The Nail Polish Sending People to Hospital... Allegedly

[00:00:01]A lot of you probably already know that gel nail polish can be pretty harmful if it isn't applied and cured properly or even if it isn't formulated properly.

[00:00:11]From issues that are kind of annoying but not really dangerous like brittle nails that crack easily and peel as well as premature skin aging to far more serious concerns like potential hospitalization from allergic reactions.

[00:00:24]The last issue is the one I want to focus on today. Partly because I feel like allergies surrounding gel polish aren't very well understood, especially when it comes to the severity of the possible consequences, but also because while people can have an allergic reaction to pretty much any gel polish, there seem to have been a lot of complaints in very recent years about one brand in particular, Beatles Gel Polish. So, today I want to talk about some of the stories going around on social media about Beatles Gel Polish.

[00:00:52]what's causing all these negative reactions and whether it's a problem that's specific to one brand or a bigger issue in the industry. First of all, let's get into what people have been saying online. Recently, I saw this video on Tik Tok where a woman explained her sister's experience using Beatles gel polish. So, this woman's sister had apparently ended up in ER after using the Beatles black gel nail polish for the first time. The morning after using this specific polish, her nails started hurting and her fingers started swelling. For anybody who's done their own nails at home, you might recognize this feeling. And that pain got worse throughout the day until it was apparently excruciating.

[00:01:35]So, she went to urgent care, but they just prescribed her with some antihistamines, which didn't really seem to help. After finally removing the gel polish as much as she could, the pain just started getting worse and she couldn't even move her fingers. So, she went back to the emergency room. They confirmed that it was likely an allergic reaction to the nail polish, chemical burns from the polish, or both. They gave her a lidocaine patch to numb the pain, and a steroid cream to try and treat it. Just to be clear, if you haven't experienced this kind of reaction, then you might think it can't hurt that much, right? And that people are just making a big deal out of this.

[00:02:10]But this is something that can be incredibly painful. and it's not something that can typically just be cleared up really quick, even if you take the polish off. The woman in the video then posted this update showing what her sister's nails look like 5 days after they first started hurting. This kind of negative reaction to Beatles gel polish has become so common that apparently poison control is aware of the issue. That's kind of crazy, but it's it's not really surprising. There are so many people online talking about having similar reactions after using Beatles products in particular, and consumers have been complaining about this brand for years now. A lot of people in the comments of these videos decided to blame the people who made the video, saying that there's nothing wrong with Beatles products and that they only had issues because they applied it wrong or cured it wrong. In fact, the amount of people coming to the defense of the brand is kind of creepy. It's definitely one of those brands that feels a little bit cultlike. Like anytime someone says anything negative about Beatles, their comments are flooded with people saying they must have used it wrong, that they've used it for years and they've never had any problems themselves, and being quite often mean about it. It's really bizarre. It's really, really odd.

[00:03:21]To be fair, the way the products are applied and cured might be part the issue in some cases, probably even a lot of the cases if we're being honest. But I don't think it completely explains why so many people are having problems with Beatles products specifically. And as we'll get into in a moment, the ones who haven't had any issues with the brand yet might have just been lucky so far at least because allergies to gel polish are very real. And although application is super important when it comes to avoiding developing gel allergy, it's definitely not the only factor. So what is it exactly that's causing these reactions? It basically comes down to something called methacrylates. You may well have heard about people talking about hea or seen a lot of products claiming to be hemree. We'll get on to the whole hemree thing in a moment. But he is an example of a methacrylate. I think I'm saying that right.

