Smile Lines

TIP OF THE WEEK #10 SMILE LINES By Vicki Peters

DISCLAIMER

Any products mentioned in the "Tip Of The Week by Vicki Peters" is not an endorsement of any kind.

When we tackle smile lines in our pink and white nails they don't always come out the way we envision them too and because of that many techs stay away from offering pink and white nails. I hear techs often say, " my clients don't want pink and white nails" yet they get a French manicure which does not make sense to me. I think it is because we are afraid of them so we don't do them. I admit it can me a frustrating technique to conquer, smile lines take time to master and it is definitely hard work but there are some simple steps that can help.

GOOD SMILE LINES / BAD SMILE LINES

A smile line should mirror the shape of the cuticle, so if you were to bend the nails in half they should match. That should be your goal. The sides should be just as high on each side and the center of the smile line be at its lowest point in the center of the nail. The shape should be centered, as the tip of a round nail should be.

THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT

We need the right tools to make the job easier and a square brush does not cut it. You definitely need a pointed brush with a perfect tip to achieve a good smile line. The brush should come to a perfect point when submerged in the liquid before wiping. My preference is about a size 7 - 9 oval brush. My perspective on the brush I use is that it is a round brush with a good point with a crimp in the ferule, which makes the brush two sided instead of completely round. I prefer this style of brush because I easily get a flat side to press the product in place and also a good point to the brush for wiping. You can achieve this with a round brush but you have to consciously reshape the brush as you work with it to flatten it out. I also prefer a brush that is not so long it bends as you wipe. It should have some vice to it but if it bends too much you won't have the control you need when pressing the against the white powder as it dries.

  Your white tip powder must be dense enough to get good color. Most of us work with medium to fast set powders and you must completely understand your liquid to powder ratio or you will either make a mess or can't get the product off the brush fast enough. The dryer the white tip product the denser the white color. Blue liquids and how thick the product is can play a part in the final color and we will discuss that later in the application section.

APPLICATION TECHNIQUES

Use a 1-ball method to get the base of the white tip applied. Applying with several smaller balls will show with most products because not every ball will be the exact same consistency and you may see the difference in color. The key is here is having good control of your product. Understanding your liquid to powder ratio and knowing exactly how much liquid to use will give you the control you need. Too wet will make you have to chase it around and too dry of a ball will dry too fast not allowing you the control to press it in place. Now I am speaking about the average size nail, a longer one would take more applications.

STEP 1

Pour enough liquid into your dappen dish so when you submerge your brush it is completely. Then wipe all the liquid out of the brush. Make sure your dappen dish is stable and will not move when you wipe up against the side of the dish.

STEP 2

The dip the brush in to get the amount of liquid you need to pick up a medium to large size ball that will cover the tip area. Place the ball of white tip powder right in the center of the tip with the top edge right on the smile line and not over it. Wipe your brush gently to remove any acrylic in the tip without wiping the rest of the liquid out and bring it back to a point. Wiping your brush will do two things here 1- bring it back to perfect working order and 2- allow the acrylic to start setting up a bit so it is not sticky as you work with it. We tend to dig into our product too fast sometimes making it difficult to control, let it set a few seconds before playing with it.

STEP 3

With your brush that has been brought back to it's perfect shape press the product into place to the left and then to the right and then gently wipe down to the tip, smoothing and covering the entire tip. Be sure not to press too hard or you will wipe the product off.

STEP4

Re-dip your brush to moisten it, wipe the liquid out again and bring it to a perfect point before wiping your smile line. Hold the brush straight up with the tip pointing to ceiling and from the center to the left side of the smile line wipe and then from the center to the right side wipe. You may need to do this two or three times before you get the perfect shape and the product is set enough to stay where you wiped it. As the product dries you may want to wipe slower.

From the time you picked up your product and placed it on the nail and patted the product into place should be about 15-20 seconds at the most. You have to work fast and not waste time wiping your brush, get it done quickly. Then you should spend another 15-20 seconds wiping the smile line, maybe a bit more if your product has not set up too much. If your white tip does sets up too fast try using a bit more liquid.

  STEP 5

  Check to make sure the white product is tall enough from the side view and all the whites match in height. You want to build it up enough so when you apply the pink it meets it at the smile line and barely goes over the white. Too much pink will mute the color. If you use clear and pull it over the white tip that is not tall enough you will not get a sharp look because the white in thin. If you do wipe a bit of the pink over the white remember you are going to file the top surface and you will probably end up removing it.

