Hi, my name is Clare Durtnall-Holland and I have been a Nail Artist for over sixteen years. I have won three prestigious national titles of ‘Nail Professional of the Year’ at the British Beauty and Spa Awards, I am an educator for one of the biggest nail product manufacturers and I have a passion for my craft. Over the coming months I will be offering advice on a number of nail issues and letting you know what’s hot and what’s not. I welcome any questions you may have about your nails or any other related topic. If I know, I’ll be happy to give you my answer and if I don’t know I’ll do my best to find out for you.

This topic is about nail enhancements, the bad name they have gotten and the truth about them.

In recent years nail enhancements have been given a bad name for a number of reason including nail artists with bad work practices. Let me assure you that nail enhancements cannot themselves damage your nails, and that there are plenty of highly skilled professional nail artists out there to offer help and advice and who create the most gorgeous, natural looking nail enhancements.

Firstly, let’s talk about the products. There are three systems available, U.V.gel, Fibre glass/silk wraps and Liquid and Powder Acrylic, all of which should, when done properly give you beautiful, natural looking results. None of the products themselves can do any damage to your natural nails, the only damage caused is by an inexperienced nail artist or from the wearer picking and biting or removing them improperly. Some of my clients have been wearing their ‘acrylic’ nails for over ten years with no ill effects to their natural nails at all.

So, how do you know who is good and who is not? Ask questions, find out how long they have been a nail artist, where they trained, do they have a recognised certificate, can you see their work, would they put a sample nail on just one of your fingers which you pay for at the time and could be redeemable when they have the rest done. If they cannot give you the answers that put you at ease and make you feel comfortable and confident you are in safe hands, they may not be as qualified or experienced as you would like. Any passionate professional would only be too pleased to show you how fantastic they are.

I would just like to add though, that when I say the products themselves do not do any damage I refer to high quality nail products and that unfortunately there are some non standard salons using a chemical called MMA( Methyl Methacrylate) in their acrylic products which is not recommended for use within the nail industry. The correct chemical that nail professionals use in their liquids is EMA (Ethyl Methacrylate), and again any professional nail artist will only be too pleased to let you know what they are using.

If you would like any more information on the above topic, or any of the forthcoming topics you can respond to this Blog or email me direct at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it