beautiful hands

How To Give Yourself an At-Home Menicure

 

Why spend money on a new manicure every few weeks when you can do it yourself. Below I give you all my favorite tips and tricks for getting the perfect at-home manicure
Giving yourself a professional pedicure
First remove old nail polish first remove old nail polish

What You’ll Need

Nail Polish

Clear Top Coat/Base Coat

Nail File

Cotton Swabs

Nail Polish Remover

Cuticle Oil

Orange Stick

{optional} rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle

Step 1:
Soak nails in a small dish of warm water to soften up the cuticles. After about a minute of soaking, remove all nail polish.

Step 2:
When the nail beds are nice and toasty, remove your hands from the water and apply cuticle oil at the base of your nails. This stuff makes it easier to get rid of all those long cuticles. Let the oil soak in for about a minute or two.

Step 3:
Take the orange stick, {that’s the little wooden poky stick} and press in your now soft cuticles. You’re going to shove them back where they came from so they won’t bother anyone anymore. Once you’re done with that, give your nails another soak to recover from the trauma.

Step 4:
This step is optional, but it makes the difference between a salon manicure and a chip-off-by-tomorrow-morning-manicure, so I highly recommend not skipping this one. {I fill up a cheap Dollar Store spray bottle with rubbing alcohol and keep it in my nail kit.} Spray your nails with the alcohol and rub it around. The alcohol will dissolve all the oils on your fingers, and you want to get rid of as much oil as possible because this is what prevents the nail polish from sticking.

Step 5:
This is when we start to get fancy. File your nails with the nail file traveling ONE direction. The back and forth filing motion we all do weakens the nails and allows them to break more easily, so only file one way. File them into a squoval. I know it’s a made up word, but take the advice of all the salons in downtown Chinatown and make a nice shape that’s the combination of a square + oval. Square tops + oval edges = sassy pants.

Like so.
See, I have really short nails but when they’re shaped nicely it makes all the difference in the world.

Step 6:
Now you’re ready to get busy. Paint one coat of clear base coat on your nails. Start at the cuticle and paint down in one stroke to the tip of your nail. Three swipes of base coat should cover the whole nail. Let that dry for at least two minutes before you move on or you’ll end up with smudgy nails.

Step 7:
This step is really important. Another one that will make the difference between long lasting or a cheap at home manicure. Take the bottle of nail polish you’re going to use for color and ROLL it between your hands. If you shake it to mix up the color you’ll end up with bubbles in the polish and your manicure will go to pot. Roll it back and forth quickly instead to swish around the color and you’ll end up with perfect nail color.

Step 8:
Finally, it’s time to paint!
Start at the base of your nail and swipe the polish all the way to the tip of the nail. Dip the brush again and repeat two more times until your entire nail is covered in polish. Then take a quick swipe along the tip of the nail to make sure it’s covered in polish; this will slow down the chipping process.
Repeat on all your nails.

Don’t they look fancy?
Now let them sit for at least 20 minutes. Seriously. Watch your favorite show, read a book, sit on your porch and watch the world go by, but whatever you do don’t touch your nails.

Step 9:
Very, very carefully clean up the extra nail polish around the edges of your nails. Wrap a tissue around an orange stick, dip it into a tiny bit of nail polish remover, and clean up the errant nail polish. BE CAREFUL or you’ll ruin your manicure.