Chrome Nails in Florence, KY

How chrome is applied

Chrome is not painted. A no-wipe gel top coat is cured, then the powder is rubbed into that tacky-cured surface with an applicator until it burnishes to a mirror, and a further top coat seals it. The rubbing is the technique — press too lightly and it looks dusty, too hard and it patches.

Because it needs a gel surface underneath, chrome works over shellac gel, over dip and over an acrylic set, but not over regular polish.

The finishes people ask for by name

• Mirror chrome. Full silver reflection. The most dramatic and the least forgiving — every ridge underneath shows, so the prep matters more than the powder.
• Glazed pearl. A soft white shimmer over a sheer pink base, the "glazed donut" look. Comfortably our most-requested chrome and the most wearable to an office.
• Aura. Chrome concentrated in the center of the nail and faded outward, so it reads as a glow rather than a mirror.
• Colored chrome. Rose gold, lilac, blue and green shift depending on the base color underneath — the same powder over black and over nude gives two different nails.

Making it last

Chrome's weak point is the free edge, where the seal can wear and the shine dulls first. Two things extend it: capping the edge properly with the sealing top coat, which is on us, and cuticle oil daily, which is on you — dry hands make the base coat flex and micro-cracks kill the mirror.

Expect the finish to hold as long as whatever it is over: two to three weeks on shellac, three to four on dip or acrylic. Hand sanitizer used many times a day is the fastest way to dull it.

Chrome on an accent nail

The most-booked version is not ten chrome nails. It is two — usually the ring finger on each hand — over a plain set, which costs the same $15 and reads far more deliberate on most hands.

It also pairs well with a French tip: chrome on the tip alone over a nude base is one of the more elegant things on this menu and it grows out invisibly.

What to bring and what to say

Bring the photo. "Chrome" covers mirror, pearl, aura and half a dozen color shifts, and the picture in your head is not necessarily the one in ours. If the photo is under warm salon light and your hands will mostly be seen in daylight, we will tell you how much of the effect survives the change.

Also say what you do with your hands. If you sanitize twenty times a shift, mirror chrome will disappoint you and pearl will not.