Keeping your manicures and other nail services sanitary has always been an essential part of running a successful salon.
But, with hygiene procedures being tightened up following the Coronavirus outbreak, it really is more important than ever!
How confident are you in the cleanliness of your manicure services? Are you following the best practices for the most sanitary nail treatments?
Take a look at our step-by-step guide to find out how to best clean your nail tools and ensure clients are reassured by your hygiene procedures…
1. Ensure your manicure table is clean and tidy
Before your client shows up, be sure that your manicure table is completely clutter free. Any leftovers from your previous client should be cleared away – tissues and cotton wool pads should be in the bin, any tools should have been properly disinfected and put away.
Clean the entire area with a surface disinfectant, such as Mundo’s Multi Surface Disinfectant Wipes or Barbicide Surface Spray. You should either wipe your table with a disposable cloth, or one that can be washed after use.
If you are using a perspex screen for manicure tables, this should also be cleaned with a disinfectant on both sides between each client.
Related: How to Use Perspex Hygiene Screens in Your Salon
2. Wash hands and wear your salon PPE
When your client arrives, always wash your hands in front of them, so they can be confident that you are maintaining good hygiene practices.
Then, put on any suitable salon PPE – this might be a little different to usual! To reduce transmission of Covid-19, you should now wear a face shield as well as your mask. Once your hands are completely clean and dry, put on your disposable gloves, if needed. If you aren’t wearing gloves, use hand sanitiser regularly throughout the treatment.
Related: A Guide to Using PPE in Your Salon
3. Ask clients to sanitise their hands
Clients need to wash their hands before a manicure, too. Antibacterial liquid soap and water is best, but you should have a bottle hand sanitiser available at your station, too.
Our 2 litre Mundo Sanitising Hand Gel Refill offers amazing value for money for your salon.
4. Get your clean supplies ready
While your client washes their hands, take your clean equipment out of your salon steriliser if using one, or other sanitary storage area. Keeping your drawers and station nice and organised is essential, so you don’t have to rummage around too much to find what you need.
5. Wipe the nail with nail plate cleanser
Once you have everything clean and ready to go, you can start your manicure! Wipe the client’s nail with a cleanser such as Mundo Nail Plate Cleanser and begin the treatment.
6. Use a dust collector when filing
When filing nails, dust is not only messy but isn’t sanitary, either. Those nail particles could be carrying infections, plus you don’t want to be breathing in any chemicals released by the polish or acrylic.
Using a dust collector, such as the Zephyros dust collector helps keep your manicure table as clean as possible.
7. Throw away any disposable tools
Don’t leave single-use nail tools and supplies out on your table during your client’s manicure! As soon as you are done with a disposable nail file, tissue or orange stick, put it in the bin by your table.
Once you are finished with any reusable tools, put them in a tray ready to be sanitised and disinfected when the manicure is over – be sure you don’t get them mixed up with clean implements and tools.
8. Wash your hands again!
When the client’s manicure is over, remove your gloves by rolling them off from the cuff. Put them in the bin and wash your hands.
Once your client has left, take off your face mask – if it is disposable, put it in the bin. If it is reusable, put it in the laundry basket before getting yourself a fresh one.
9. Disinfect and sterilise your nail tools and station
Now it’s time to clean up ready for the next client!
It’s important that you ensure all of your nail tools are thoroughly sanitised and disinfected to prevent any risk of cross contamination…
How to Clean Nail & Beauty Tools in a Salon
Before we get started, make sure you know the difference between sanitising, disinfecting, and sterilising…
- Sanitising is removing any debris and washing with soap and water
- Disinfecting kills 99% of all bacteria, fungi and virus
- Sterilising kills all microorganisms present, including the spores
The first thing you need to do is to gather together all multi-use nail tools that are suitable for proper disinfection.
This usually includes hard and non-absorbent nail tools such as:
- Metal nail clippers
- Metal or glass nail files
- Electric nail file bits
- Any plastic or metal cuticle pushers or nail art sticks
- Manicure bowls
- Nail cleaning brushes
How to Disinfect Nail & Beauty Tools
To properly clean and disinfect your nail or beauty tools, the step-by-step process should look like this:
- Sanitize all reusable tools by washing them
- Dry them with a clean towel
- Submerge them in disinfectant for at least 10 minutes
- Either remove them or leave them in a disinfectant jar on your station
- If removed, place them in a steriliser or clean draw
- After sterilisation, leave your nails tools in the steriliser until you are ready to use them
Start by getting a clean and dry scrubbing brush. Use it to dust away any dust and debris into the bin. Then, take your nail tools to the sink to sanitise them. Fill your sink up with some hot soapy water and give them a good wash. When done, rinse them off and dry them with a clean towel or fresh paper towel.
If you don’t sanitise your tools in water first, the bits of dirt and dust will stop your disinfectant being effective in the next step.
Once sanitised and completely dry, you can now disinfect your nail tools. To do this, you completely immerse your sanitised tools into a disinfectant solution that should be at least 70% isopropyl or ethyl alcohol, such as Mundo Power Plus Ultra Concentrated Instrument & Tool Disinfectant.
Your nail tools should be submerged in disinfectant solution for at least 10 minutes. A manicure table jar is ideal for keeping clean tools on hand as well as demonstrating to clients that you are following the best hygienic practices. The Barbicide Manicure Table Jar is a professional-looking option.
Always follow the instructions of the particular brand of disinfectant that you use. Some can cause rust and corrosion to you nail implements if left in for too long.
Be careful how you store your clean and disinfected tools overnight. Airtight plastic boxes and bags can become breeding grounds for bacteria. It’s better to simply line a clean draw with some paper towels and neatly place your tools inside – remembering not to cross contaminate them with unclean tools.
Do You Need to Sterilise Your Nail Implements?
The majority of the time, thorough disinfection is enough for your nail and beauty tools without the need for sterilisation.
However, if you tools ever come into contact with blood or bodily fluids, you do need to sterilise them straight away. There are some other scenarios that would require you to sterilise nail tools, too – such as to minimise the risk of transmitting Covid-19.
If you did want to sterilise your nail tools, you would still need to sanitise and disinfect them as outlined above.
You can then place them in an appropriate steriliser.
Read about how to choose the right steriliser for your salon here.
Once sterilised, you can use your sterilising unit to store your cleaned tools until you need them. A double draw steriliser like the Ceriotti Germix 2 is handy for keeping your tools on a hygiene rotation.
How Do You Clean a Nail Buffer or Emery Board?
Cleaning non-porous tools made from metal and glass is straight forward. But, what about porous abrasives, such as buffers and nail files?
You still need to disinfect these implements if they are not single use. The same process should still apply – you need to remove all the dust, wash them and apply a disinfectant for the required amount of time.
If you can’t completely submerge your nail buffer in disinfectant, you can spray it directly onto the surface instead.
Shop your salon hygiene products online with Salons Direct for an excellent range with fast delivery
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