For a month or so I have been working with this twelve year old, giving manicures and encouragement to grow her nails. She had done very well and her nails had grown some free edge (the white bit at the end of the nail) on some nails. For school it is imperative that she does not have any nail colour on, so during the Easter holidays I applied clear gel overlays and then painted over them with a regular nail colour. The plan is to have several sessions of gel overlays over the next couple of months to protect the nails underneath as they grow and to have nice nail colours on weekends and during the holidays. Nail varnish can be safely removed from Bio Sculpture Gel^® Nails using a non-acetone nail varnish remover. More photos will be added as the project progresses.

Friday 2 April 2010: bare nails:

Friday 2 April 2010: Bio Sculpture Gel^® Nail overlays applied:

Friday 2 April 2010: Bio Sculpture Gel ^® Nails painted with Mavala colour=Adelaide and Mavala Colorfix topcoat:

Friday 9 April 2010: Nails after a week including a seaside holiday - there is very slight chipping of the nail colour, otherwise no sign of "nail biting" but the gel on the left hand thumb nail lifted:

Friday 9 April 2010: The nail varnish was removed with non-acetone remover, Neal's Yard Nourishing Melissa Nail Balm was rubbed into the cuticles, the left thumb gel was removed and new gel was applied, Mavala 002 Base Coat was applied to all nails followed by Bio Sculpture #19 Pillar Box Red, topped with Bio Sculpture High Gloss Top Coat:

Monday 12 April 2010: For school the next day, the colour nail varnish was removed with non-acetone remover, and then the gels were painted with a clear top coat as an extra protection. No photos were taken and the nails were in good order.

In the following week the gels began to lift and as I was away for a few weeks unfortunately our young person felt the need to peel them off completely which was the wrong thing to do. Peeling the gels off can peel off the very top layer of the nail which is why soaking off is vital. However, the damage does not appear to have been as bad as it could have been. When I next saw the client, we discussed what was best for her at this time and we will return to weekly manicures.

Sunday 25 April 2010: The untreated nails which were carefully nibbled back in places by the client but otherwise not too much, so a brownie point to her:

Sunday 25 April 2010: Nails were slightly shaped and painted with two coats of Bio Sculpture Lavender Base treatment, followed with a Bio Sculpture top coat:

Saturday 29 May 2010: It has all slightly gone to pot and we are almost back to square one! A month since our last manicure appointment, and with a half term ahead, we have gone for a funky set of gel nails for the week using five different colours:

Having lovely manicured nails are more likely to encourage a nail biter to stop biting.

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