u/anetanetanet

So I'm not a trained nail tech, but I've been learning on my own for over a year and only do nails on myself and a few close friends. I have accumulated a pretty solid setup ans and products. I do gel nails, and usually they turn out nice and I've never had a complaint. The only issue is that it takes me quite long, since I'm obviously not a professional. I have started charging lately because materials are expensive and my time is not unlimited, so it seemed absurd to keep doing it for free. Obviously i charge much less than a salon tho.

One of my close friends whose nails i do kept telling a friend of hers she should come to me to get her nails done. I asked her not to but she literally convinced her to come get them done before being a guest at a wedding and 10 days before her *own wedding*.... This girl wrote to me already having decided she's coming, and asked to book a date. I felt kinda pressured to accept and did so assuming it would be fine since at the time i only knew she'd be a wedding guest, and what she described she wanted wasn't particularly hard to do. I did explain to her that I'm not super experienced and i don't have any professional training.

Well today was the day and she came over. I don't know her very well so i was already anxious about that. I also made the mistake of not insisting she send me pictures of what she wanted beforehand... Turns out she wanted something i don't have much experience with (square nail extensions with French tips). I also don't have the colors she wanted, so we tried to find alternatives together. Her nail shape is also not very appropriate for the shape she wanted (which i told her before starting), so after i did her extensions and shaped them... She didn't like how they looked. So she asked me to reshape them. So i did. Anyway long story short, the final result is nothing like her inspo pics - it doesn't look bad but it's clearly not what she was hoping for. They're just a very different vibe. I could tell she didn't like them but she felt bad saying it after i spent so long on them.

I feel really guilty for even charging her anything now, even tho i realise i didn't mislead her at any point. and i keep thinking she's either gonna have nails she hates for her wedding or she's gonna have to pay much more at a salon to get what she actually wanted. Idk i just feel awful because I've never had this happen before. I was so anxious and tired by the end, and i wish i had just told her no to what she showed me since i felt unsure. I've litterally spent 30 min typing this out, and i still can't sleep because of how anxious i feel about this situation. I regret not asking her for more information beforehand, just cause my friend insisted "she's super chill" and "she'll like whatever you do"..... I'm definitely asking my friend to stop trying to "bring me more business" when she knows I'm not comfortable working on someone i don't know well.

I messaged the girl after she left and apologized that her nails didn't turn out the way she wanted but that i hoped the look would grow on her and that she had a nice time at least. She said "awww yeah it's ok i can work with it" which further consolidates she definitely doesn't like them 🫠

This has made me so anxious and discouraged i don't know how to deal with it. I can't help but feel like I'm somehow a bad person for not turning her down in the first place :(

I m asking because i tried this and i had a weird result, trying to figure out if i did it wrong. So a friend wanted a milky white nail and i don't have any milky white polishes, but i do have a white polygel that is pretty translucent if applied in a thin layer. So i cured the builder 90 seconds, then applied a layer of the liquid polygel and cured another 90 seconds just in case. Because i had to paint after and do a bit of filing, i wiped off the tacky layer. But when i went in to file, on some of the nails the polygel layer was basically peeling off. I just filed until it stopped peeling off so she wouldn't have issues.

To be fair the two products are different brands, but i didn't think it would be a problem. What did i do wrong? Should i have wiped off the tacky layer on the hard gel before applying? Or is it just the two products simply don't work together?

Edit: Guys I'm sorry for not replying to any of the comments but thank you so much for the encouragement! I ended up going and a few other classmates also came ❤️❤️ we had a nice time despite it being a bit overwhelming 😅 the event location is quite cramped and it's hard to dance when 3 other advanced couples are basically taking up half the room haha. But we did our best and hopefully more of us will feel comfortable going from now on ❤️

So i've been doing Lindy as a follow since January and i *think* I'm doing okay. I haven't missed a single class and i genuinely enjoy it every week, despite being anxious even before class. I still have a hard time reading cues from more soft handed leads, and kinda dissociate when tired or anxious, but I'm definitely not terrible.

Still, i have only been to *one* social because of how scared i am to go 😭 it's mainly anxiety about the *people* aspect of it, since there's many strangers and much more advanced dancers there. The only time i went i brought a friend who doesn't dance and we mostly hung out on the sidelines. Once my friend left and the people i did dance with got caught up in other circles i just hung out there by myself watching other people. I got pretty uncomfortable after an hour and left.

Only one friend from class goes regularly, and they're a lead who i really love dancing with, we have great rapport. But they're 23 and have their own friends who also go to the social, while I'm a 32 yo awkward woman lol. I don't wanna be the weird lady who follows them around all evening 💀 i know I'm probably overthinking it but I do also want to be mindful and not make them feel like i need my hand held all night.

In more neutral contexts i am very friendly if you come up to talk to me, but here there's like an added layer of pressure to not be a terrible follow, not to mention being in close contact with a stranger, which is quite hard for me. I know this is super rambly but I'm trying to hype myself up to go this evening, and I'm so anxious i can't even eat lol. It's ridiculous, you'd think I'm going to be presenting my doctorate thesis 😅

Do you have any advice? Litterally anything lol. I've been saying "this week I'm definitely going" for *so long*, i HAVE to do it at some point

I just got a pair of Freeclips today (not freeclip 2), and i thought i was doing something wrong, but it seems the touch controls just don't really work. On the front bit i only got it to work once or twice, and otherwise i have to tap super hard for it to work. Even then, it's hit or miss, 70% of the time it doesn't work.

I saw a few people online saying this as well, but most reviews don't mention this issue at all. So was i just unlucky and got a faulty pair? Or are they all like this?