Are LCN nails more durable then regular acrylics?

Question

i work at a day care and am constantly washing my hands......i was once told that since they are porous they last longer then acrylic does. is this true? is it worth the 100 plus dollars to get?

Answer 1

First of all, I just wanted to clarify something. You said that you were told that LCN nails are porous. Those, and other UV gels are actually non-porous. Porosity does not make one type of nail enhancement better than the other. Porosity is a measure of how many voids or spaces there are in a solid substance. It is a ratio of the volume of voids to the total volume of the substance. The more voids, the greater the porosity of the substance.

Porosity is not as important as some believe when it comes to artificial nails. When properly applied, there shouldn't be any significant  voids in the artificial nail. In actual practice, the amount of porosity of any given artificial nail enhancement is unimportant.  

Permeability is something which is more important with artificial nails. This term refers to the ease with which a liquid moves through a porous substance. The more permeable a coating, the easier it will be for a liquid to penetrate its surface. For example, enhancements with too much permeability will allow stains to be absorbed into the upper layers, and cause discoloration. Discoloration may come from dyes in nail polish, clothing, food, smoke, tanning lotion and so on. Permeability is only a problem when it is excessive. Now, applying the term to nail enhancements, when highly permeable nails such as silk wraps are exposed to solvents or even water, they begin to disintegrate quickly. This is because silk wraps have a high degree of permeability. acrylic nails are less permeable and take longer than silk wraps to soak off in pure acetone. Water does not affect them as it does with wraps. Water will break the materials in wraps down in hardly any time at all. UV gel nails are the least permeable of all nail enhancements, and are therefore the least affected by soaking them in product removers which explains why they are the most difficult to remove with solvents such as acetone. UV gel nails are generally filed off, rather than soaked off.

Having said that, UV gel nails - being the least permeable of all nail enhancements, would be the best choice for you since your nails often come into contact with water. I hope I explained it well enough for you to now have a grasp on the very basics?

About UV gel nails in general. There are many different companies that make UV nail gels. Some are good, others are better, some are just plain poor quality.

LCN gels are slightly different in terms of the actual product chemistry. What you end up with when you get LCN gel nails applied more closely resembles a plastic. Not a soft plastic, but rather a plastic that is quite similar to that used in applications such as dentistry (think dentures). It is a tough, and durable material, and it has a slight degree of flexibility to it which means that the nail will flex when struck against an object. This translates into fewer breaks, splitting, or cracking of the nail enhancement. Yes, UV gels do the same, but from what I have seen LCN is a better product than most other UV gel products which are available today. The reason that you are seeing such high prices (Though $100 is quite on the high side- - $65-$85 is more an average for LCN nails) is because LCN gel products cost about twice as much as regular gels. This cost is passed on to the customer, as in any business. Now, is it worth it? That is debatable. Some people will say yes, it is. Others will say 'no' it isn't worth it. I think it has a lot to do with brand recognition. Many people have heard of LCN gels and know them as a good product with a great reputation. They ask for LCN gel nails by name.

If you choose to have LCN nails done on you, make absolutely certain that the tech is using authentic LCN products. How to tell? Well, for one thing, LCN gel products come in their trademark packaging, all of which is clearly labeled by the manufacturer with the distinct LCN logo imprinted on it. If your tech pulls out an unlabeled gel product, then it is most likely NOT a real LCN product.ANd, yes. Some nail salons do this type of thing. There are scammers out there in the nail industry as with any other type of business. Someone is always trying to make a profit off of others in an improper way. Sad, but true. Also, some scammers will buy a set of LCN gels, and then once the container is empty, they will fill it back up with much less costly imitation gels. This is more difficult to detect, but look out for worn containers. The labeling should not appear worn off, or missing in places which would indicate high usage of that particular container. That would indicate that the container may have been re-used a number of times. All the gel techs that I know of always purchase new products, and do NOT refill the old containers. There is no reason for it other than to rip off the customer by making them think the real product is being used when in reality, a cheap imitation is in the container.

One last thing. Here is a pic of what LCN gels look like.

http://www.lcnusa.com/concepts/index.php...

Answer 2

Yes.  I work in an art studio and have a six year old.  I wash my hands constantly and play in sand.  I have uv gel nails and if done by the right technician they will never lift.  My nails never lift even if I wait a month for a fill.  They are worth the initial fee for the full set.

When I had acrylics, they would lift within a few days.