How to do a quality home manicure on natural nails

[thewickedstyle]

Everyone loves the look of a polished, well-groomed nail, but salons are expensive and achieving the look at home can be tricky! Here I've broken down the method I use to keep my nails nice, along with any tips I could think of!

A word on natural nails: they are so hot!! The most chic nail look right now, IMO, is a short, rounded nail in a deep vampy color. Talons are not hot. Neither is not being able to open jars, get your keys out of your purse, or remove your contacts without help. For those who feel their nails are brittle, break easily, or are slow to grow, Sally Hansen makes a variety of strenthening and enhancing products. The line is carried everywhere from CVS to Stop and Shop Pharmacy.

I've tried a variety of nail lenths and shapes... experiment to find what you like, what suits your nails, and what is "trendy" at the moment.
[IMG][/IMG]Long square nails

[IMG][/IMG]Long oval nails

Ok, let's do your nails!!

Here's some of the tools you might want to invest in:
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Dual ended metal tool, buffer, cuticle nipper, corrector, hand lotion, cuticle oil, nail brush.
You will also need a polish remover and wipes or cotton balls, and I reccomend QTips!

[IMG][/IMG]Some of my nps!

I use mostly OPI, but there are tons of good brands. I also like Essie, Creative Nail, China Glaze, Sally Hansen, and Revlon. Lately I'm attracted to Mac's funky colors. Top coat and basecoat (or a 2 in 1) are a must.

Remove any old polish carefully. Be sure to get around your cuticles well. A messy cuticle is a dead give-away that you did your nails at home!

If your nails are stained, dirty, or you just want to pamper yourself, soak them in a dish of warm soapy water. A nail brush will help cleanse them. If you are badly stained from a love affair with dark, vampy colors (ahem- no one I know!), there is a product available from Sally's Beauty Supply Store that is like AlkaSeltzer. You put the tablets in a cup of water, let them fizz up, and soak your nails. It whitens them right up.

Dry your hands, apply hand lotion (I looooove OPI's AvoJuice and all their lotions. A drop of cuticle oil on each nail bed will soften the area and prepare it for cuticle grooming.
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Push back your cuticle. I reccomend the rubbery, flat-ended cuticle tools because they are gentler on your nail bed. If all you have is a metal one handy, wrap it in cotton or a facial towlette to protect your cuticle.

VERY GENTLY push back your cuticle. Don't force anything or break your cuticle. You WILL bleed and it WILL sting.
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If your cuticles are a little overgrown and out of shape, then you will have a lot to push back. If you pushed back so much that you now have a raised ridge or overgrown cuticle around each nailbed, you may want to trim them. Use ONLY a cutcle nipper and do not try to cut your cuticle right down to the flesh. Again, you will bleed and this is a way to open yourself up to infection. If you continue to use cuticle oil and push them back every week, before long you will have neatly groomed cuticles and will rarely have to worry about them again. I cannot remember the last time I've had anything to really push back or nip.

File your nails to the shape you want. Do not use an emory board or one of those d/s disposable boards. The best thing is a crystal or glass file. They will not split your nails and you will see a huge difference in the the strength of your tips.

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Start by filing the sides of the nails first to find the shape. I file them from the direction of the nail bed to the direction of the tip, pulling the file towards the tip in short, even strokes. Go in one direction, not back in forth. Back and forth will split the nail and premote breakage.

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File the top. Go from the center of the nail towards one side of the nail, in one direction, for several strokes. Then go from the center to the other side. No back and forth! If you're going to round your nails out, follow the natural shape of your fingertips. If you're squaring them off, it's easier, but round your corners out slightly. Glass files will make a corner on a nail very sharp and you will scratch everyone like a cougar.

Buff your nail up a little with a soft buffer and then swipe each nail with np remover again. This is going to help your polish stick to your nails and last longer.


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Use a base coat. Pictured are a Sally Hansen base designed to enhance growth, and an OPI 2-in-1 base and top coat. I also like Creative Nail Super Sticky base.

Let it dry and choose a polish.

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When applying your color, don't start right at the cuticle. Place the tip of the brush just inside the cuticle and "push" the color towards it. It keeps it neater and smoother. Paint a stripe down the center first and then fill in each side. Go only in one direction, from the cuticle to the tip, in one smooth stroke. Make your first coat very thin.

