Give Yourself a Manicure!

So I was thinking about making a post about giving myself a manicure, because I am a nail polish junkie. It's a problem, I am aware. :P But, this is just a way that I do my nails to give myself a little break from life. :) Enjoy!

Give Yourself a Relaxing Manicure

Step 1: Play relaxing music. This won’t be a relaxing manicure without music! Don’t choose something too up-beat, classics are nice. Also, choose your nail color and get all of your materials together.

Step 2: Remove all nail polish. Even if you don’t have any nail polish on, color may be stuck in your cuticles, or skin.

Step 3: File and clip nails. You don’t always have to clip your nails, it is good to keep them at a healthy length. However, you should file your nails each time you give yourself a manicure because this keeps them strong and unbreakable.

Step 4: Apply cuticle oil/cream/butter and push cuticles back. Use a cuticle pusher, and push your cuticles back after applying a drop of cuticle oil and rubbing it in.

Step 5: Scrub your hands. Using a homemade or store-bought scrub and scrub gently on your skin. (A great homemade hand scrub recipe is shown below!)

Step 6: Apply lotion. Exfoliate your hands with a rich cream or lotion.

Step 7: Take off your nail polish…again. Though you won’t have any on now, you need to get off any excess scrub or lotion, and nail polish remover is the way to do it.

Step 8: Apply top coat.

Step 9: Apply two coats of nail polish of choice to nails. The way I do my nails is I rest my elbows on a counter, then put one nice, adequate drop of polish in the back center of nail. I take the brush, and sweep it to the left side. I return to the drop of polish, and sweep it towards the right side. Repeat this so you have two coats.

Step 10: Let nails sit for about 2 minutes. Then, apply top coat. I just put an anti-chip top coat over my nails, then let them sit for two minutes.

Step 11: Apply top coat and/or fast dry drops. I use a Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat over my Rimmel Anti-Chip Top Coat to ensure that my nails won’t chip, and will dry fast—because I’m busy! You can use fast-dry drops as well. Wait about 30 seconds to a minute (depending ont eh product) and you should be set.

You are done! Go sport your nails around town! This normally takes me about less than 30 minutes, maybe 20 minutes! Now I am relaxed and ready to face the world with my newly polished nails. J

Note: If you want a video on this routine, let me know in the comments: I would be glad to!