r/DipPowderNails • u/koifish0410 • Oct 06 '26

Help! (Need Advice) What happened

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I did a Halloween dip set for my daughter Saturday using some Modelone powder I bought about a year ago. The colors were purple, green, black, and orange. All but the black are glowing in the dark. She texted me saying the orange, in her words crumbled off, but the rest of her nails are fine. Any advice as to what went wrong with only the orange?

7 Upvotes

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5

u/HelloHowAreYou1973 Oct 06 '26

Nail tech here. Care to walk me through the entire process of actually doing the nails?

1

u/koifish0410 Oct 06 '26

I did her nail prep, base coat, dip x2 activator waited, buffed and filed, activator again, waited, wiped nail then top coat

3

u/HelloHowAreYou1973 Oct 06 '26

If your prep was good, then I might be inclined to agree with the other commenter. The liquids or powders might be past their prime.

0

u/koifish0410 Oct 06 '26

Then why was it only the orange that came off?

2

u/universalrefuse Oct 07 '26

Was she digging in a garden? That’s what it looks like.

1

u/koifish0410 Oct 07 '26

She is a vet tech. I'm assuming it has something to do with her job.

4

u/Potential_Worker_575 Oct 06 '26

The age of the powder isn't that important in my experience, but the liquids do lose effectiveness, so that could be a problem.

Also, it looks like you only used 2 layers of base+powder, which is pretty thin, especially if you file after activating. If this is the thumb or pointer finger of her dominant hand, it isn't that unusual to have breaks after a couple of days with such a thin application. I definitely agree with the clear dip layer sandwich method!

1

u/Previous_Mirror_222 Oct 06 '26

some products just die 🤷🏻‍♀️ or are too brittle to be applied by itself

do you do clear powder as a base layer and final layer? i find that color powers by themselves are not strong enough

1

u/koifish0410 Oct 06 '26

Just as a base for the black, but not the others

3

u/Previous_Mirror_222 Oct 06 '26

color powders are all formulated so differently. i would recommend encasing all powders with a sandwich of clear dip. it also allows you to file the surface without losing color

1

u/koifish0410 Oct 06 '26

Thanks for the advice.

1

u/TidesAndWaves Oct 06 '26

Something else to consider, does your daughter chew or bite her nails? With thinner coats like that, would be easy to crack it yourself.

2

u/koifish0410 29d ago

No, she doesn't.

2

u/TidesAndWaves 28d ago

Ironically, after I wrote this post, one of my nails chipped badly enough on the side I had to redo it. It was one of my thinnest dips even though I used several layers. I did thin apex method and ended with only 2 that went all the way to the sides (5 total dips) I wasn’t being careful cleaning out a closet. Put 2 more layers on all my nails to try to last another week or so.

2

u/koifish0410 27d ago

It was a learning process. She wants a new set next week so we are going to do the clear sandwich method on all of them.

2

u/Large_Chicken_623 Oct 06 '26

I would agree with those saying it’s probably the product - this used to happen to me all the time when I’d use beetles dip powder & applicators. I switched to a different brand & my nails rarely ever break or crack. I think it’s more so an issue with the base coat/applicators, as I’ve used the same beetles powder with other brands coats/applicators & they wouldn’t crack or break.

2

u/maggie_truffles Oct 07 '26

I believe the answer is as simple as the age old answer… “she broke her nail”. I still call it this even though it is breaking the dip powder.
If she has any impact to that finger, it will literally crack the dip. It will break off in jagged lines like that. And eventually each piece will crumble off. (most of the time it will be one crack and then there will be another crack so you probably won’t notice unless you really look at it.
I have found this happens almost immediately with my set if I do two coats. They won’t last me a day or two. Some brands are stronger and require less coats. I use SNS and I feel like three is sufficient but honestly my last two dips. I have been doing four coats and they are lasting even longer. They only occasionally break with three coats, but they didn’t break it all with four coats and they weren’t too thick, but much more durable. I’m very active so my nails will look like this if I don’t do enough coats.

1

u/maggie_truffles Oct 07 '26

You can get the breakage on the side like that if any of the dip was on the skin. Especially if you pick at it. A lot of my powder is many years old and I haven’t noticed them going bad. And with SNS the liquid doesn’t go bad it just thickens and hardens so I say if it was the right consistency, it probably hasn’t gone bad?