The Perfect Manicure
HOW TO
1.) First find you a nice well ventilated area to work. Possibly lay down a towel or something to help prevent any messes.
2.) Remove any old nail polish. Use nail polish remover and cotton balls.If you have and wish to keep fake nails, such as acrylic, choose a polish that will not remove them, and don't let it soak much.
3.) Cut and file nails. Use nail clippers and trim your
nails. Don't cut them too short, you should be able to see at least a
little of the white tip still, all the way across. Using a nail file,
file the nail and create a smooth and clean shape. Gently drag the file
across the nail, rather than pushing it. Excessive force or sawing back
and forth will weaken the nails and cause them to break. Pivot the hand
with the file through each stroke to make a smooth curve rather than
angles. Do not file them too short: just clean up any points or
roughness left by the clippers.
4.) Buff nails. Using a white block of a stick-type nail
buffer, or a pad-type nail buffer and buffing powder, buff the surface
of the nail a little bit to even out the surface and to smooth out
ridges. Remember not to buff too much: you're grinding at the nail;
thinning it too much will weaken it. Perfect edge-to-edge flatness is
not practical or necessary. A soft, flexible buffer will more easily
buff the sides of the nail along with the middle.
You may wish to buff your nails after pushing back the cuticles if
there is some residue where the cuticles used to cover, in order to
scrape or grind it off in the process. Being thin, soft, and not firmly
attached, it should come off easily.
5.)Soak nails. Get a bowl or stopper the sink and fill
it with warm (not hot!) water and a few drops of soap. Soak your hands
only for a few minutes. The water and soap will help to loosen dirt,
dead skin, and any dust left over from filing and buffing, and soften
cuticles. If you have dry skin or fragile nails you should NOT soak
them, only rinse them. Use a nail brush to gently clean your nails and
the skin around them. Gently scrape under your nails if necessary to
remove dirt (scraping too much will remove a white powder which was
actually part of the nail itself, weakening it).
6.)Cuticles: Dry nails and apply a cuticle cream. Using a
cuticle pusher, also called an orange stick, gently push back the
cuticle. Do not force them back. NEVER cut your cuticles. Even if the
equipment is sterile, removing the cuticle can cause infection and
leaves the then-less-protected margin of the skin vulnerable. Wipe off
the excess cream with a tissue or towel in the direction that you pushed
(you don't want to pull the cuticles back to where they were!).
7.) Apply hand cream or lotion. Take a lotion or hand
cream and massage it into your hands. If you have very dry skin use an
intensive lotion, if not, any lotion will do. Be sure to rub it into and
around your nails and let it soak in for 30 minutes or longer.
8.) Nail polish/lacquer will not stick to nails with moisturizer on them, so
take a Q-tip dipped in nail polish remover and quickly wipe the nails
to remove the lotion. Wipe excess remover off promptly to mitigate nail
damage. Cover the nail with a base coat or nail hardener. This will even
out and ridges and unevenness that may still be on the nail, serve as a
primer for the polish, help the polish to last longer, and keep the
colour from staining your nails.
9.) Polish!!! Get creative use pintrest, google, or your own imagination. :) Polish and let dry.
10.) Finally apply your top coat.
I would like to thank my mom for help with the manicure steps, she is a cosmetologist and really knows her stuff. Also I would like to thank bzzagent and Neutrogena for the the bzzkit or free lotions to try out (same you see pictured above) it was the perfect bottle for a perfect manicure.
<img src="http://img.bzzagent.com/image/neutrogena-hand-cream.jpg?Type=activity&Activity=2088085882&Campaign=1107899099&Uid=1348418&token=cdafb799e380423ad40d4fdda2d3d71b" alt=""/>
