Nail primers help to keep your artificial nails lasting longer as they help to dehydrate your nails by removing excess oil and any other excess moisture present on your nail bed. The presence of any form of moisture on the nail bed prevents the adhesion of artificial nails on natural nails.
Nail primer comes in both acid and non-acid. I highly recommend using non-acid primers. Your skin can burn with acid primmer and we are not trying to hurt ourselves whilst using a primer. If you have properly prepped your nails, you will not need an acid nail primer so prep your nails properly before proceeding.
Non-acid primers should be applied in small quantities to your natural nails, if you are making use of extensions, a non-acid primer should also be applied in small quantities to the plastic nail tips. I get asked this question frequently “do you apply the nail primmer before or after the tip?” And I will like to answer that by saying I highly recommend applying a nail primer before fixing the tip. Do not apply non-acid primers to any acrylic product already on the nails.
Functions of a nail primer
Nail primers have the following functions:
- Acts as a dehydrating agent by removing excess oils and moisture from your nail beds.
- They could also act as a nail glue (depending on the type of primer you are using) which help to hold your acrylic nails or nail polish.
- Create microscopic tears and holes on your nail beds allowing the acrylic and polish to grip onto the nails better.
When do you use a nail primer?
You use nail primers to treat your natural nails before applying acrylic nails onto them. They can also be used when applying gel polish or regular nail polish.
Do you want to avoid your artificial nails from lifting? Then invest in a good nail primer.
In today’s blog post I will be touching on how to use nail primer. For nail primers to work properly you will need to prep your nails properly. Applying a nail primer is very easy, it can be done in the following steps:
- Prep, trim and clean, file (use a 180 grit or higher file to remove shine from your nail bed) and buff your natural nails.
- Apply cuticle remover on all ten cuticles.
- Apply dehydrator (optional).
- Apply a thin layer of primer using the brush that comes with the nail primer bottle. Allow to dry before continuing with manicure.
- Apply primer only on the nail bed and only one layer is required. Too much application of primer can cause lifting.
- Prevent the nail primer from you joy your skin as it can cause lifting.
Advantages of nail primers
- They help to make your acrylic nails, gel polish and regular polish to adhere to your natural nails.
- They help to prevent your gel manicure and regular manicure from chipping which eventually extend the life of those manicures.
- They can be used with majority of the nail products available such as acrylics, gel polish and regular polish.
Nail primer VS base coat
Between a nail primer and a base coat which one should you choose? In my opinion they are not interchangeable as they both have different functions. The only similarity they have is that they both help make your manicure last longer. Instead of wanting to use a nail primer and a base coat interchangeably I will advise using them together. Your manicure will last longer when you make use of both nail primer and a base coat.
Summary
In summary, the application of nail primer onto your nail bed is an essential part of fixing any type of nails or any type of manicure so do not skip it if you want you manicure to last long. Prepping your nails and priming your nails go hand in hand, as long as your nails are prepped properly, priming your nails should work and make your artificial nails adhere to your natural nails. I hope you have learned the proper way to apply nail primer. Please let me know what else you will like me to talk about in the next blog post.