[00:04:09]Methacrylate. Methacrylate. And it's actually one of the most common ingredients that you'll find in gel in gel nail polish because it's very good at helping the product stick to your natural nails. But it's also one of the most common causes of contact dermatitis from gel nail polish. partly because it's so widely used, but also because of the nature of hea itself. He is not I say he but I feel like he is the right I don't know he is not only highly reactive but its molecules are also very very small meaning it can easily penetrate the skin barrier through your actual nail and can even go through gloves if you aren't wearing the right kind of protection. That's a bad thing because it's widely acknowledged that repeated exposure to unccured hea molecules can lead to contact dermatitis. When gel polish containing heema is properly applied and fully cured, the heema molecules bind together into long solid chains and it forms a hard coating on the nail. Once these chains have been formed, it means that hea is too large to penetrate your skin anymore. So once it's cured, you're all good. The problem comes before it's cured whilst it's still a liquid. He is a strong sensitizer. So if unccured gel repeatedly comes into contact with your skin, your immune system can eventually recognize it as a threat and develop an allergy. One of the most common ways this happens is by flooding the cuticles. If gel touches the skin around your nail, you need to clean it off as soon as possible and definitely before curing. One mistake isn't likely to cause an allergy, but repeated exposure over weeks, months, or even years definitely can. Another common mistake people make is peeling gel polish off instead of removing it properly. This obviously damages your nail because you're basically tearing the top protective layers of your nail off, which makes your nails thinner and weaker, meaning potential allergens like hea can penetrate them even more easily the next time you get your gel nails done. But the other main issue that I feel is more relevant here is undercuring. Like I said, he is only a problem when it's in liquid form and hasn't been cured properly. So, you're probably thinking that as long as you make sure you don't get any of this polish on your skin and as long as you cure it fully, then you should be fine.

[00:06:15]And yeah, that's true. That's the idea.

[00:06:17]But the problem is that it's not often as simple as that. We'll get into why a little bit later on in the video, but for now, all you need to know is that undercuring is a major problem when it comes to gel nail polishes. And along with other common issues I just discussed, it means it's very, very easy for someone to develop an allergy to hea. Once that happens, even tiny amounts can trigger a reaction. And unfortunately, that allergy is usually lifong and it doesn't go away. There is no cure. You can't train your body to tolerate it and you'll always just be allergic to it. And what's worse is that once you become sensitized to hea, there is a very good chance that you'll also become allergic to other acryates or potentially even all of them. That might not sound very worrying to you. You might think, okay, until you realize how many things contain acryates. Common ones include, of course, other nail products like dip powders and artificial nails, as well as other beauty products like um shampoos, conditioners, hairsprays, mascaras, liquid eyeliners, some anti-aging creams, moisturizers, sunscreens, and more. And outside of the beauty industry, acryates are used in laundry detergents, paints, floor polishes, medical bandages, surgical adhesives, contact lenses, and a whole long list of materials used in dentistry. And another thing that's concerning is that the women mentioned in the first Tik Tok video I played earlier, her sister was given topical steroids in order to treat the allergic reaction she was having. This is a common method of treating this kind of reaction. But as I covered with fellow content creator James Atkinson in this video, the skin condition that doesn't exist, but everyone could suffer from.

[00:07:53]Long-term use of topical steroids can lead to some serious issues. And given that once you develop an acacrylate allergy, you have it for life. There are plenty of people who are having these allergic reactions to products containing acryate fairly regularly and being prescribed to steroids each time as a treatment. So now what started out as just wanting to have pretty nails has now led to not only an accolate allergy that means you can't use a ridiculously long list of common products but you also now have a higher risk of developing stop topical steroid withdrawal on top of that all which in itself is a very serious condition. I'm so sorry I have to be very honest here.

[00:08:30]I have vertigo and I'm having a really hard time filming this video. I got it really bad today. I've taken some travel sickness tablets which seem to be helping a little bit but please bear with me. I'm struggling with my words.

[00:08:40]An acryate allergy is a serious problem and unfortunately a lot of the time it starts with hea use in gel polish.

