For a salon-worthy manicure!
Do you want to appear neat and well-groomed, also with regard to your nails? Then a visit to the salon is an obvious choice! But did you know that you can also achieve a salon-worthy manicure at home, provided you have the right products within reach? Time for a mini-course!
Step 1: Clean your nails with nail polish remover
An important rule for a successful manicure is that you should spend about as much time preparing your nails as you do painting them. Of course that is the most fun part, but if you want to enjoy it for a long time, it is important to take getting your nails ready for polish seriously. So you start by removing remnants of old polish using a good nail polish remover.
Step 2: Cut, file, buff (don’t repeat)
Then trim your nails if necessary, after which you file them by running the file in one direction along your nail until you have the shape you were going for. For the last part of this step, you will need a nail buffer to lightly ‘buff’ your nails. This will smooth out any imperfections and remove any natural oils from the surface of your nails.
Step 3: Push back your cuticles
You may prefer to skip this step because the thought of it gives you goosebumps, but it is still very important. The piece of cuticle on your nail is dead skin and the polish you apply later will not adhere to it. Therefore, gently push your cuticles back with a so-called cuticle pusher.
Step 4: Exfoliate
Time to scrub your hands (and wrists!) to remove all dead skin cells. If scrub grains end up under your nails, you can use the goat paw from the previous step.
Step 5: Moisturize
This is the last step before you can start painting your nails, I promise! But after scrubbing, it is important to moisturize your hands so that your skin remains soft and nourished. It is useful to do this step before painting to avoid smearing your nail polish afterwards.
Step 6: Base coat
A base coat is essential to hydrate your nails and prevent the polish from flaking off quickly. Once the base coat is on, it’s time for the most difficult part of the manicure: waiting. It is usually wise to wait about two minutes between different layers of varnish.
Step 7: The first layer of color can be applied
Now it really gets fun. You can get started with color. For the first layer, it is important that you cover the entire nail, from the cuticles to all the corners. This makes applying the second layer a lot easier. Thea Green, founder of nail polish manufacturer Nails Inc. recommends, “It’s important to get enough polish on the brush the first time to cover the entire nail. Then go over the entire nail in three times. First the middle, then the left and right.’
Step 8: Time for the second layer
After waiting two minutes – set a timer just to be sure because two minutes is probably longer than you think – apply the second coat.
Step 9: Top coat
Of course you already felt it coming, but we finish with a top coat. This is extremely important to ensure that you can enjoy your manicure for a long time. And since you just went through 8 steps to get here, that’s obviously what you want! Although the topcoat is transparent, it is not invisible. You can easily ruin your entire manicure if you are careless. So do the same as you would do if the top coat had a color. Proceed carefully and apply a thin layer.
Step 10: Correcting errors
Even though you have tried so hard, mistakes can happen very easily. Literally, probably. Fortunately, it is easy to solve. Dip a cotton pad in nail polish remover and fold it into a triangle. This way you can aim better when cleaning up mistakes. If everything looks nice, it’s best to wait another five minutes before doing anything else. That seems like a long time, but in the end it’s worth it. Real!
Source: Glamor | Image: Adobe Stock
