Ten Steps to Give yourself an at Home Manicure
This is a fun, easy, and safe way to achieve
polished fingernails without paying the higher beauty salon prices
when going through these ten steps. This is for adults
only, always putting
the products up somewhere
safe after use.
Before beginning, wash your nails
thoroughly, even with the polish on your fingernails.
Try mostly to get your nails clean underneath your nail cartilage
where it is not attached to the skin before beginning. If
you notice growths, tiny knobs under there, or
any redness or dirt substance that does not come out from under
your fingernail bed, stop this process, and go
to see a medical doctor.
You will need:
-
1 pack of cotton balls
-
1 fingernail polish remover
-
1 emery board
-
1 nail trimmer
-
1 cuticle remover
-
1 bottle of fingernail polish
-
A couple of paper towels/tissues
Nail polish removing
Firstly, take out as many cotton balls
as needed one at a time, and safely douse each fingernail with nail
polish remover, until your whole fingernail
is your natural true colour. Whichever fingernail
polish remover you choose, swab your fingernails one by one until
no more existing nail varnish can be seen.
If you frequently use fingernail polish, your natural nail can become
tinted a little of a yellowing colour, not to be confused with bold
yellow, and not red or green, or swollen.
If your fingernails or fingers start to become red, green, or swollen,
seek medical
attention immediately. If you are
doing ok, and your nails are now their natural colour,
go to step 2.
Filing your nails with an emery
board
Next, you should have what is called an emery
board. An emery board is usually a very inexpensive
fingernail board used for filing down rough
nail surfaces that is rough on the surface at least
on one side. An emery board should not
be used to scrape your natural nail surface at all.
It will make your smooth fingernails rough.
You can use the emery board quite effectively on the end
of your nail, in order to give it a consistent shape
and make the tip of your nail smooth,
not rough. Emery board comes in all shapes and sizes, and you can
even look for one to fit your personality or wardrobe colour-wise.
As soon as you are done smoothing the tips of your nails in a uniform
manner, proceed to the next step 3.
Trimming your fingernails
A fingernail trimmer is used in your home nail process when you
want to reshape or shorten your nails
more efficiently than with an emery board. You can
make your fingernails shorter using fingernail
clippers, which are clippers that are small in size
designed to fit your nail shape and be able to cut your fingernail
tip surface, without having enough force in them to really do massive
cutting damage, but still use safety.
You should trim your nails at least
once a month if they are healthy. Never trim unhealthy,
discoloured or brittle fingernails. Never trim your nails to the
quick, which is the place where your fingernail cartilage meets
your skin.
Be mindful of safety, even at this
stage of the process. If you have hypoglycemia,
or any other disease such as Parkinson’s or suffer with your
nerves, do not clip your own fingernails if you might have an issue
of safety. Some fingernails are hard,
and take some sharper fingernail cutters to cut through them. If
this is the case with yours, you may want to consider going to a
salon or a simple medical visit and have a professional trim them.
However, if not, trim away. This is mostly a basic and fun procedure
for most people. Then start with step
4.
Cuticle removing
Next, you need to use your cuticle
remover to remove your cuticle, or actually push
it down. Your cuticle is that soft
skin that forms at the bottom of your fingernail
at the place where your fingernail cartilage and your skin meet.
Its job is to cover the place where your nail cartilage meets your
skin, and make a smooth transition for that to happen. As your fingernails
grow, your cuticle skin stretches, and this process
of removing your cuticle pushes back that excess to promote your
nail growth and health.
Again, you would want to check your cuticle area for rashes, redness,
swelling, discoloration of any kind, and if any of those issues
are present in your cuticle, seek the advice of a medical professional
before pushing it back.
If you find that it looks pretty much like your fingernail and finger
colour, but with a different smoother and softer texture, go ahead
and push the cuticle back with the
cuticle remover, which is a little stick like device with a softer
but firm tip made especially for the cuticle. It
is not a cutting type tool. It looks a little shorter than a chopstick,
but has a necessary soft tipped end to make sure that your cuticle
does not get damaged.
Push back your cuticles one at a time using the cuticle removing
tool. These are available from nearly any supermarket or chemist,
or shops that carries fingernail accessories of any kind. These
are also relatively inexpensive.
It is important to note that if at any time in your process for
any reason, if your nails start to
bleed mildly or a lot, stop
this procedure at once. This is not likely to happen
in a normal fingernail manicure, but it may be a nice way of warning
you of a problem with your own nails that you may need to get medical
attention for.
Pick a colour
Now you are ready to pick out a nail polish colour from your own
home nail polish collection. Pick
out a colour that matches your skin colouring, outfit
styles that you wear, or shade of lipstick. If you polish your nails
frequently, make sure that you give
them one or two days to air out and breathe naturally to promote
healthy nails in between polishes. For work purposes
you may want to choose a natural colour or a clear nail varnish.
If you are going out socialising choose away!
Application of finger nail polish
colour
Each bottle of nail polish comes with it's own applicator inside
the bottle, attached to the handle of the fingernail polish bottle.
Just unscrew the fingernail polish bottle, and
scrape off the excess fingernail polish on the fingernail polish
brush applicator on the side of the bottle itself.
You can use a paper towel for this process, but you may end up with
paper towel residue mixed into your colour, so I would not recommend
it. Also, you need to make sure that you have
a steady hand for this in order to get your finger
nail polish on your fingernail area only, not on your skin. Skin
always needs to breathe, and cannot with polish on it.
When you are ready, take the applicator holding non-dripping colour
to your nails, brushing from the base
of your fingernails upward towards the top tip of your nail.
Make sure you coat your whole nail evenly. Starting at the base
of the nail and applying polish in an upward motion helps you evenly
coat your nail.
Correcting polish mistakes
If you make a mistake, take a paper towel or tissue and douse
it with nail polish remover as you did with the
cotton ball in step one, and try to get
the excess polish off your skin using the flat edge
of the paper towel. Then, if you need to re-coat that fingernail,
go ahead. If not, great. Just move on to the next fingernail until
you are done.
Second coats of nail polish
Wait at least ten minutes before applying
a second coat. You should not paint over your nails
another time unless your nail polish is dry the first time. Without
air, or low to medium speed fans blowing on them, it will take about
five minutes for your fingernails
to dry. Using high-speed
fans near your wet nail polish can move your fingernail
polish around your fingernail and
mess its even coat up.
Quick drying nails
You can buy the quick drying
kind of nail polish at most shops, or
a quick drying sealer that is clear over the colour
of your nail polish to quicken drying if
you are in a hurry. As a reminder, do not attempt
to polish your fingernails in an area that does not have proper
ventilation. And do not polish your
nails around the face of infants.
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