[00:08:47]That's why he is often referred to as a gateway allergen. It's not necessarily like inherently bad, but there are real risks when it comes to using products that contain it. Just to be very clear though, he isn't unique to budget brands. A lot of professional gel systems have used hea for years. The important factors are the formulation, the concentration, and how the product is used. A well formulated gel that's applied carefully from a professional, kept on the skin, and cured correctly is unlikely to cause you any issues at all, even if you get your nails done every month. But sadly, there are a lot of things that can go wrong when it comes to those factors. And that's why a lot of people have concerns about Beatles as a brand specifically cuz it seems to many like something isn't quite right when it comes to their products. I personally got into doing my own gel nails from home during COVID, but I knew there were issues with DIY at home gel polish and that things could go wrong very easily. So, I decided to go to the gel bottle academy who have had their own issues with HEA in the past so I could learn more about gel nails and ultimately get an accredited qualification as a nail tech, you would call it. I eventually got into Korean gel polish, but before that, I kept seeing this brand Beatles. They were getting hugely popular online back then because people were stuck at home and Bezels were offering super affordable, super accessible like starter kits on Amazon, which made them a cult favorite with people starting their DIY at home nail journey. But even back then, something didn't sit right with me about the brand. They were really popular on Amazon, largely because they were so cheap, but they always felt a little bit off in my opinion. For some reason, they felt a little bit drop shipped to me.

[00:10:24]There was something a little bit teemu about them. Something about the branding and the marketing and the prices that just didn't it didn't seem like a legitimate brand to me. Obviously, all just my opinion. Maybe it was that they had huge bundles of color polishes at ridiculously cheap prices and endless listings on Amazon of all their products. Maybe it was cuz the packaging was a little bit back then. I'll be honest with you. Look quite cheap. And I think back then they just had color codes on them instead of like actual product names. I think they might still do this actually. I'm not sure. It all just felt really generic and no different to the drop ship stuff I was seen as I mentioned on Teimu and Wish.

[00:11:00]In my opinion, it felt like they become popular purely because they had a better marketing budget, but they still feel like the lowquality drop ship Tim Teimu that made its way over to Amazon.

[00:11:11]To be honest, it felt like a less professional, highquality nail brand entering the market and more like they were trying to be the fast fashion version of gel polish, which is actually something they've said themselves. On their website, they say, "We developed a new system to produce the nail polish gels as fast as possible to match up with Fast Fashion's pace." I don't think there's anything to be proud of.

[00:11:34]Regardless of how I felt about the brand, though, they quickly became one of the most popular at home gel polish brands around. using Amazon's wide reach to capitalize on the DIY beauty boom during the pandemic. And suddenly, there were far more products that were previously mostly just used by professionals making their way into customers homes where they could experiment themselves despite often lacking any understanding of the potential risks involved. Some of them were harmless, like cutting your own hair. Some of them were um questionable, like beles. So, it's no surprise that we also saw an explosion in people experiencing negative reactions to gel polish, including chemical burns and developing acrylic allergies. And as I mentioned, Beatles was one of the brands that seem to have a lot of people complaining about the negative experiences that they had using their products. To be fair, while I do personally think there's something off with Beatles, I also think the sheer amount of reactions we are seeing online to the brand is partly because so many people are buying it because it's one of the more affordable and easily accessible options. I don't believe Beatles are the only brand this is happening to. They are just one of the more popular. But others have pointed out other issues that may have led to Beatles in particular receiving a lot of negativity. There's this one creator on YouTube, for example, who goes by Nail Narrative. Uh she did a video called Exposing the brand that allegedly gave me an allergy, why Beatles can't cure.

[00:12:57]She's been talking for a while about her experience with Beatles gel polish, which she believes gave her an allergy to acrylates. She talked in a lot of detail about what happened to her and why she thinks Beatles products specifically are the cause. She also talked about how the brand allegedly failed to provide SDS forms for their product. These are legally required documents that detail the chemical composition, potential health risks, and safe handling procedures for a product.

