DIY Manicure

Get yourself comfortable and follow the instructions below to relax and get beautiful healthy nails. 

You will need:

• Nail varnish remover
• Cotton pads
• Nail file 
• Nail buffing block
• Hand cream
• Cuticle oil
• Nourishing base coat

Step One

Remove all the previous nail varnish from your nails. 

Tip - I find it much easier to douse a cotton wool pad in nail polish remover and leave it on my nail for about 30s and the nail varnish just wipes away. If I try buff it off, the nail varnish tends to stain the tops of my fingers. 

Advice - I'd go for an acetone free nail varnish remover. Acetone is a strong chemical that strips the nails of its natural oils, which can cause peeling or weak nails. 

Step 2 

File your nails to the desired shape. 

Tip - Try to make them all the same length and shape!

Advice - Leighton Denny's Crystal Nail File is AMAZING does the job perfectly and you have a life time guarantee. Be light handed because it shortens your nails quickly. 

Step 3 (occasional)

At this point if my peeling nails are looking particularly gross I use a 4 way buffer to buff away the peeling bits and ridges. Don't do this too much though, because this can weaken your nails

Step 4 (optional)

At this point there's fine nail dust around (a bit gross) so I tend to wash my hands (if I'm not too comfy) . 

Tip - If my nails are looking a bit stained, I give them a good scrub with whitening toothpaste. Weird? But it works. Have a look at the pictures below. My before nails are yellow and gross, and after scrubbing and buffing they look pretty healthy and white. 

Step 5

Now, I smooth in plenty of hand cream, then apply some cuticle oil and let it do its magic. After a while, I use the tool on the end of the cuticle oil to push back my cuticles. Do it gently, nothing worse than a sore cuticle (I know there is really, but hey hyperboles rock). 

Advice - My personal favourite hand cream is Hand Food by Soap&Glory. I know its good because after I use it, without telling him I've used it, my boyfriend Nathan, always tells me how soft my hands are. Also it smells beaut! 

Before and after pictures so far ... 

Left ring finger before. Stained a bit yellow. Peeling. Ridgy. Gross.

After most of the DIY manicure . At this point I have filed, buffed, scrubbed with whitening tooth paste and used cuticle oil. Same nail but awesome. It has a nice shape, can't see the peeling, doesn't look like it has ridges. 

I'm pretty impressed!  

Step 6

With all those oils on your nails the base coat and nail varnish won't stay on your nails. Soak another cotton pad in nail varnish remover and hold it on your nails for a few seconds and wipe away. 

Step 7

Paint on your base coat to protect your nails, and help nail varnish stick better. 

Advice - I personally use Nail Envy (matte was the cheaper option). I've really noticed a difference using Nail Envy, the Leighton Denny Crystal Nail File and Nails inc Non-acetone Nail Varnish Remover combo. I'd really recommend all of those products. 

I hope you've had fun and didn't have the temptation to move while your base coat is drying (like I always do). Take a look at my future posts for some great, easy nail art tutorials. 

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