Wet manicure. Skin maceration - what is it in medicine? Description, causes of manifestation and treatment methods

13.01.2024

One of the new words in traditional nail treatment in the most literal sense is “maceration” - also known as wet manicure.

It is also of Latin origin and means “softening, separation by the action of liquid (water).” As a rule, maceration, otherwise wet manicure, is part of a classic manicure, also involves performing a hot manicure and is one of the stages of an elite spa manicure.

Usually at home, when taking care of our nails ourselves, we perform a wet manicure procedure by pouring warm water into a bowl, adding salt or soda and dipping our fingers into this solution to soften the cuticle. You can also buy a standard set for performing “wet” manicure procedures, usually almond or citrus, and choose a ceramic or earthenware finger bath that will maintain the desired water temperature longer. This procedure also requires standard manicure tools: nail clippers, scissors, nail files, spatulas or orange sticks.

The ultimate goal of water treatments for nails is to remove the cuticle. But this requires several intermediate steps. The master who does the manicure should also remember to keep his own hands clean; it is better to work with gloves. You also need to remove the old varnish and file the nail plate into shape. If you file your nails after water treatments, they may begin to peel. Water causes the nail to swell, so doing a wet manicure immediately before gel extensions is also not recommended. To get a high-quality gel manicure, it is good to carry out wet or classic nail treatment a couple of days before extensions.
Wet manicure stage. A bath made of natural material (processed clay - ceramics, porcelain, earthenware) is filled with warm water (45C) with additives. This could be green tea, sea salt, pieces of fruit, rose petals, cream. You can add a few drops of essential oil. You can put small objects at the bottom of the bath: large beads, round pebbles. By playing with them, your fingers will receive an additional massage, and the additives in the water will improve the structure of the skin.
If maceration is performed using a standard set, it is a good idea to do a wrap. To do this, the hands are lubricated with a special product and wrapped in a warm towel for 5 minutes. After wrapping, the composition is washed off from the brushes.
We move on to ridding the nail plate of the keratinized outer part of the cuticle. Some masters perform this procedure with a spatula, but it is best to use chopsticks, preferably made from orange wood. The thin tip of a stick (plastic with a rubber tip is also possible, but not advisable) easily pushes back the edge of the cuticle adjacent to the plate. Now you can cut it with scissors.
Finally, the hands are peeled using a special scrub. It is applied to the hands with gentle massage movements for several minutes and washed off. Then the hands are massaged again with moisturizing hand lotion until it is completely absorbed.

Thanks to this procedure, hands look healthier, younger, more pleasant. Now they are ready to complete a classic manicure, nail art or extensions.

Briefly about manicure and possible problems

It often happens that beautiful and well-groomed nails require correction of a crooked manicure or unexpected repair of a broken nail. You can perform these procedures at home, without resorting to the help of specialists.

To repair a nail, you need a fabric bandage (preferably special silk) and glue. Fabric from a tea bag works well as a bandage using improvised materials. The damaged nail area is cleaned with a very soft file, then a fabric bandage is applied to it and secured with glue on top. After the glue has dried, the problem area is polished again with a nail file to remove any unevenness. Now the nail is ready for design.

Correcting a crooked manicure if it is smudged is almost impossible. It is necessary to completely remove the varnish and recoat the plate. If the polish gets on the cuticle or the ridges on the sides of the nail plate, a corrective nail polish remover pencil will help. It is filled with HDSL and has a convenient applicator tip that removes smeared varnish.

Every woman wants to always look irresistible and amazing. Exercising, proper nutrition, good cosmetics and stylish clothes will always help with this. But don't forget about hand care. After all, hands have always been a woman’s calling card. When meeting men, they always pay attention to women’s hands. They must be neat and well-groomed. And, of course, a manicure will help with this. Nowadays, there are many options to get your hands in order. One of them is a wet manicure. We will now consider its pros and cons, execution technique and design.

What is a wet manicure?

This is one of the varieties of traditional manicure, at the initial stage of which a bath of warm water is made for the hands in order to soften and soak the tissues with liquid. It is also called "maceration". Hand baths are usually made in a glass or ceramic container to retain heat longer. Disinfectants must be added to the water. You can also add aromatic salt, lemon for a whitening effect, or substances that moisturize and nourish the skin. This is the most common type of nail and cuticle treatment. Thanks to its simple technique, this manicure can be easily done at home.

Advantages and disadvantages

To decide whether to give yourself a wet manicure or not, you first need to know all its positive and negative sides. Pros:

It is a low-cost procedure, because to perform it you need water, a container and several essential tools, such as tweezers, manicure scissors, cuticle sticks, nippers and files.
This type of manicure will take a little time to complete, even if you do it yourself.
If you haven't had a manicure for a long time or your cuticles are growing too long, then only a wet manicure can help you.
This procedure is suitable for everyone, without exception.

