My press-on are not lasting as long as advertised, what can I do ?

At Julie does Nails, we have tested our press-on nails to make sure we give you the right expectation in terms of longevity. But keeping your press-on settled for a long time depends on a lot of factors, some you might have an impact on, and some for which there's not much to do about. In this article, we will go over different tips and tricks to make sure your nails stay for as long as possible, and you can get the same benefits you would get when going to a nail salon, without all the negative!

• The nail prepping

If you want to maximize your chances to keep your nails on for longer, the first step is to make sure the preparation of your natural nails before the application of the press-on is on point. If you have a doubt on the steps to follow for this, we have posted an article going over this right here : How to apply press-on nails?

The nail preparation is the most important step as it will allow the surface of the nail, which will hold the press-on nail and the glue together, to be in its best form for the glue to adhere properly. So make sure to not skip any steps!

• Skin and cuticle hydration

Did you know that only the invisible part of your nail (the one that goes a little bit under your skin, before your nail starts) is actually a living part? This means, first of all, that there is no such thing as "not wearing any nail extension/polish in order to let your nail breathe". The visible part of your nail does not need to breathe. Second of all, this means that, just like any other part of your body, you need to take care of the part of your nail that needs it, which in this case corresponds to your cuticle. If you were to wear extensions and not hydrate your hands, and regularly apply cuticle oil, your nails would dry out, causing the press-on/extension to pop off.

As such, we recommend using cuticle oil and hand cream as much as possible. Once a day would be a good start! If you tend to forget it, try to incorporate these extra steps into your skin care routine. You will be surprised of how big of a change you will see in the longevity of your press-on nails!

• Using your nails as tool

No, we do not mean that you use your press-on as screwdrivers or hammers. However, it is easy to use (without even noticing it sometimes) your nails as part of your fingers. For example, using the tip of the extension to push buttons, or as a lever to open cans. There's many different scenarios where we would use the tip of our finger naturally and find ourselves using our nails instead. However, this can cause trauma to the nail and the extension attached to it, and can make it rip off of your nail. Best case scenario, the glue was not holding very strongly to the nail (all coming back to the nail prepping, remember?) and it pops off as if you had never been wearing it in the first place. But worse case that happens most of the time in these situations would be that the glue was strongly bonded to the nail, and when popping off, tears off some layers of your nails with it. This can cause real damage to your nails, make them brittle, in which case you would need to wait for the nail to grow back before applying new press-ons (and nails only grow half a millimeter per day, so imagine how long it'd take to grow a full nail!!)

Overall ; treat your nail extensions as jewelry. The same way you wouldn't use your silver necklace to open a can of soda, you should not use your nails either.

• Choosing the right length of nails

It is tempting, when looking at the sets offered, to go for very long nails. The trend these past few years has been for extra long nails, and it is easy to get influenced and wanting the same thing for yourself. However, as we have discussed in the previous point, nail extensions aren't tools, and as such, the longer they are, the harder they are going to manipulate and live with. Because of this, if you are not used to having long nails, you might find yourself struggling to do daily tasks, and even hit your nails by accident. This can cause, just as using your nails as tools, to rip the nail off completely, causing damage to your natural nail.

As such, we recommend starting with a short length of nails, if you are a beginner in wearing nail extensions. Then, the more comfortable you are with them, the longer you can go for, and therefore avoiding any risk of hitting them (and hurting yourself in the process)