At Home Manicure Session
No time or means to go to the beautician? Quietly installed on your sofa, armed with five or six well-targeted utensils, it is possible to perform a manicure yourself. In a jiffy and like a professional… Here are 5 steps to have a successful at home manicure session.
SEP 1: Prepare your at home manicure session kit
To make a professional manicure at home, you will need :
- 1 flexible nail file
- 1 special cuticle lotion or a bowl of lukewarm water
- 1 boxwood stick or a cotton swab
- 1 polisher
- 1 nail polish base
- 1 nail polish
- 1 topcoat
With that alone, you are off. to a good start.
Step 2: Clean Your nails
Inevitably, the first step to take is to rid your nails of their old varnish if you wore it before. Using a mild solvent, carefully remove all traces of the old layer. Depending on the color and texture of the varnish, the operation may take several minutes.
You weren’t wearing one? You can even freshen up: degreasing the surface of the nails can allow the varnish to adhere easily. To do this, rub your nails with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol or white vinegar.
The extra trick:
Very lightly file the surface of the nail with a nail file so that the nail polish sticks better!
Step 3: File nails
Take your nail file, preferably cardboard or glass, – avoid too hard iron files that stress the keratin of the nail – and make movements from the outside to the center. Avoiding the back and forth that weakens the nail. Real professional gesture!
Step 4: Take care of your cuticles
To continue your professional homemade manicure, you have to then take care of the small skins that border the nails. Special cuticle lotions exist. If you can’t find one in your bathroom cabinet, don’t panic. Dip your fingers in a bowl of lukewarm water.
Once the small skins have softened, you can push them back, using a boxwood stick or a cotton swab. You can also cut them with special pliers, if they are too thick. This is not necessarily the most pleasant part but the result is clean and stunning!
Step 5: Polish your nails
It is now a question of erasing the light streaks formed on the surface of your nails. To do this, polish them one by one, gently. This gesture will also have the advantage of making the nail shiny, strengthening it and stimulating its regrowth.
Finish off by washing your fingers to degrease them and get rid of the small dust released by the polisher. Your hands are now ready to be varnished!
Apply nail polish
–Base coat and top coat: these are two essential products for a professional manicure. The first is a transparent base to apply before the varnish. Particularly useful for protecting the nail, especially against colored varnishes which, over time, tend to yellow it. The top coat, for its part, optimizes the shine and hold of the varnish.
Start by applying a base coat. Let dry. Then apply a first and then a second coat of varnish. And finish with the top coat.
Take care to apply these products in a thin layer, to avoid the clump effect, and to let them dry well at each stage. A quarter of an hour is a minimum and the secret of a successful home manicure!
A bonus tip:
To speed up the drying of the varnish, plug your hair dryer into a cold setting and hold it for one to two minutes about twenty centimeters above your hands.
Another solution: let your nails dry for a minute in the open air then immerse your fingers under a stream of very cold water or in a bowl of ice water. The hardening effect operates in two or three minutes.
Hydrate your hands
A beautiful manicure is above all beautiful hands! So end with this hand care step. Above all, think of hydrating them regularly, using a special hand cream. They will stay soft and your next manicure will be even more successful!
Ideally : pamper them at bedtime…
For more body care content, click here.
I hope you enjoyed these tips for a successful at home manicure session. Think of any other tips or recommendations? please share them in the comments.
Looking forward to reading your comments, sending you love and positive energy!!!
