
The owner of Amen Nail, a spa that has nails among its main service, Ximena González, tells Coffee & Business that permanent enameling is one of the most requested services and represents 40% of the services they perform. “A month we do more than 250 permanent enamels at the Montevideo location,” says González, who also has a salon in Punta del Este. That is to say that only at their location in the capital they do eight permanent enamels per day.
Utopia has been working in the spa business for eight years, 40% of the services it offers in this area – it also works as a hairdresser – responds to gel manicures. “Of 10 clients, eight opt for the semi-permanent,” describes Johanna Menéndez, one of the owners. “Our salon was one of the first to start with semi-permanent manicures and over the years they adopted it. Seven years out of 10, one did it,” she recalls. Today they have four manicurists working daily and do about 20 services of this type per day.
In the market there is a great diversity of options for permanent enamel and the quality of the products impacts both the final result and the price and also the possible effects that this practice may have on the health of the skin.
For example, On the online sales platform Mercado Libre, six semi-permanent gel polishes can be obtained for $1,690 and a 120-watt UV LED lamp can be purchased for $899 or less.. “Sometimes people who are clients of gel nails are not aware of what products they are using, so it is good to inform them,” says Bascans.
At a professional level other prices are handled. Bascans, for example, has six active lamps and they are worth between $400 and $500 each. “The other brands are UV, not Led, it may be that some are Led, but they do not have the quality of this product”, he underlines.
The cost of the procedure also varies according to the quality of the products used, which means that a wide variety of prices can be seen in the market, starting from $500.
“The nail is a part of the body that we must take care of as much as the face and it is essential to use high-quality products, in our salon the costs are around $1,100,” says the Amen specialist. The same price drives Virginia Bascans.
In this last salon from $1,100 to $3,500 there are options, for example, nails with semi-permanent acrylic enamel or nail art.
Meanwhile, in the case of Utopia, the cost varies between $700 and $1,000, depending on the brand chosen.
Differences with traditional enamel
“The main characteristics of this enamel are: durability (from 15 to 20 days), shine and immediate drying (60 seconds and you’re ready)”, says González; this is achieved due to the fact that the components are different from those of a classic enamel.
Regarding the care that must be taken when carrying out this type of procedure, the owner of Amen affirms that they have verified that it is “much healthier” to carry out two or three permanent enamels in a row and then rest using a strengthener to to provide nutrients to the nail. “That also depends a lot on each person and the” resistance “of the nails there are internal factors of the person that cause you to have weak nails, so there must be other care,” she says.
Bascans is an OPI consultant and in this brand there are three alternatives: traditional enamel, an intermediate line that has a finish similar to gel, but does not use a drying lamp, and permanent gel enamel, the most requested by clients.
skin damage
The relationship between ultraviolet radiation and skin cancer has been demonstrated. The dermatologist and former secretary of the Uruguayan Society of Dermatology, Pablo Pera, explains that drying lamps for nail treatment use ultraviolet A radiation. “UVA rays are the ones that enter the skin most deeply and are linked to the carcinogenic, it can produce mutations in the DNA of cells and also aging of the skin.
Although it is about short exposures, it is also a treatment that is done quite frequently, it can be every 15 days, that is where the ultraviolet radiation would accumulate at the level of the hands ”, he details.
Mehaniq
nail drying lamp
Asked about the semi-permanent enamel procedure, Pera recommends trying to avoid this exposure and looking for alternatives to drying with these lamps. “It could be advisable to place a sunscreen with an SPF50+ factor at the level of the fingers, the hands, around the nails to at least protect that exposed surface,” says the expert. Along the same lines, he maintains that one could also think of physical photoprotection that would be through some type of glove that only left the nails exposed and covered the rest of the fingers; “The best thing would be for these gloves to be made with a protective fabric, UPF50 +”, he points out.
This alternative to gloves is already beginning to appear, in some cases, in specialized stores such as Amen. In this place they are used when the skin suffered some damage or burn and is especially sensitive.
In most cases, González justifies that the exposure to the lamps is minimal and that the maximum time that the person will be exposed, in his case, during the entire service, is three minutes in separate periods of 60 seconds. “At the same time, the lamps have more and more advanced technology, just like the enamels, which is why drying times are being shortened from 60 to 30 seconds in some cases,” says the owner of Amen, this would further reduce the costs exposure times to that ultraviolet light.
In the case of Bascans, an OPI LED lamp is used that is patented by LG and the drying time is 30 seconds. “Unlike what’s on the market it doesn’t do any damage to the skin, you’d have to have a lot of exposure for it to do any damage and we’re fully covered because we wear gloves with a UV filter fabric, and also apply sunscreen if the person wants”, underlines Bascans and emphasizes that it is about minimizing the effects of photoaging, “the same damage caused by the sun”, concludes the manicurist.
“UV lamps are like when you get a tan or get sun on the street,” says the Utopia reference and points out that in her case they also use OPI lamps that have certain exclusive brand protections. “We have inquired with dermatologists and there are no contraindications regarding this,” Menéndez emphasizes, noting that the few people who have consulted about it in their premises have chosen to apply sunscreen.