What then are the disadvantages of maceration?

if you are not very good with manicure tools, then there is a possibility of getting hurt;
instruments that are not disinfected can cause infection;
poorly sharpened tools cause burrs;
rapid regrowth of the cuticle.

Maceration technique

So how to do a wet manicure? The procedure for performing nail treatment is quite simple. For it you will need a minimum of time, money and physical effort. Judge for yourself, it's simple:

First, wash your hands with soap.
Prepare the necessary tools and a hand bath, the water for which needs to be heated to 38-40 degrees. You can add soda, salt or soap to the water.
Steam your hands to soften the skin and make it easier to remove the cuticle.
After this, use an orange stick or spatula to gently push back the cuticle.
Use tweezers or trim off any excess dead skin around the nail.
After removing the cuticles, trim your nails to the desired length with scissors and file them into shape.
If necessary, apply nail polish.
At the end of the process, apply oil to the cuticle and nourishing cream to your hands.

You can see in the next photo a wet manicure in progress. Let's move on to the next stage.

Wet manicure design

So, your hygienic manicure is ready, your hands and nails are in order, they are fresh, tender and neat. Now it’s worth returning to the seventh point and taking care of the design. If you don’t like varnishes, you like naturalness, then you can simply coat it with clear varnish and call it a day. But if you have an event or a date, then you want to complete the look and add color to your nails. Now it’s up to you to choose what shade your varnish should be. And now there are simply a huge number of them. But besides this, there are various top coatings that perform important functions in creating a manicure.

Protect the coating from external influences.
Maintain the aesthetic appearance of manicure for several days.
Topcoats have some effects that will make the same polish look different.
An important feature of some fixatives is the drying effect, which significantly speeds up the drying process of the coating.

Now let's look at what types of tops there are that can complement and complete your manicure.

Colorless topcoat with a glossy shine and a protective function.
Top with drying effect.
A very popular finishing matte coating among many, which evens out the nail and makes any glossy varnish matte. But the downside of this top is that it chips quickly.
"Wet nails" effect. This coating takes longer to dry than others.
To add shine to your nails, you can use a top coat with multi-colored glitter.
For a rainbow glow effect, apply the holographic version.
A top coat with a sugar effect will add texture to your manicure.

As you can see, just a few products will help you decorate an ordinary manicure and make it beautiful. Experiment and make your hands even more attractive.

In medicine, maceration is the swelling of tissues, as well as their saturation with liquid. All these changes occur as a result of the erosion of the substance located between the cells.

Cosmetologists decided to borrow this definition, and now in many beauty salons you can find the service of maceration or wet manicure. This procedure is one of the parts of nail care. How to do a wet manicure? Let's figure it out.

Tools

In order to perform the procedure, you need to use the usual set of tools and preparations:

Various nail files;
Scissors (can be replaced with tweezers);
Orange wood stick
Cosmetics that are used to add to the bath can be different. Today you can purchase a ready-made set for water manicure. The almond and citrus sets are especially popular. In addition, you can also purchase the bath itself, which is made of ceramics. You can add lotions and rose petals to the bath.

Process of creation

If you decide to treat your nails at home, then you need to strictly follow the instructions:

It is necessary to wash your hands thoroughly using soap;
Make a hand bath, preheating the contents to 38 degrees.
If you wish, you can also add salt, soap and soda to the solution;
Steaming should be done in stages, steaming first one hand and then the other. When the skin and cuticle are completely softened, you can begin processing the cuticle;
Using a stick, you should move it away;
If necessary, you need to adjust the length of the nail;
Use small scissors to cut the cuticle;
A design should be made on the nails (if necessary);
Upon completion, cream is applied to the nails (applied to the handles) and oil (to the cuticles).

Completing this procedure will not take much time, and the set of tools used is minimal.

Positive as well as negative sides

This procedure has a whole range of advantages:

This procedure can be performed both in the salon and at home;
Low cost of tools, because to complete this we need to prepare an orange stick, a bath and scissors;
The procedure does not take too much time, which is extremely important for a modern girl;
If you haven’t had a manicure for a long time, then this procedure is the only way to get your hands in order;
Maceration has virtually no restrictions, so it can be used by both men and women.

Like any procedure, maceration also has its negative sides:

There is a risk of injury to the skin;
There is a risk of infection. This occurs in cases where the instruments have not been properly disinfected;
The rapid appearance of burrs is possible if the tools were poorly sharpened;
The new skin layer grows quite quickly, so it must be removed quickly.

