Pin It

How to Do a Manicure at Home

Info_lover | May 18, 2010 |

0 Comments | Rating: 0

A manicure is an important part of daily grooming especially for women who are working as professionals and executives. A fresh nail manicure can protect a put-together and clean-cut look. But professional manicures can be so expensive and time-consuming. So instead of getting your nails done professionally, why don't you just save some money and learn how to your manicure at home? To do this, you simply need to learn some home manicure tips. Here are some easy steps for you to follow to learn how to give yourself perfect manicures at home.

1. Clean your nails

To begin with, you will first have to wash your hands thoroughly using a good old-fashioned soap and a scrub brush, making sure you get under the nails. You should soak your hands in warm water for around 5 minutes to clean the tops of the nail and get the cuticles nice and soft. Your entire hand doesn't have to be in the bowl, just your nails will do. You will need to use a nail polish remover in your manicure set to remove all traces of any old polish completely. You should make sure that your nails are complete clean and there are no signs of injury to the nails, otherwise applying polish to damaged nails could invite infection.

2. Trim your nails

You should try to trim them evenly to ensure they are all of the same length. If your nails are too short or you want to grow them out, filing them will suffice.

3. File your nails

Next, you will have to file your nails so that the edges on them are smooth and round. Don't be too rough on them unless you want to break your nails and case nail bruises.

4. Shaping your nails

Nails generally grow in a variety of shapes and sizes, but there are four basic shapes: oval, pointed, round and square. Typically, the squarer the nail is, the stronger it will be. You should consider what to do with your hands when you are trying to decide how to shape them with your manicure. If your nails are of various lengths, then you might want to start by trimming them all to the length of the shortest nail. This is because nails of the same length look better than nails of different lengths!

5. Treating your cuticles

Next, you can apply cuticle remover and let it sit for around a minute or so. Ideally, you will want to soak your hand in a solution of antibacterial soap and water for a couple of minutes. Next, dry your hand and then carefully push back the cuticle with an orangewood stick which is wrapped in cotton. Once this is done, you can wash your fingernails again using toothbrush and soap.

6. Polishing your nails

After you are done with the above-mentioned step, you will then need to buff your nails. You should try to get a nail buffer with two sides, one for filing the ridges off your nails and the other for shining your nails. Next, apply three strokes of a clear basecoat. This is important to avoid streaks and lumps. Dip your brush in and move the coat gently down the center and then the sides of the nail. If you make a mess of it, you can always use the nail polish remover to start all over again. You need to be patient and let the base coat dry first before applying polish. Once the base coat has dried, you can then apply the polish using the same technique, one stroke down the center and then left and right.

7. Dry your nails

If necessary, you can consider using a quick-dry product to dry your polish in a snap. These little beauties come in any manicure kits so do get one if required.

8. Manicure maintenance

When you are finally done and your nail polish has dried completely, you can use a disinfectant to clean your manicure tools such as your nail clippers. You should never share your manicure tools with anyone else so as to avoid infection. If you want to make your manicure last for a long time, then you will have to wear gloves when performing any activity that will require wear and tear on your nails, such as washing the dishes.