[00:13:24]One thing I learned in my training, if you cannot get this from a brand, you do not use the brand. You just do not use them. This is a legal requirement, let alone just like a health and safety thing. And she's also raised some suspicions about the val validity of the SCS forms Beatles have since uploaded to their website after being called out.

[00:13:42]After looking into the ingredients um in some of the Beatles products, she claimed that one of the big issues with their products is that they not only contain very high percentage of acryates, but they also contain very low levels of photo initiators, which are the ingredients that trigger the curing process when the polish is exposed to UV or LED light. They're curing things.

[00:14:03]This has led her and plenty of others to claim that Beatles gel polishes are chemically incapable of curing properly because there allegedly isn't enough of the photo initiators in the formulas in order for the high levels of methacrylates to cure. Nail Narrative has gone into way more detail about the many issues she thinks the brand has which I can't go into in this video. I'd just be copying her video to be super long. So 100% go check her out if you want to know more about this and her suspicions. But despite the multiple claims that people are making about the inadequacies in Beatles gel product, there have also been a lot of people insisting that Beatles isn't a problem.

[00:14:40]That is just user error. One of the most prominent examples was Nani Torres, who is a well-known personality in the beauty world. But just like many have been saying, for the people who have been using Beatles gel polish without any issues, it could just be a matter of time. It certainly was for Nani. At least he was willing to admit that he was wrong and to speak out about it. But this also kind of proved all the people claiming that it's just user error wrong. Because if someone like Nani who has years of experience and is amazing can experience the same issues, then it's not just user error. This is part of what's so scary about gel polish that is either badly formulated or isn't applied and cured safely. You could have an allergic reaction the very first time you get an acacrylate like hemma on your skin. Or you could go weeks, months, years thinking you are absolutely fine.

[00:15:28]Then all of a sudden, one day your immune system hits a tipping point and now you have a serious allergy for the rest of your life. The bigger problem here, there's a bigger problem here.

[00:15:37]That's why I think it's important to talk about the bigger issue in the nail industry at the moment rather than just focusing on one brand. It seems to me that Beatles definitely has its problems and that there is plenty of reason to be concerned about using their products. In my opinion, I agree with a lot of people that I've mentioned in this video, but if Beatles disappeared tomorrow, I don't think those stories would suddenly stop because this isn't just a Beatles problem. It's a nail industry problem.

[00:16:05]The real issue is that professional nail products have suddenly become incredibly accessible, but the amount of education for consumers hasn't kept up. Just a few years ago, products like builder gels, e files, or professional style LED lamps were mostly used by trained nail technicians only. But now you can order absolutely everything you need online in a couple clicks with next day delivery, often for less than the cost of a single salon appointment. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, right? Cheap DIY nail equipment has made the hobby more affordable and more accessible than ever before. Who am I to complain when DIY nails is how I got into the whole thing myself, you know? But what's worrying is that most people aren't getting the training that's needed to go alongside this hobby and keep it safe, keep you safe. And a lot of the time, they aren't even aware of the potential dangers involved. I get that not everyone can afford to do a training course. Of course, they can't to get an accredited qualification. But there is also good information available online about how to do your nails safely at home. The problem is that it gets drowned out by the huge amount of Tik Toks, Instagram reels, so on and so forth, making it look incredibly simple and not a single mention of any of the risks. People watch 30cond Tik Tok, the creator paints a beautiful set of nails, pops them under a lamp, and it's done.

[00:17:26]It looks no more complicated than applying regular nail polish. The problem is gel isn't regular nail polish. And without more detailed content, new people to the world of gel or nail polish might not find out that there are major differences. One common misconception I see is that a lot of people think curing just means the polish is dry. But curing is actually a chemical reaction. If that reaction isn't completed properly, as we know, unccured product can remain trapped underneath the surface even if the top feels completely hard. Now, that is something you can't necessarily see sometimes until you've done the top coat. days later and your nails start to bubble and you get that weird sinky dip in them. And there are ways to test the gel polish properly cured. But if the Tik Tok you watch never mentioned it, then why would you ever think to do that? Another misconception is that all UV or LED lamps are interchangeable.

