Today at school: we did our book work in the morning,I had lunch with a friend, after lunch I crammed five people (including myself) into my Subaru and we went to Cosmo-Prof, a beauty supply store (these are all stock photos today, sorry).
Once we got back, it was about 2:15ish, I started giving Stephanie (one of my fellow Nail Tech students) a manicure so that Cathy (a new Nail Tech student) could watch and get used to the order of procedures before she gives her first manicure later this week. Everything is hunky-dory up until this point, fun and games, rainbows and unicorns, blah, blah, blah... (Can you hear the ominous music building?)
I take my time setting up for the manicure and get started about 2:30 or so. At 2:50 pm our instructor reminds me that Stephanie has to leave each day at 3 pm. I should have known this! Ha! Actually I did know it, I just forgot it, grrrr... So due to my lapse in memory I've been dinking around, being slow and careful about filing her nails with my new toy, a crystal file, which feels better on the skin but is waaaaaaay slower than using the school provided files and then I was cutting her cuticles with the nippers ever-so-gently to make sure I'm not cutting anything I'm not supposed to... ugh! I should have been most of the way done by 2:50 and I wasn't even halfway finished!
Stephanie says she doesn't have to go right this very second, yay!, and she wants to let me try and finish the service. So I hurry up and complete the nipping, skip the arm and hand massage with her permission and go straight to the "new" Gellish nail polish that we are starting to work with. BUT having never having used the product before we had to have Cathy read the directions which I then performed on Stephanie's fingers. Apply the Ph Bonder. Done. Apply a thin Foundation coat and put under the UV light. Done. Side note here - the Foundation coat was one of the thickest products I've ever seen to come out of a nail polish bottle and the brush is super short and unlike anything I've ever used before... NOT helping my gotta-rush-rush-rush situation here but I still managed to whip out the foundation layer and get started on the first coat of color. I even got the first coat of color on all but three of her ten fingers and then all of a sudden the bell rings at the front desk...
DING!
Our instructor had an appointment and has left for the day and the other instructor is helping her students in another room so there is no staff available to be at the front. I ask Cathy to go help whoever is at the front while I finish putting the first coat of color on, albeit poorly due to a combination of my first-time-nervousness, lack of confidence because the product is so new to me, agitation that there is nobody at the front desk, embarrassment that I forgot Stephanie leaves every day at 3 pm and frustration that I am still slower than I should be.
Cathy comes back, the walk-in-customer wants to book a facial but Cathy doesn't know how to do that on our system yet. I quick polish the last fingernail with the first coat and Stephanie puts her hand under the UV light to start the curing process as I go to the front to help Cathy. Success! We get the walk-in client booked for a facial on Thursday. Failure! My be-frazzlement and temporary lack of confidence turned her off from booking a pedi-mani that same day as well, meaning she was totally interested in booking a pedi-mani until I started talking to her about it. Normally I'm a good up-seller but today I completely turned her off from something she clearly wanted. I don't remember that ever happening before, wow, another blow to my self-esteem!
The walk-in has walked-out and I'm quickly trying to show Cathy what I did to book the appointment and Stephanie comes up to the front desk and says she has to go, it's 3:30 and she needs to leave - but her fingernails are sticky!
I remember that rubbing alcohol will take off the stickiness and so we grab some cotton and rubbing alcohol - the sticky comes off her nails just fine but so does most of the polish! Ugh!
Stephanie is kind to me but obviously unhappy and has to Go Right Now.
I apologize profusely and promise to do re-do everything correctly tomorrow morning. She utters a gracious, politically correct response and skedaddles out of there as fast as she can to try and make her next appointment on time.
I feel horrible! Part of me is really, really glad Stephanie is a fellow student and not a paying client but the other part of me fully recognizes that she could have just as easily been a walk-in and I was completely unprepared to meet her needs in a timely fashion.
This is truly One of the Worst Feelings In The World. I don't like it at all and never want to feel it again. EVER. I let her down and I let myself down but I'm going to do manicure after manicure until I meet the 40 minute mark from start to finish, no matter what kind of polish my clients want. This is my biggest goal as of right now, although I officially have until mid-January to complete it, I want to accomplish it within the next week or two!
So who's with me? Who wants to come down to Murano Beauty Academy and get a manicure for $8 or a mani-pedi for $20 so I can keep practicing? Unfortunately I can't offer these particular services for free at the school anymore and I don't have all the equipment to do them at home but they're still really good prices and while tips are greatly appreciated they are not required - I need the practice more!
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