STEP 6

Add the ears after wiping the smile line to the desired shape. Use small dry balls of product and wipe slowly bringing the edges right up into the sidewalls of the nails without going over and touching the skin. Use the very tip of your brush for application. Be sure to check the sides for coverage making sure you have wrapped the product around the sidewall enough so you don't file it out later.

I apply the white tips to all ten nails at once. It keeps me focused and allows the white to be dry before applying the pink. If you apply the pink right after the white you can press it too hard and smoosh that perfect smile line you just worked hard to apply. After applying the white tips, pour out the liquid you used and pour in fresh liquid for the pink. Most of the liquid you used may be milky from the white powder, which will mute your pink.

STEP 7

Apply the pink or clear powder to all ten nails.

APPLYING OVER TIPS

If you prefer to work with tips instead of sculpts prep your tips and blend them. I prefer to cut my wells out and in doing so I place the cut out area right on the natural smile line if I am not blending. However I learned a new trick in a competition I hosted in Portland, OR, recently. Cut the tip wells out, shape them and place them below the smile line on the free edge and blend more. I say to blend because you want a smooth line. Then apply your white tip powder above the tip smile line at the natural nail smile line and wipe as if you were working on a sculpt not paying attention to where the tip edge meets the nail. It is more work but the end results in good.

  

SOME TRICKS TO MAKING SMILE LINES EASIER

 Some techs wet the nail plate before applying the white tip powder. The reason is to make the product flow better and I see this in nail competitions all the time. However I would not suggest it in the salon. Eventually that nail plate will be overexposed to the liquid and cause problems later, including pocket lifting in the center of the nail. When applying liquid and powder products we should never get the skin or nail plate wet. Using large brushes and pressing the product on the sides of the nail with the belly of the brush makes contact with the skin at the sidewalls and cuticle areas.

Wiping your smile line with another brush and a cleanser product is the safer way, however time consuming switching brushes and dipping into another dappen dish with the cleanser in it. It can be done comfortably when you are used to it so if this is a method you prefer put it right into your systems as you work and it will become easier.

Cutting the smile line out with a tip is another trick I have picked up in a nail competition. Place the white tip product on the nail and let it set about 60%-75%. You must use a full welled tip with a nice rounded top edge that will resemble the shape of the smile line you want to achieve when turned upside down. Size the tips to fit each nail and set them out on your table. With the tip you have already sized out to match the nail, apply the white tip powder on one nail. When the product is dry enough dip the edge of the tip's contact area (holding it with the tip's edge up and the contact area towards the table (another words upside down) into the dappen dish of liquid monomer. With the tip wet but not dripping, like you would a cookie cutter, place the rounded edge of the top of the tip at an angle, in the white tip powder where you want the smile line to be Cut out the smile line by pressing the tips edge into the white tip powder and cutting out the white product. Wipe it away from you. If the product is too wet you may have to use a new tip and do it again, so practice and know your product when it is dry enough to do this perfectly. You may want to finish the smile line for a more perfect shape by wiping it with your brush after cutting it out with the tip. Sounds complicated but it really is simpler that building a smile line and wiping it into shape.

CUTTING BACKFILL SMILE LINES

This is another challenge and takes practice. And believe me there days we do killer smile lines and days when we look at our work and wonder what came over us! Backfilling is one of the most difficult techniques we perform. I use a large medium carbide back fill bit. I like it because it is about 45% the size of a regular barrel bit, I can cut and remove the product without having to switch its, which saves me time.

You will want to make three cuts. Starting on the right side of the nail, from the highest point of the ears section holding the bit with the top edge at a 45% angle make the cut about one 1/3. Curve the cut from the top of the ear to about 4 O'clock on the smile line. Turn the nail so you can view it from the profile and cut the next third flat across the bottom of the smile line. Then turn the nail so you can view it from the top and angle the last 1/3 from the 8 O'clock position up the left side to the top of the left ear. Rock the finger to meet you as you work.

You can also use the French Fill bit the same way or a regular barrel bit. Which bit you find more comfortable to cut with is what you should use. Bits are preference; there is no one bit everyone should use for cutting smile lines.

The idea of cutting a smile line into the nail for backfilling is to make a wall that you can use to press the product right up against when replacing it on the tip. If you cut smoothly enough there may not be a need to wipe the smile line with your brush.

I have seen backfill smile lines cut with diamond bullet bit held flat on the nail and curved around in a back and forth motion to create a smile line. And one of the best backfills I ever had was done with a large tapered rounded tip titanium carbide barrel bit. A smile line was never cut. The tech held the bit at an angle from the smile line area of the nail to the tip making contact from above the smile line to the tip thinning out the entire tip of the nail as you would if you were hand filing. She replaced my white tip powder as if she was doing a new sculptured nail.

