We hear it all the time. Nail techs and salons claim that they only do natural nails. But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll often find that they still use UV gel polishes or dip systems – and there’s nothing natural about that.
To help you understand why salons turn to these artificial nail services, let’s give you a little backstory. Before the 1960s, traditional polish applied directly to bare nails was the only salon option. Sure, It allowed for more natural nails, but the polishes took a long time to dry and chipped within a few days.
Thus, the nail care industry set to work on developing more convenient alternatives to traditional polish: acrylic nail enhancements, UV gels, UV gel polish, colored acrylics, dips. While all of these synthetic chemical formulations offer solutions to the duration and dry time of a manicure, they also create long-term problems – problems like contact dermatitis from reactive ingredients, unhealthy and repeated UV exposure to the skin, and damage to the natural nail plate due to the fact that they cannot be removed with a gentle application of nail polish remover.
