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Achieving a beautiful manicure at home is totally do-able, even if you think you can’t. After 6 years working as a licensed nail technician in a nail salon, I can show you some best practices and give you tips to help you get that beautiful manicure you crave.
It’s not just about the nail polish.
If you don’t prepare your nails properly before the polish brushes even touch your nails, the nail polish will never come out perfect.
Basically, if you don’t set the stage right, the show won’t be pretty.
But if you follow the steps and tips below, not only will you end up with a pretty manicure, but you will have a soothing and luxurious experience as well.
The fun thing about manicures is that you can also add extras to heighten your experience, depending on what your goal is. You can keep it simple with the basic necessities, or you can make it more spa-like. You can also take steps to prolong the life of your manicure, or you can go without nail polish and shine up your natural nails with special tools if you want to go natural.
STEPS TO A PERFECT MANICURE
Nail and Skin Prep
- Remove any old nail polish until the surface of the nail is clean. File nails into shape, whether you like them square, almond, stiletto, coffin, oval or squoval, which is a combination of square and oval. Try to file in just one direction because a back and forth motion may lead to splitting of the nails.
- Apply cuticle oil to your cuticles and soak your hands in a manicuring bowl, or just a regular bowl if you don’t have one. You should put some soap and warm water in it, and you can add a few extra drops of oil to help soften your cuticles and skin. Soak for 5-10 minutes.
- Remove hands and dry them. Then gently push back your cuticles with some sort of cuticle pusher. I like to use metal ones but you have to know how to be gentle with it. You can also use an orangewood stick if you don’t want to use the metal ones.
- If you have a cuticle nipper and know how to use it, at this point you should snip off any dead skin, if you have any hanging. Do not cut your cuticles off. You are meant to have cuticles to protect your nails from infections. If you cannot yet differentiate between dead skin and live skin, you should probably skip this part. If you do skip it, just use lots of cuticle oil during the week between manicures to get your cuticles into good shape. The next step will help with the removal of excess skin as well.
- Now add more cuticle oil to the nail and cuticle, and gently buff the nails to make the surface smooth. You will want to do this with a buffer that barely has any grit. You don’t need much to get a good result and too much will take layers off your nails. I personally like to buff lots of oil into the nails. Removing the nail polish tends to dry them out and I like to put the moisture back in.
- Rub lotion into your hands to keep the skin soft. For added affect, dampen a towel with warm water and wrap your hands in them with the lotion on for a few minutes. Your hands will absorb the moisture and it also feels amazing. Super relaxing, and since it’s hard to massage your own hands, this is a great substitute.
- Ready for polish!
Achieve Perfectly Polished Nails
- Remove any oils on the nail plate by using a lint-free wipe with alcohol to clean the nails.
- Always use a base coat. It helps to lessen any staining nail polish may cause, and it also is the foundation of your manicure so paint as carefully as you can even though it is clear. Try not to hit the cuticle with it because it can cause cuticle flooding when you go to apply the color polish.
- Use 2 coats of colored nail polish. If you start on the left side when you apply the first coat, then the second coat should be applied from the right side first. The first brush strokes transfer the bulk of the polish, so this should help even out the color. Try to keep the coats thin. Your nails will dry faster and there will be less chance of premature chipping.
- Finish off with top coat
- Use a cleanup brush dipped in nail polish remover to get rid of any nail polish that has gotten on your skin. The best ones are small with diagonal cut bristles. It will really help with the precision of your nail polish application.
When you polish your nails, place the brush on the nail about 1/8” away from the cuticle and then push back closer to the cuticle. You want to get as close as you can without flooding them. Starting the polish further out than you would and pushing back gives you more control.
If you flood the cuticles when you polish, it will create a lip as it starts to grow out and that lip is easily lifted and chipped. But don’t worry, it happens. That’s what the cleanup brush is for.
You should also know that the nail polish you use matters. Not all brands are created equal and you will achieve better results with better brands.
Some brands don’t perform as well as others, which is why most nail technicians hate when clients bring in their own polish. It is often a brand not made for professional use, and it makes it hard to get professional looking results, even when done by a professional.