SHADOWS

Oh where do these little shadows come from anyway? The elude us and drive us nuts, especially in nail competition. There are several reasons for shadows but don't confuse shadows with swirling or marbelizing.  If you use a product with an extreme blue liquid you may experience what I call swirling. Competitors prefer a clear liquid in competition for this purpose. The bluing agent in the liquid causes this. So blue it enhances any inconsistent liquid to powder application, even if you do it in one ball. If the liquid is extremely blue and you work wet the swirling will be more prominent than when you apply the white tip powder much drier. These companies claim there is just as much white pigment in the white tip powders, and I believe them, however their educators who I have seen apply their products without the swirling have mastered the application of their white tip powder, where we have not. It can be a sensitive application process. But again, you can see the swirling, most of your clients don't.

Shadows appear for several reasons.

You wiped your smile line holding the brush incorrectly. Wiping with a brush that is not held straight up but towards the client will make a cavity in the edge of the white smile line that looks good until you apply the pink and the pink fills up the cavity muting the crispness. Applying the white powder on the lower edge of the natural smile line. The only way I can describe this is when you have a new full set that the edge of the white smile line has grown to the perfect spot right on top of the natural smile line. This is such a precise point that the next day they appear slightly grown out and you can actually see the edge of the natural free edge through the pink acrylic now. Your natural smile line is actually clear. If you apply the acrylic to the top of the natural smile line or above on the nail plate and wipe the smile line so it is very sharp, you will not have a shadow. If you apply the white powder to the bottom of the smile line you may have a shadow. Another reason for shadows is a shadow with the pink over the white. Going back to making the white tip powder tall enough when you apply it when looking sideways will stop this from happening. If you don't place the white perfectly on the smile line and make it not tall enough, you will have to pull the pink over the white tip to make the arch you may need for shape and support. The pink fills in thicker over the white and makes a pink shadow. Make sure the edge of the smile line is straight up and down and bring the pink high enough to meet the white instead of pulling it over. The same thing happens to me when I rush through a set of white tips with pink and white over them. If I don't pay good enough attention to making the smile line of the white tip powder cover the edge of the white tip I applied at the smile line area the pink will fill in and mute my smile lines ruining the crispness I had with the white tips. So I always use clear over white tips when in a hurry so I avoid this happening.

HARMONY & BALANCE

We are artists and we need to be more cosmetic in our thinking when we do a new set. There are so many ways to fudge the shape of a nail nowadays with tips and colored acrylic that we can always produce a nice set of nails even on the most challenging natural nails. I hate to see a new set with white tips that are set up so high on the nail plate there is hardly any pink. There is no excuse for that anymore. Harmony and balance should come into play when creating nails. It is like having the right haircut - it just fits. The strength of any nail is in the product, not the tip or form. Cut those tip wells out and place on the very edge of the free edge to stretch the look of the natural nail or blend them invisible. Place the white tip powder lower than the free edge and use a muted pink to fake the size of the nail. Perfect for that client that wants long nails when she has short nail beds. Design the smile lines the same way. If someone has a short nail bed wipe the smile line lower in the middle - right down to the natural free edge and higher on the sides. Stretch that shape for all you can get. When a client breaks a nail so low with no free edge when you repair it make sure the size of the white tip matches the others. Never make the white longer than the pink, that is the rule for good harmony and balance.

Each smile line should be approximately the same size. By applying the white tip powder on all ten nails at the same time you can focus on the size consistency as you apply. The index, ring and middle fingers should match with the pinky and thumb in proportion.

Working within a system when applying your white powder and wiping smile lines will help you design more consistent smile lines. Practice makes perfect and if you would like to see some perfect smiles lines watch a nail competition. Don't talk during your smile line application, concentrate. Talking is for when you file. Are smile lines really more work? Yes at first, at least until you make it part of your routine and get better at it. Set aside an extra 15 minutes per client when you first start until you get your time down and don't expect perfect smile lines for months. And be sure to establish at the beginning of the appointment that the client is not going to wear polish before you do all that work "showing her your smile" lines!!

WORKING WITH FORMS

Forms are challenging enough but when applying the white tip powder on a form you have to be good control of your product because the form is slightly slicker than a tip can be and your product can run a bit more. Place the white tip powder slightly below the natural smile line and press your product in place staying within the desired lines of the form extension. Those lines are there for a reason so use them to make your application easier. Press the powder up over the form edge to the desired smile line placement and wipe. It is similar to applying over a tip however you need slightly more control over what you are doing because it is easier