How To Give Yourself A Manicure At Home
As lockdown during the current era of Covid-19 continues, we’re all turning to our own (sometimes limited) beauty skills to give our hair, skin and nails some much-needed attention without a trip to the salon.
Whether we’re dyeing our own hair , practicing a bit of face massage, or mixing up face masks from the contents of the kitchen cupboard, it’s never been more essential to get some sound (and professional) advice on DIY preening. Because making it up as we go along tends not to work out so well…
Wondering how to do a manicure at home? We turned to founder of The Gel Bottle Inc. and all-natural nail varnish brand, Peacci, Daisy Kalnina, to give us all the manicure tips you need and talk through step by step how to achieve pro nails in the comfort of your own home.
Read on for how to master giving yourself a manicure at home…
Your Home Manicure Kit:
- Sanitising spray
- 100% acetone
- Nail file
- Buffer
- Cuticle remover
- A cuticle pusher and nipper
- Nail polish remover wipes
- Base coat , colour of your choice and top coat
- Cuticle oil
How To Prep Your Hands And Nails Before A Manicure
Before getting started on your manicure at home, it’s important to make sure your hands and nails are in tip top condition and ready for their glow-up.
‘Exfoliating your hands before the treatment can leave you with extra smooth hands and fingers,’ says Kalnina. ‘If your cuticles are extra dry you can fill in two manicure bowls with warm water and let them soak for a few minutes.’
How To Trim Your Cuticles Correctly
Let’s be honest, who actually trims their own cuticles when they’re painting their nails? Exactly. But, according to Kalnina, it’s a key step in getting a professional finish to your manicure.
‘Try to be gentle when trimming and pushing back the cuticles, sometimes we are way more heavy handed on ourselves than others, but we don’t want to end up with sore cuticles!’
How To Shape And File Your Nails Correctly
We’re all guilty of taking to our nail with glass file and frantically sawing back and forth to achieve a smoother edge, but turns out, that’s not great for our fingertips.
‘To file your nails you should follow one direction, from one of the edges towards the centre and the other way around,’ advises Kalnina. ‘If you file back and forth you can cause them to split.’
Between coffin, ballet slipper, squoval… the list goes on, it’s hard to know which nail shape is right for you.
‘For long extensions I still see a lot of tapered square or “coffin”’, says Kalnina. ‘When it comes to short nails there’s not much room to get so many different nail shapes. The classic square with round edges shape, however, fits most short nails.’
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How To Give Yourself A Manicure At Home Step By Step
Not sure where to start with painting your own nails? Let the pros talk you through it, step by step. Simply follow Kalnina’s instructions below:
- The first thing you should do is sanitise your hands.
- Then add cuticle remover to soften up your cuticles and push them back with the cuticle pusher.
- With the cuticle nipper, trim any excess skin.
- With a nail file, file you nail into your desired shape.
- Buff the whole nail plate surface with a buffer to get rid of any texture on the nail plate.
- With a lint free wipe soaked in acetone, clean your nails to make sure there’s no nail dust on the nail plate.
- Apply a base coat.
- Apply two coats of your favourite colour.
- Apply a top coat
- Finish by applying cuticle oil and massage it in.
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How To Remove A Gel Manicure
While we’re stuck at home and unable to make it to the nail salon, it can be all too tempting to pick off that grown out gel manicure. BUT, please don’t! The pros won’t be happy.
‘To remove gel polish at home it is extremely important to follow the directions /tutorials coming from professionals to avoid damaging your nails!’, cautions Kalnina.
Step 1
‘First you need to grab a nail file and make sure you completely remove any shine from the surface of the nail.’
Step 2
‘Open some soak off clips and place your lint free wipe already folded inside the clip, then pour acetone into the wipe and make sure it’s well saturated.’
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Step 3
‘Place the clip on your finger so the wipe is facing the nail and close to secure it.’
Step 4
‘Repeat on all ten nails and wait 10 to 12 minutes.’
Step 5
‘When the time is up, remove one clip at a time and gently scrape the gel off using a cuticle pusher; if there’s any stubborn bits of gel on the nail plate, soak for a little longer.’
Step 6
‘With a buffer, gently buff off any imperfections on the nail plate.’
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