What is the best way to do cuticle prep?
I was taught to push cuticles back, & I did so as a nail tech faithfully on all my clients at every fill. Until after having nailz myself for 15 years straight & my cuticles wouldn't seal to my nail anymore & they were tender!?!? Not infected, but tender & gaping!?, like I could see under my cuticles. Not cool!
So I experimented with not pushing back cuticles & just removing the flaky residue in front of the cuticle.
Within a year, my cuticles re-sealed to my nail plate & the tenderness went away.
In the past 8 years since then, I no longer push cuticles back, but only remove the flaky residue in front of the cuticle. & that is also what we teach our Intro Associates. Remove the residue with cutique, but don't push on the protective seal, which can be damaging longterm.
Cutique is an enzyme which softens the flaky residue making easy to gently rub off with a cuticle tool, & can be found at this link