It’s kind of like drugstore makeup vs. department store makeup. The cheaper stuff just doesn’t work as well and is harder to work with, so don’t get down on yourself if you can’t get it to come out perfect.
It may very well be the nail polish itself, not you. It is just a fact that some nail polish formulas are much easier to work with than others. That being said, make sure you are using a good quality nail polish for best results with your polished nails.
Many manicurists wind up with their own techniques and products they like to use, but this is the general way to manicure your nails. You can tweak it in any way you like.
TIPS AND TRICKS
Ways to Make it Fun
Now that you’ve learned how to give yourself a manicure like a pro, let’s talk about how you can have some fun with it!
Have you ever gone to get a pedicure and been given an entire pedicure menu complete with treatments consisting of all different ingredients? Well, you can do the same thing for your manicure!
For example, you can give yourself a chocolate manicure by making a chocolate sugar scrub consisting of honey, sugar, cocoa powder and olive oil. Scrub the mixture onto your hands to exfoliate them and then rinse it all off. This can be done right after soaking because the dead skin will be looser and come off easier with the scrub. Proceed with the rest of the manicure, finishing with the lotion of your choice.
You can also add essential oils and bath salts to your water when you soak your hands.
You can customize this addition in countless ways, giving you so many different manicure variations. You can go for a soothing experience, a revitalizing experience, or any kind of experience you want. You can enjoy pretty aromatherapy smells while luxuriously softening your hands.
Best Oil, Lotion, and Wax to Use for Maximum Results
Jojoba oil is one of the best oils to use for your cuticles. It is easily absorbed into the skin because its molecules are small, and as a result it helps to heal dry cuticles from the inside out. This should make your nails stronger and you will then be able to grow out your nails to your desired length.
Shea butter and sweet almond oil are great for your skin. The sweet almond oil is extra moisturizing and helps if you have dry skin. Shea butter is amazing because it has a thicker consistency but absorbs nicely into the skin without leaving behind a greasy residue. It also has vitamins that are good for your skin as well as healing attributes. Massaging shea butter and sweet almond oil into your hands will soften them.
If you don’t know the wonders of paraffin wax, I encourage you to find out immediately. You will need a paraffin wax warmer, the wax, and plastic gloves. You melt the wax, dip your hands in it, and immediately put the gloves on. Let it sit on your skin for about 10 minutes. The warm wax feels so amazing. Then simply massage the glove off to remove the glove and the wax, and voila! A softness like no other!!
Prolong the Life of Your Manicure
One way to make your manicure last longer is to cap the nails with each coat of nail polish. If you’ve never heard of that before, it just means to paint the top of each nail right after the surface. Capping your nails helps to seal the nail polish near the edges. When the nails are capped like this, it gives the nail polish more wear time because the first thing to start to wear away will be the polish on the edge. If they aren’t capped, they can wear away on the surface quickly.
Adding cuticle oil to your nails consistently will also help prolong your manicure. It prevents the nail polish from getting too brittle and flaking and chipping, just like it does for your nails.
If your nails seem to start chipping only 2-3 days after your manicure and looks a mess by the time the week is out, try adding a clear top coat to your nails every other day after you give yourself a manicure and until you are ready to take it off.
It will keep the color sealed in and you should have very minimal chipping, if any, depending on your nail type.
And as you probably already know, please wear gloves when cleaning and doing dishes!
It’s not just the chemicals that can wreak havoc on your manicure and your nails, but the water. When nails are in water, they absorb it and become weaker. They might bend easily until they dry out.
When they are in this vulnerable state, it is very easy for the nail polish to chip off, and even for the nail to break. So, wear those gloves, loves!
How to Shine Nails Without Nail Polish
If you want to just go natural without nail polish but you want your nails shiny, you can get a 3-way smoothing buffer. These buffers/files are black, white, and gray.
To use it, at the end of the manicure, start buffing with the black, then the white, and finish with the gray, which is the smoothest. To remember, I’ll tell you what they told us in nail school: “night, day, gray.”
You will not believe the shine you can achieve with that! This is also a favorite for the men who don’t want to wear clear nail polish but want a shiny manicured look. It’s like clear polish without polish.
Have fun, enjoy those pretty nails, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
xo
