Yes, it is true that every once in awhile a trip to the nail salon is a complete necessity. However, HC is here to be your at-home, nail fairy godmother. It is common that when polishing our own nails we come across issues like polish not drying fast enough, air bubbles when the polish finally dries, staining our actual nails and just making a mess. HC has taken the time to put together this great list of how to give yourself the perfect at-home mani-pedi so you can keep that extra $35 that you would give to the salon in your piggy bank!
1. ALWAYS TAKE ALL NAIL POLISH OFF BEFORE STARTING THE PROCESS.
Making sure that your nails are completely bare before doing anything else to them is a must. The slightest amount of leftover nail polish from the mani-pedi before can throw a whole look. It’s that serious!
2. ONCE YOUR NAILS ARE BARE, SOAK YOUR HANDS AND FEET IN WARM WATER WITH A TOUCH OF BABY OIL.
Doing this for at least five minutes will make your skin as soft as a baby’s bottom. However, It feels amazing so if you want to soak longer, go ahead! Just make sure you don’t stay in long enough to where your skin starts to resemble a prune!
3. PUMICE STONES ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND!
You can get a cheap pumice stone from your local CVS, Walgreens or even dollar store and it will be one of the greatest investments you have ever made. This little stone lasts an extremely long time and gets the unwanted dead skin off your feet with a breeze. All you have to do is scrap the pumice stone across the area of dry skin on your foot (similar to the motion of grating cheese and is COMPLETELY harmless) and the dead skin comes off, leaving you with perfectly smooth feet.
4. BASE COAT
If you don’t do a base coat before you polish your nails, this is more than likely the reason behind your nails being stained with the dye from your polish of choice. Before putting ANY colored polish on your nails ALWAYS start off with a clear base coat. This will stop the dye from your polish from staining your nails and will also help fill any ridges that you might have in your nails that doesn’t look so hot when you finally polish them.
5. AFTER YOUR BASE COAT YOU ARE GOOD TO GO WITH YOUR NAIL POLISH OF CHOICE!
When polishing nails, it is common that we shake that bottle of nail polish before opening it–DON’T DO THAT. When we shake the polish up, this creates those small annoying little air bubbles that we see after our polish starts to dry. Instead of shaking the bottle, try gently rolling it around between your two palms to get the mixture even. Never shake the bottle up. Also, another way to avoid air bubbles is to make sure that the coats of polish you are applying are not too thick. If you are applying really thick coats, this causes the nail polish to cake up and create air bubbles as well. It is better to do 2-3 thin coats than one thick coat. Yes, it is more time consuming but the end results will be flawless!
*****Bonus Tips*****
· When doing an at-home mani-pedi, ALWAYS polish your toenails before the nails on your hands. If you do it the other way around it is likely that the perfection just created on your hands will get smeared and ruined trying to create perfection on your toe nails.
· Tired of waiting forever for your nails to dry? Once your nails are polished, wait about 2 minutes until they are semi dry. Next, go get a bucket (you can use your sink or bathtub as well) and fill it up with icy water and hold your freshly-painted, wet nails in it for 60 seconds. This will freeze the polish and your mani-pedi will be perfectly complete!