Burned by Primer…
Before I tell this story, I have to give you all a little background on this:
When I was a little girl, I was fascinated with nails. I held my first pair of clippers when I was about three years old. I saw a relative cutting their nails, and figured I’d try it out. I cut one of my nails so far down that I started bleeding! I was just so shocked that it happened.
I had my first set of press-ons when I was in second grade. They were adhesives; my parents wouldn’t let me use super glue at that point. However, as time went on, year after year, I experimented with all things with my nails: acrylic kits, gel kits, creating colored nail polish from marker ink, press-ons with nail glue, gluing tips without acrylic or gel. I even convinced my mother to let me get my nails done at the shop because I wanted to rock an airbrush design soooo bad. I was mesmerized by the whole process because until then, I never had my nails done professionally.
You would think I would’ve went straight into a nail tech program after high school, but the thought didn’t even cross my mind, mainly because I was so focused on going to college.
When I got to college, I got lazy. I was kind of used to not wearing fake nails consistently due to my school district’s athletics rules, so I didn’t do them as much. I still did them or got them done throughout high school; it just wasn’t often, and it was during my off-season.
That all changed my freshman year of college, though. Because there were so many nail shops near my university, and their prices were affordable, I figured I didn’t need to do my own nails anymore. I didn’t really have time anyway, so every two to three weeks, I was sitting in somebody’s chair getting a fill-in or starting over with a brand new full set.
Fast forward to present-day. I’m enrolled in a nail tech program!
I’ve been in this program for a few months now and it made me realize just how much I love doing nails all over again. That said, nail technology is significantly different from back in the day. I don’t even think people use airbrush machines anymore! There’s actually a difference between the stiletto and almond shapes, store kits aren’t exactly the same as salon kits, colored acrylic is a thing — I’ve learned so much.
So that brings me to how the nail primer burned my skin!
Over the holidays, I decided to go to a nail supply store and pick up a few items to practice sculpting at home. Something told me to bring my supplies home with me, but I left them in my locker at school. I ended up getting two containers of colored acrylic, primer, monomer, sculpting tape, and a few other items to complete my full set.
Let me just say, this was only my second time using primer on myself. The first time was at school, and the student-teacher let me use hers. This time, me being the extra person I am, I put two coats of primer on my left hand.
As I’m sculpting the acrylic on that hand, my fingers started to burn around my nail bed. I thought the burning was eventually gonna wear off, so I didn’t act as quickly as I should have. By the time the acrylic dried and I took the tape off, the skin that the tape covered was white. It was still burning, and I freaked out!
Long story short, I spent an hour running my hand under cold water. I looked up info on how to treat a chemical burn, and washed my hands with mild soap while keeping my burned fingers under the running water. After 45 minutes, I called a nurse helpline because I found an article that mentioned something about skin graphing for third degree burns and my life flashed before my eyes. The burn area may not have been large, but I wasn’t tryna spend thousands on surgery for this! So I called the helpline, which then referred me to the poison control hotline, and the woman I spoke to basically told me that I did all I could do in that moment and to just keep an eye on it.
“If the color doesn’t return and if you still feel a burning sensation, I would go see a doctor,” she told me.
I had to pray for a miracle. Again, the burn coverage wasn’t that much, but the stress of surgery just wasn’t in my plans. Not for something like this!
The next morning, I was thankful that God answered my prayers and healed my hand. The original color came back, but there were small, barely-noticeable burn scars, which I expect to heal on their own in due time.
But what did I learn from this?
First of all, what I’ve yet to learn in school is that nail primer is made with (glacial) methacrylic acid. Yeah, you read that right: ACID! No wonder it burned like hell! This whole time, I thought it was made with alcohol or acetone. I didn’t even think to read the ingredients on the bottle. That was mistake number one. There are primers with a less harsh version of this chemical, or diluted with a neutralizer, but regardless, you’re putting acid on your nails.
That brings me to my second point.
When I looked up how to apply primer as my fingers were still being chilled, I learned that you’re only supposed to apply one coat. FML! That’s what I get for being extra, though. And I had a feeling that one coat was enough initially, but I had that “just in case” mentality; sometimes more than enough is good! But not in this case.
Third of all, this really put things in perspective as far as whether or not I will use primer on my future clients. You can definitely perform a successful full set or fill-in without primer, and I don’t think I wanna risk a lawsuit tryna be fancy, ya know? I might change my mind, but I’m leaning towards never using the stuff.
Again, there are less harsh versions of this acid-based primer out there, but it is extremely imperative that nail techs, and those who opt to do their nails at home, use extreme caution and avoid getting this on the skin, even if you’re only applying one coat. I don’t think primer is necessarily available to the public, but for nail techs and nail tech students, be careful!
Check out the first episode of #NailTalk on my YouTube channel! https://youtu.be/C5FYd1SuXw4
***Originally published on raysaywhat.com, January 2018.
