The Nail Thoughts Certification is a program to certify you in the application of long wearing structured overlays using Nail Thoughts Base (NTB), a soak-off, bottled builder gel system.
After taking and implementing this course you will have the knowledge and tools to help you apply Nail Thoughts Bases quickly and efficiently, so that you can reduce your application time and end up with overlays that require minimal finish-filing and last 3+ weeks!
Nail Thoughts Bases are offered in clear and tinted shades. The NTB in clear is a two-in-one product with base and build components suitable for overlaying short to medium-length natural nails. The tinted bases are 3-in-1, with the same characteristics of the clear base, but with color added to them. The NTBs are a thin-medium viscosity, offered both in bottle or pot form for your convenience (same formula).
In addition to bottled builders, the Nail Thoughts Line offers bottled gel colors, and a bottled wiped-required top gel.
The Nail Thoughts Bottled gel line is manufactured from scratch by KOKOIST in Japan, and curated by California-based nail artist, Katie Masters.
Erica’s ATA is a leading dry efile manicure tools brand in the US. They offer a variety of high-quality carbide and 100% diamond bits manufactured in the U.S.
The manicuring and removal portions of the course will be showcased with Erica’s ATA signature bits and technique.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this certification:

Theory
- The Nail Thoughts x KOKOIST origin story
- Characteristics of all of the Nail Thoughts Gels & Brushes
- Common mistakes to avoid to prevent service breakdowns
- Why efiling matters, and should be adopted fast and safely into your services

Practical
- Manual prep (using cuticle tools and hand files)
- Advanced efiling (prep & removal procedures) using Erica’s ATA bits
- How to overlay a short nail length
- How to overlay a medium nail length
- How to fill using NTB
- How to rebalance using NTB
- Two Nail Thoughts signature design
- One freestyle design