Cosmetology Licensing Examination: Nail Care
Manicure, pedicure, sanitation, and when to refer a nail disorder.
Licensing exams are administered by state boards and national councils. FreeExam is not affiliated with those organizations, and these questions are original practice, not an official test.
These questions are original. This is not an official cosmetology licensing exam, and FreeExam is not affiliated with any state board of cosmetology.
1.Both the client and the nail technician sit down for a manicure. What is the first sanitation step?
2.The manicure table was just used. What is required before the next client?
3.An emery board was used to shape one nail and then fell into the lap. What happens to that board?
4.A metal cuticle pusher will be reused on another client. What is the sequence?
5.A student reaches to trim the living skin at the base of the nail plate. What should the instructor say?
6.The client asks you to cut out the tender skin under the free edge so polish looks longer. What do you do?
7.Where is new nail plate formed?
8.A client believes clipping the free edge makes the nail grow faster from the base. What is accurate?
9.The pale half-moon at the base of the nail is which structure?
10.Thick yellow nails crumble, and the client wants a full set of enhancements to hide them. What do you do?
11.A green spot shows under a lifted artificial nail. The client wants a new set today. What do you do?
12.The skin beside the nail is red, swollen, and has pus. What is the service decision?
13.A new dark band runs from the cuticle area toward the free edge. The client wants it covered with dark polish and forgotten. What do you do?
14.The side of the toenail is growing into red, painful skin. The client asks you to dig out the corner. What do you do?
15.A small piece of dry skin sticks up beside the nail. The area is not red and has no pus. What may you do?
16.The same hangnail area is red and has a drop of pus. What changes?
17.A purple bruise covers most of a fingernail after an injury, and the client has throbbing pain. They want the nail pulled off. What do you do?
18.The nail plate is separating from the bed, and the client wants it glued flat. What do you do?
19.Small white spots are in the nail plate after a known bump. There is no pain or redness. The client fears a vitamin disease. What may you say?
20.Deep horizontal grooves appear across several nails at once, and the client has been ill. What should you do?
21.The nails are thin and flexible like eggshells. The client wants a long abrasive enhancement. What is the safer choice?
22.Living tissue has grown forward onto the nail plate and the client wants it cut back hard. What do you do?
23.The client bites the nails. Today the skin is intact and not infected. What service is reasonable?
24.Nails split in layers and the client asks for a vitamin you choose. What is in scope?
25.A callus on the heel is thick, and a credo blade is in the drawer. What is the safer practice?
26.The client reports diabetes, numb toes, and a small open spot on the heel. A pedicure with nippers is booked. What do you do?
27.Itchy peeling skin is between the toes, and a whirlpool pedicure is booked. What do you do?
28.An open ulcer is on the bottom of the foot. The client wants it soaked and smoothed. What do you do?
29.A plantar wart is on the ball of the foot. What should you do?
30.The pedicure basin had a disposable liner, and some water leaked underneath. What is still required?
31.A coworker wants to pour bleach and a splash of ammonia into the pedicure water for extra strength. What do you say?
32.A pumice stone was used on one heel. The stone is porous. What happens to it?
33.How do you check pedicure water before the feet go in?
34.Cuticle remover is an alkaline product with a time limit on the label. What is the safe use?
35.Oil is still on the nail plate and you are about to apply polish. What should you do?
36.Polish keeps flooding the skin and the proximal nail fold. Why is that a problem?
37.Primer runs off the nail plate and onto the finger skin. The client says it burns. What do you do?
38.An unlabeled liquid is offered as a cheap monomer. What should you do?
39.Methyl methacrylate, or MMA, is proposed for a full set because it is very hard. What is the licensing-safety decision?
40.Used liquid monomer is left in the dappen dish. What should happen to it?
41.The client reports a previous allergy to nail gel and liquid-and-powder products. What do you do?
42.Gel polish is on the skin around the nail as well as on the plate. What should you do before curing?
43.A client is prying gel polish off with a metal tool, tearing the plate. What do you tell them to let you do instead?
44.An enhancement is lifting, smells bad, and the client feels pain under it. What do you do?
45.Nail glue bonds two areas of skin together. What is the immediate rule?
46.A tip is wider than the natural nail and digs into the side folds. What is the fit problem?
47.While filing an enhancement, the client says the nail bed feels hot and painful. What do you do?
48.An electric file is available, and you have not been trained on it. The client wants a fast fill. What do you do?
49.Nippers draw blood on one finger. What happens to those nippers before they touch another nail?
50.A shared styptic pencil is the only item in the drawer after a nick. What is the stricter choice?
51.The client brings a personal metal implement from a purse. It has debris on it. What is required before you use it?
