New Uses for Nail Products Around Your Salon

Nailtools380

As a nail technician, you have a full arsenal of tools. But did you know you can use them for purposes other than nails? Whether it’s quick salon maintenance, or day-to-day hassles, nail implements and products can be used in a variety of ways to make your life easier.
 
[Image: Thinkstock/iStockphoto]
 
 
Tweezers
 
Tweezers
 
Tweezers, with their ability to pick up and carefully position tiny objects, are an invaluable tool in a salon, where miniscule art is constantly being created. Not only can tweezers pick up nail studs, they can also snatch up fallen bits of food or pieces of things in keyboards, behind registers, and in other small spaces. 
 
If you wear glasses to better see the intricacies of your nail designs, you can use tweezers as a way to tighten eyeglass screws that continually loosen. 
 
[Image: Wikimedia Commons/ Richard Wheeler]
 
 
Cuticle Oil
 
98997330
 
Though traditionally meant to be applied around your nails, the moisturizing power of cuticle oil can be applied to dry lips in the place of lip balm.
 
It can also be used to remove scuffs from leather shoes and purses. If you have wood floors or surfaces in your salon, cuticle oil can remove marks left on them inadvertently by clients. Don’t use on soft leather or suede though, as oil stains those materials.
 
[Image: Thinkstock/ Hemera]
 
 
Nail Polish Remover
 
94314999
 
If your salon has a vinyl floor, scuff marks can be erased using acetone-based nail polish remover. Dab a little on a paper towel and wipe those black lines away. Go easy with the acetone, though, as it can be hard on flooring in larger doses.
 
When light-colored keys on your salon’s cash register get dirty, clean them up with a towel dampened with a bit of nail polish remover.
 
While many things around a salon, or even a home, can be mended with super glue (tiny holes in fabric, broken plastic), using the adhesive inevitably leaves your digits gross or even glued together. Use acetone to dissolve super glue and banish the fear of sticky fingers.
 
[Image: Thinkstock/ Hemera]
 
 
Metal Nail Files 
 
87749292
 
When receiving new polishes or nail tools in the mail, it is always a struggle to open not only the brown box, but the product’s plastic packaging. Break into hard-to-open purchased items with a metal nail file that can easily cut through tape and plastic wrap (be careful, though!).
 
Hydration is essential to a busy work day! In a nail salon, where there may not be a surplus of strong, jar-opening men, there’s no need to twist the skin off your hand when opening a plastic bottle of water or soda. Run the edge of a metal nail file over the little plastic tabs holding the cap on and you will be able to loosen it much more easily.
 
[Image: Thinkstock/ Zedcor Wholly Owned]
 
 
 
Nail Polish
 
Nail Polish Drop
 
If you have several keys on your key ring (one for the front door of the salon, maybe the bathroom also, plus those for your own home or car), you can distinguish between them by painting the base with a swatch of colored nail polish.
 
With many nail techs working in the same place, where tools can get accidentally swapped or borrowed, it is a good idea to color-coordinate each manicurists’ tools with a swipe of a set lacquer color. 
 
If a screw in your salon if consistently coming loose, apply a clear polish to it just before tightening it back in to make sure it stays secure.
 
[Image: Wikimedia Commons/Flickr user amOuna]
More in Business