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Even with a great polish, I prefer at least 2 thin coats. Some sheer polishes will need more, but two coats of color will help polish last longer, provided you are making them thin and letting them dry in between. One thick, wet, goopy coat is an invitation to chips and peeling.


When the color is dry, apply a top coat. OPI, Seche Rapid Dry, and Poshe are
cult favorites. Revlon Colorstay is also great.

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Went out of the lines? That's ok, that's what corrector pens are for! Again I love OPI and Sally Hansen makes a good one. Qtips soaked in polish remover work just as well!


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TaDa!

Don't try to touch your polish, do your hair, roll a home-grown cigarette, or anything else crazy until your completely dry. In fact, if anyone comes near you, throw your hands in the air and make them back slowly away from you. Why ruin that beautiful manicure?

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French in Goldie "Cheap"
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OPI's "I'm Not Really A Waitress"
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OPI's "Kinky in Helsinki" layered over "Lincoln Park After Dark"

[MissChievous]

Thank you.

[GreekChick]

Thank you! I thought my nails were constantly breaking due to the way I was filing my names, but I now understand how important it is to have a good quality file.

[frocher]

Great tut, thank you!

[ahuerta]

can you PLEASE tell me where you buy that goldie cheap nailpolish. this may sound ridiculous, but i've been searching for the shade my high school counselor wore for years, and that looks just like it!

[thewickedstyle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahuerta

can you PLEASE tell me where you buy that goldie cheap nailpolish. this may sound ridiculous, but i've been searching for the shade my high school counselor wore for years, and that looks just like it!

Lol, of course! Goldie is a brand carried by Bath and Body Works. Check the store site; they do sell a lot of their shades online. I like it when I'm doing sheers because it's has a nice shimmery, frosty finish that makes it more interesting than a boring neutral. Also Goldie comes in cute little bottles with flower-shaped caps and little white bows on the bottle

[ahuerta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thewickedstyle

Lol, of course! Goldie is a brand carried by Bath and Body Works. Check the store site; they do sell a lot of their shades online. I like it when I'm doing sheers because it's has a nice shimmery, frosty finish that makes it more interesting than a boring neutral. Also Goldie comes in cute little bottles with flower-shaped caps and little white bows on the bottle

thanks! i totally will check this out. i was so excited about the nailpolish, i forgot to thank you for this tutorial. i'm just getting into nails and this answered so many questions i had. thanks again.

[Gloriosa]

Thanks - this is an excellent tutorial, and particularly helpful as I'm trying to grow my damaged and brittle nails back into something worth looking after!

[melliquor]

Thanks for posting. My nails always break and now i finally know what to do.

[thewickedstyle]

I'm glad this tut is helpful!

For those of you growing nails in, Sally Hansen has a new product out called "Hard as Wraps." It's supposed to be as protective as getting acrylic but without the damage. I have not personally tried it so I don't want to reccomend it, but those with a lot of breakage may want to research it. It's supposed to have nylon in it so it really protects your nails and allows them to grow.

I have claws like a cougar so I don't use any kind of growth enhancers, but I like the SH line in general. Just be sure it's nothing that is going to damage the surface of your nail.

[dmenchi]

thanks! And the 'wave the person away'-tip is hillarious. My hubby is known as the destroyer of any pedi/mani effort in my house-lol. On one occasion i asked him if he liked the colour and he reached over and touched my NAILS...OHHH, i was quite mad! And he always manages to either step on my feet or smuggle up so that he destroyes my 'hard work'...MEN!

[incorporeal_x]

Very helpful!

How do you do the french manicure thing?

[thewickedstyle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmenchi

thanks! And the 'wave the person away'-tip is hillarious. My hubby is known as the destroyer of any pedi/mani effort in my house-lol. On one occasion i asked him if he liked the colour and he reached over and touched my NAILS...OHHH, i was quite mad! And he always manages to either step on my feet or smuggle up so that he destroyes my 'hard work'...MEN!

And I thought *I* was the only one with one of those at home! Mine is also equally attracted to freshly applied lipstick.

Men! They're like moths... show them something bright or sparkly and they...must...get...at...it

[thewickedstyle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by incorporeal_x

Very helpful!

How do you do the french manicure thing?

