This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at American chapter.
Doing your own nails may seem like a daunting task, but it can be easy if you do it properly. There’s no need to stop at Tenley Nails when you can do an expert manicure in your dorm!
You’ll need:
- A manicure tool set with cuticle trimmers, clippers, and a nail file.
- Nail polish remover.
- Cotton pads.
- A cheap, plain, eye shadow makeup brush.
- Basecoat
- Topcoat
- The nail polish color of your choice
- Cuticle Oil
- Lotion
- Bonding agent (optional)
- Remove all nail polish you may already have on. This is important. Having even a little nail polish on may hurt the manicure and cause it to chip faster. Acetone can be harmful to your nails if using in excess but I recommend getting a nail polish remover with acetone, but not one that is pure acetone. Make sure that any acetone you do use doesn’t get onto your cuticle, which can get really dry and brittle.
- It’s important to soak your fingers in warm water to allow your cuticles to soften. When the cuticle is soft enough, use a cuticle tool to push the cuticles back and then another tool to carefully trim them off. Cut your nails with clippers and shape them as desired. Apply cuticle oil and then a lotion and wait a few minutes until it’s seeped into the skin.
- Now you’re going to take a brush and dip it into the nail polish remover and wipe it carefully on just the nail. After hydrating the cuticle you don’t want to get the remover on your cuticles. This step is very important because the basecoat needs to adhere to your nail, not the cuticle oil and lotion on your hands.
- When the nail polish remover has dried off of the nail, it’s time to put on the bonding agent, if desired. Bonding agents aren’t necessary but they help make your manicure last a little bit longer. You can skip this step if you desire.
- Apply your basecoat. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it should cover the whole nail and go up and over the edge of your nail. This should dry near to instantly.
- Apply the first coat of whatever nail color that you like. Since spring is afoot, and summer is in the air, pastels, whites and sheer pinks are perfect for the season. Wait approximately 3-4 minutes before applying the second coat of the nail polish. If a third coat is necessary (as it is with some sheer colors) be sure to wait at least 5 minutes before putting on the third coat, or the polish may not dry evenly.
- After waiting about 5 minutes for the last coat of the nail color to dry, it’s time to apply topcoat. A common mistake with topcoat is to put the same amount of polish on the brush as with the color polished. This is likely to ruin your manicure. Glop on the top coat. It’s meant to be thicker, to give shine and help to prevent tip wear and chips. Remember also to bring the topcoat over the edge of the nail. Doing this allows your manicure to resist tipwear. If you’re short on time, quick-dry top-coats are popular and very efficient.
- When your nails are dry, you can clean up an mistakes with the brush from earlier. Use a small amount of remover on the brush to gently and carefully brush away the nail polish on the cuticles. Voila! The perfect manicure!
Tips:
- If you plan to do your nails a few hours before your shower, the hot water can help to take the excess nail polish off of your skin, allowing you to achieve flawless nails.
- Nail polish can have harmful chemicals that can penetrate through your nails and enter your bloodstream. It’s for this reason that I personally recommend using Essie ($8), OPI ($9), or Butter London ($15), which are free from formaldehyde (yes, the stuff that the fetal pigs are in before your bio lab).
- Along with the reason mentioned above, I do not recommend using Seche Vite, a popular base and topcoat, which contains a chemical that can cause reproductive harm.
- If you play a lot of sports, or do other activities that are anti-manicure have no fear! There are nail polishes that are considered ‘long lasting’ that have formulas that make the polish more flexible and stretchy.
- To help your nails dry faster, you can put them into a bowl of ice cold water, using a fan or spray them with cooking spray. These help to dry your nails faster and more evenly. If the nail becomes cloudy, it’s okay. I’ve heard of people using blow dyers to set their nails but this doesn’t work as well as cold air, as cool air sets polish better than heat.
Images