Possible troubles

Quite often it happens that the beauty of nails is spoiled by an incorrectly performed manicure or a broken nail. You can perform recovery procedures at home, without resorting to the help of professionals.

To repair a nail, it is best to use silk (bandage fabric) and glue. The area of the damaged nail is treated with a soft nail file. A bandage is placed in place. The result is fixed with glue. After the glue has completely dried, the area is treated with a nail file. This is necessary to ensure that there are no irregularities.

It is practically impossible to correct a crooked manicure if it has been smudged. To adjust, you will have to remove the varnish and reapply it. If the varnish gets on the skin, then a liquid designed to remove the varnish coating will help.

Maceration of the skin and nails (water manicure) is a fairly simple type of procedure that will take no more than 10 minutes to complete.

Wet manicure: video tutorial

In this case, forceps and scissors are not needed. Moreover, with the advent of special preparations, there is no need to soak the skin. By applying products containing fruit acids with their peeling effect to the cuticle, you get a double effect: both softening the cuticle and removing it. The soft cuticle comes off on its own, the harder cuticle is removed with a stick or pumice.

With an unedged manicure, the likelihood of skin injury from cutting instruments is eliminated, which means there is no risk of infection.

An unedged manicure is not suitable for nails that are too neglected. If possible, it is better to use mixed techniques. For example, your hands have hangnails, but the cuticle is intact and not too rough: then the hangnails can be removed with forceps, and the cuticle can be removed using an untrimmed method.

The second benefit of dry manicure: when soaked, the nail, which has a layered structure, absorbs water and becomes flatter. When we apply polish, the nail dries and returns to its original shape, causing the polish to peel off. With a dry manicure, the nail does not undergo temporary deformation, so the varnish on it lasts much longer.

Wet manicure

A wet manicure begins with washing your hands, followed by a warm hand bath (this manicure is called wet or maceration), which softens the cuticle and has a soothing effect on the skin of your hands in general.

You can apply a special composition to soften the cuticle and oil to nourish the nails on and around the holes. The softened cuticle is pushed back with a manicure stick. Usually they use either orange wood sticks or special pencil-like pumice sticks. If the cuticle is not removed in this way, then it is cut with special scissors. Since damage to living tissue can lead to infection, the formation of panaritium, and hangnails, precautions must be taken. All instruments must be treated with a disinfectant solution or treated thermally.

Hot manicure

Hot manicure is a type of wet manicure and is often called royal, as it is a pleasant and relaxing procedure with excellent results. The procedure is perfect for combating brittle and dry nails and damaged cuticles. This type of care is recommended for both men and children. The first, if the vessels on the hands are located close, and the second, due to thin and delicate skin. At the same time, hot manicure treats thin, brittle nails and is especially good for children and teenagers. It helps to form strong, healthy nails. Naturally, the desired effect can only be expected in the case of regular procedures.

One of the advantages of a hot manicure is that it goes well with both classic edged and European manicures.

The peculiarity of this manicure is that the hands are placed not in water, but in special lotions or oils.

Hot manicure is prescribed as a separate procedure or stage of nail extension.

Procedure to complete:
1) The hands of the client, the master and the workplace are disinfected.
2) Nails are filed.
Before the procedure, any remaining old polish is removed to prepare the nails. Then they do a light hand peeling.
3) Lotion heated by a special apparatus is poured into the bath.

A disposable bath is placed in a hot manicure machine. First, you need to pour a special healing and nourishing lotion into the bath. Special lotions contain vegetable oils, mainly peach and olive, vitamins E and A, lanolin, ceramides, mineral additives: all these components soften the cuticle and, in addition, promote rapid growth and nutrition of nails. The hot manicure device operates in two modes. First, it heats the water to 40 °C, then maintains the temperature at the optimal level.
4) Dip your fingers into the heated solution for 5-10 minutes.
5) The fingers of the other hand are lowered into the heated solution for 5-10 minutes.
6) Take your hands out of the solution and rub the lotion into the cuticle with massaging movements. The remaining product is distributed over the skin of the hands with the same gentle massaging movements. The remaining lotion is removed with a napkin, after which the client washes his hands.
7) Cover your hands with a cold towel for a few minutes.
8) Using an orange stick, gently push back the cuticle for a European manicure. When performing a classic manicure, the cuticle is removed with a special pumice stone or tweezers.
9) Paraffin therapy will help consolidate the result.
10) Next you should polish the surface of the nail.
11) You can cover the nail with a strengthening, healing agent or just varnish.