52.Nail dust is piled on the table. What is the cleaner way to remove it?
53.Acetone is open beside a lit candle. What is the hazard?
54.You feel dizzy while sculpting nails in a closed room. What should you do?
55.A pregnant client asks you to promise that monomer fumes are medically safe. What do you say?
56.Gauze soaked with monomer is ready to be thrown away. What is the fire-safety habit?
57.A child is at the nail table while monomer is open. What do you do with the liquid?
58.A painful blister is on the technician's own finger, and it looks like a herpetic whitlow. What is the work rule?
59.The client is in chemotherapy, the nails are lifting, and they hurt. An enhancement is requested. What do you do?
60.A wart sits in the nail fold. The client wants it filed smooth. What do you do?
61.The same emery board was just used on a toenail. A fingernail is next. What is the rule?
62.A finger bowl of water was used. How long should the soak be?
63.Under a ring, the skin is rashy and wet. The client wants cream packed under the ring and polish on nearby nails that are also inflamed. What do you do?
64.Yellow stain is only on the surface of a thick plate and grows out with the nail. A dark band, by contrast, starts near the matrix. Which band needs referral rather than buffing?
65.The client's nails look blue, and the client is short of breath. What do you do?
66.The nails are spoon-shaped. What is the cosmetic limit?
67.A trumpet nail curves so tightly that the fold hurts, and the skin is not infected today. What do you avoid?
68.A very thick, curved toenail is difficult to trim and the surrounding skin is sore. What should you do?
69.Aggressive pushing last month left ridges, and today the proximal fold is red and bleeding. What do you do?
70.A nipper falls on the floor during a manicure. What is required before it touches the client again?
71.Your own hand has an uncovered weeping cut. What is the work rule?
72.A parent insists you apply acrylic over a child's infected, oozing nail. What do you do?
73.An artificial nail tears off and the nail bed is raw. The client wants the tip glued back immediately. What do you do?
74.Primer splashes into the client's eye. What is the emergency step?
75.Monomer is stored in a reused soda bottle without a label. What is wrong?
76.A sanding band was used on one client. What happens to the band?
77.Nail forms and tips are on the table after one client. Which of them can be saved for another person?
78.Powder in the stock jar was touched by a brush that had just been on a nail with a suspicious green spot. What should happen to the working powder?
79.Product is being built into the lateral nail fold. Why should you clear that area?
80.The client waits months between fills, and the long extension has cracked into the living sidewall. What do you do?
81.While pinching an enhancement for a tighter C-curve, the client winces and the bed looks bruised. What do you do?
82.A liquid-and-powder bead feels burning hot on the nail. What do you do?
83.The curing lamp's cord is cracked. What should you do?
84.Two brands of gel and a third brand of lamp are mixed, and the product is still tacky after the usual time. What is the likely problem and the safe step?
85.A nail-art brush was used on one client. What is required before another client?
86.Cuticle cream is in a stock jar. How do you portion it?
87.Toe separators are foam and were used in one pedicure. What happens to them?
88.A corn on the toe is painful. The client wants it cut out. What do you do?
89.Polish is requested on a nail that is thick, discolored, and crumbling. What do you do?
90.The natural nail is weak, and the client wants an extremely long pointed shape. What is the honest recommendation?
91.Why is a base coat used before color in a basic polish service?
92.Polish is applied in one very thick coat and wrinkles. What application habit avoids that?
93.You cap the free edge with color. What is that technique for?
94.The client smudges wet polish and asks you to blast it with a dusty dryer. What is better?
95.A wooden stick was used to push one nail fold. What happens to the stick?
96.The client asks you to prescribe an oral antifungal drug you saw in an advertisement. What do you say?
97.You refuse an enhancement on an infected nail. What should the record say?
98.Massage of the lower leg is requested during a pedicure. The client reports a history of blood clots. What do you do?
99.A paraffin bath is used during a manicure. The client has no open skin and normal sensation. Which sanitation point still matters?
100.The nail plate is made mainly of which protein?
101.Sidewalls are being cleaned. What is the limit?
102.A client with a contagious hand rash wants a full set. What do you do?
103.The free edge is which part of the nail?
104.You are about to eat a sandwich at the table while monomer and acetone are open. What is the hygiene problem?
105.Dust from an infected nail is on your brush. What is the stricter cleanup?
106.The client wants the corners of an ingrown toenail rounded deep into the fold at home and asks you to do it the same way. What do you do?
107.A nonporous metal implement was disinfected, rinsed if the label required rinsing, and dried. How should it be stored?
108.During a manicure the client says a previous technician cut the matrix area and the nail now grows ridged. Today there is no infection. What can you offer?