There's a couple ways I've done this. The one I showed is a Chevron Striped manicure (the V shape thingie). That one I did by buying these little nail guides, they're like sticker things that you apply to your nail to help you paint straight. You place them on, paint your white tip, and peel them off again. The problem is, if you peel them too soon, the wet white polish will run a little and ruin the clean line, but if you wait too long and the polish over-dries, the white will peel up with the sticker. You need to let it just get to a tacky stage. Then I clean it up and make sure it's really straight with a Qtip dipped in polish, then paint over the whole nail with topcoat. You could do this with just regular tape or whatever also.

The other way, if I'm doing just a regular, straight across white line, is to buy a French Manicure pen. It has a wide felt tip and you "draw" the line across yoru nail with it. It takes practice because it's nail polish, not ink, so it does tend to blob out every now and then. But once you get the hang of it, it's easy. I found that the easiest thing for me when I had squared off nails because it was just a straight across swipe for me.

There are also french manicure kits out there with narrower brushes to help you get the line right. I've never tried them out or researched them much... not sure I could totally free-hand it like that.

[Lady_V]

Thank you very much for posting! I appreciate it!

[GreekChick]

After reading your thread, I went ahead and invested in a glass nail filer. I'm doing my best not to file back and forth ( very difficult), yet my nails are still splitting. I know it's because of the way I am filing. What can I do to stop this? When I get professional manicures, my nails never split. It's strange, because I *seem* to be filing the same the manicurist files. Any tips?

[thewickedstyle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreekChick

After reading your thread, I went ahead and invested in a glass nail filer. I'm doing my best not to file back and forth ( very difficult), yet my nails are still splitting. I know it's because of the way I am filing. What can I do to stop this? When I get professional manicures, my nails never split. It's strange, because I *seem* to be filing the same the manicurist files. Any tips?

Hmm, what kind of file did you get? Are your nails long and/or under a lot of "stress" during the day (banging the tips a lot can cause them to split or crack).

My nails split when they are really dry... because I wear dark colors and glitters, I use acetone remover a lot which really wreaks havock on my nails and cuticles. Do you find your nails to be dry at all?

[GreekChick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thewickedstyle

Hmm, what kind of file did you get? Are your nails long and/or under a lot of "stress" during the day (banging the tips a lot can cause them to split or crack).

My nails split when they are really dry... because I wear dark colors and glitters, I use acetone remover a lot which really wreaks havock on my nails and cuticles. Do you find your nails to be dry at all?

I bought the Essie glass nail file. My nails are only under alot of stress when I am at work, placing colors on the displays, banging them on lipsticks, however, when I am not working, and I file them, they seem to split right away! It's difficult to desrcibe but it's like 2 nails in one: you file your nails, and you see another nail under your real nail (very thin and fragile). It shows me that they have split!
I assumed they were breaking because they were dry, but I also invested in a cuticle and nail oil (Sally Hansen), as well as OPI's Nail Envy, which does miracles are strengthening them.
I really think my problem is rooted in the way I file my nails. When I trim then, they are fine, but as soon as I file them, they split.

[thewickedstyle]

Maybe you can try filing them from the "top" to the "bottom" (holding your file vertically). I do that in the areas where I have splits so I do make the split worse... I wish I had more solutions for you though.

[redambition]

thanks for the tute - it's really useful

[looovemac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreekChick

I bought the Essie glass nail file. My nails are only under alot of stress when I am at work, placing colors on the displays, banging them on lipsticks, however, when I am not working, and I file them, they seem to split right away! It's difficult to desrcibe but it's like 2 nails in one: you file your nails, and you see another nail under your real nail (very thin and fragile). It shows me that they have split!
I assumed they were breaking because they were dry, but I also invested in a cuticle and nail oil (Sally Hansen), as well as OPI's Nail Envy, which does miracles are strengthening them.
I really think my problem is rooted in the way I file my nails. When I trim then, they are fine, but as soon as I file them, they split.

I know I'm kind of too late to ask, but i was wondering how's the quality of Essie crystal file? Thanks

[LadyLibra_36!]

Quote:

Originally Posted by looovemac

I know I'm kind of too late to ask, but i was wondering how's the quality of Essie crystal file? Thanks

The Essie nail file is awesome. It's double-sided, beveled egdes, comes with a clear case to protect it, leaves nail edges smooth as butter, and it's @ $10.00 - $14.00 (I bought mine at Trade Secret). It also comes in a purse size version.

[dinoswife]

Thanks, I've learned a lot from your post.

[LIEHIEZE]

Thank you! I love doing my nails, this is a great tutorial

[missmay]

thanks for sharing this