[00:18:16]They're not. Different gel systems are designed to cure under specific wavelengths and light intensities. So using the wrong lamp can leave the product undercured without you ever realizing it. The general advice is to use the specific lamp a brand recommends, but these lamps usually aren't cheap. We're talking hundreds to thousands. So, I understand why a lot of people just buy what they think is a powerful lamp online and then they use it for everything. Either assuming that a powerful lamp will cure everything or that if you just leave your nails in for long enough, they'll eventually cure properly. The thing is, people usually look at the wattage of the lamps, assuming a higher wattage means it will be able to cure like anything. But that's not how it works. The wattage is just how much power goes into the lamp.

[00:18:57]It doesn't have anything to do with how effectively the light is absorbed by the polish. Lamps have to be the right wavelength to trigger the specific photo initiators included in the formula. If it's the wrong wavelength, the wattage of the lamp, and the amount of time you leave your nails under it, it's not going to make a difference. Lamps also deteriorate over time, and it could be hard to notice at first. You could be undercuring your gels for a long time before it becomes noticeable enough that you realize you need a new lamp. If you're using a weak, old, or incompatible lamp, the gel may look dry on the surface whilst remaining unccured underneath. That means more unccured chemical left behind, increasing your risk of developing an allergy over time.

[00:19:39]And that's what brings me back to the story I saw on Tik Tok that prompted me to make this video. One detail really, really stood out to me. The woman mentioned that her sister had training in aesthetics and even knew how to remove gel properly at home if there was a reaction. So, this doesn't sound like somebody who had absolutely no idea of what they were doing. If anything, it highlights just how easy it is for things to go wrong with gel systems, even when you have some knowledge. The one thing that caught my attention was the color she was using. Black gel polish. This is another point where I think education around gel nails is lacking on social media. Within the nail industry, black gels, highly opaque whites, heavily pigmented colors, and glitter gels are known to be often more difficult to cure properly because those pigments make it harder for light to penetrate all the way through the product. If those colors are applied in thick coats or cured with an incompatible or lowerowered lamp, there's a much bigger chance that some unccured gel could remain underneath.

[00:20:39]The surface might feel perfectly dry while the layer underneath hasn't fully cured. This is exactly why education needs to improve in the nail world. More and more people are buying professional style products, using whatever lamp in the starter kit, following short social media tutorials, and assuming that if the gel feels dry is fully cured.

[00:20:58]Unfortunately, none of the above is true. And if you get it wrong, like we've seen, the consequences can be pretty serious. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that's exactly what's happened here. We won't know for sure from a couple Tik Toks, but it does show how several small factors can combine to increase the risk and lead to problems for even someone who knows what they are doing to some extent. This kind of thing is why the deeper I got into nails myself, the more I realized this probably isn't something most people should casually experiment with at home.

[00:21:28]Again, I'm not saying nobody should ever do gel nails at home. I do mine occasionally. I do have training now, but I do think Tik Tok has massively downplayed the skill level needed and the potential risks involved. Proper application is harder than a lot of people think. And let's be honest, some people are good at it. Some pe people are creative and some people just aren't. There is a terrifying Reddit forum that I used to be part of a gel nail Reddit forum. And the people flooding their cuticles and just like pissing about with gel nails, it was terrifying. The amount of allergies you'd see on there too, terrifying.

[00:22:03]Getting it wrong potentially means extremely painful chemical burns and possibly even lifelong allergies that could affect your ability to use dozens of daily products as well as materials that are commonly used in surgeries and other medical applications that you might one day not to be dramatic but your life might rely on. I'm not sure it's a risk worth taking if I'm being honest with you. But if you are still planning on doing your own gel nails at home, you might be wondering what to look out for when it comes to choosing a gel polish brand to use. Personally, after learning more about gel systems professionally, there are certain things I'd immediately look out for before I'd ever put a gel product on my nails.

[00:22:38]First of all, can you find an SDS?

[00:22:40]That's the safety data sheet I mentioned earlier. If a brand doesn't have them in an easy to find place on their website, I probably wouldn't trust them. This is a very basic, legally required form that tells you what's in the product, who the manufacturer is, and what risks the ingredients have. If I can barely figure out who made the product, where it came from, or what's actually inside it, then that's a big red flag for me personally.

[00:23:03]We aren't chemists. We can't look at these and know exactly what we're looking at. But a brand hiding their SDS is probably a red flag. Next, I check if the brand recommends a specific lamp.

[00:23:13]Like I said earlier, just any random lamp from Amazon isn't guaranteed to effectively cure the specific gel you're using, especially those shitty lamps with like four LED lights on, those tiny ones. Trustworthy gel brands will recommend a specific lamp that has the correct wavelength and light intensity to cure their specific products. If they can't even be bothered to do that, I'd steer clear. As a non-professional who's just doing your nails at home, I wouldn't recommend buying from so many different brands anyway. Choose a brand, choose their lamp, stick with them. I know it might seem like brands recommending their own lamp or a specific lamp from somewhere else is just like a scam or a way to get more money out of you, but in this case, it is actually necessary. After that, I check how transparent they are about their ingredients. I know we kind of covered that with the SDS forms, but it's also worth looking at how a brand markets their products and how open they are about what's inside their products.

[00:24:02]One thing a lot of brands will do now that HEA is starting to be more widely recognized by consumers as something they might want to avoid, as something they might not want in their products, is that brands are just switching to a very similar methacrylate like HPMA and then proudly stating that they're hemree. And whilst that's technically true, it leaves out the fact that they have other methacrylates that have the same issues as hea. Many of the alternative used by brands are just as small, so they penetrate the skin and nails and gloves just as easily and can cause the same allergies. And lastly, I look into how much brands actually educate their consumers. Are they giving their consumers proper guidance around nail prep? Are they informing their consumers of the allergy risks that are present, posed? Are they giving clear and detailed curing instructions?

[00:24:50]Basically, are they making an effort to educate consumers on the important aspects of DIY gel nails? Or are they just pretending it's all super easy, fun, and safe? Any reputable, professional brand will have SDS forms available, clear ingredient lists, product batch numbers listed, guidance around how to use their products properly, curing instructions, lamp recommendations, clear manufacturer details, and easy to find contact information. Less trustworthy brands like some of the cheap ones you find on Amazon can often feel a little bit anonymous. But again, although I do have my own concerns about Beatles gel polish, as do many others, it seems, I don't think that is uniquely a problem for Beatles. They seem to become the face of the problem. But the gel nail industry as a whole has issues it needs to work on, particularly when it comes to educating people who are just getting into doing their own gel nails from home. And quite honestly, who can purchase these type of products? And while the actual products themselves do matter, a lot of what's happening isn't just about the bottle of gel polish.

[00:25:48]It's the combination of incredibly cheap, accessible gel kits and almost no education on how to use them safely.

[00:25:54]Brass have succeeded in making DIY gel nails incredibly popular. Now, they need to make sure their customers aren't getting hurt. And if you are one of the lucky ones who's been using it certain cheaper gel brands for ages without any problems, that's great. I hope you continue not to have any problems at all. But I would recommend looking into some of the risks a bit more because you might never develop an allergy from them or you might get contact dermatitis the very next time you use them. You just never know. That's all for today though.

[00:26:24]Let me know what you all think of what's happening in the world of DIY gel nails these days. Have you tried doing them yourself at home? Have you experienced any issues yourself like the ones we've seen today? And did you even know about some of the risks involved? Let me know in the comments.