This week, our Beauty 101 series is focusing on all aspects of nail care, from cuticle woes to nail biting habits to polish problems. You had questions, and your fellow commenters have the answers:
As always, I’m not able to use every comment or email that came in, though I do appreciate all of them, and I encourage you to read through yesterday’s thread for hundreds of extra tips on everything from painting nails to beating the nail biting habit. And now, a few tricks and tips from your fellow readers:
Painting Tips:
From commenter grapesoda00001:
Paint your thumbs LAST. Doing so will help prevent smudges and/or, help you paint better as you’re not gingerly holding the wand to prevent smudges. As a bonus, by the time you get back around to your thumbs, fingers should have dried a bit which will also make it easier.
From Dana, via email:
Polish – practice practice practice. Just keep doing it, it gets easier and you will be able to do your dominate hand with your non-dominate hand without even noticing a difference in time. Trust me, this works. Put up with it not looking great for awhile and persevere. when I paint my nails I put one coat on, wait for it to totally dry, then put another coat on, then wait for that one to dry and put another one on. 3 coats is best, 2 coats will do if you put the clear top coat on (nail polish color usually looks better with the 3rd coat though). I put the clear coat on the next day because it gives the 3 coats a chance to harden completely. Putting a clear coat on if the other ones haven’t hardened completely can resoften them.
From Jennifer, via email:
With regards to the at home manicure, here are the steps I follow to get professional looking manicures:
1. Clip and file the nails.
2. Wash hands. Use a pH Balancing Agent like Bond Aid from OPI (costs the same as a bottle of nail polish). You can usually buy a small bottle of it at Sally Beauty. Do NOT touch anything after this.
3. Apply an even coat of OPI clear Base Coat.
4. Do NOT roll the bottle of color polish around to “loosen” it up or “remove the air bubbles” before applying it. Shaking it or rolling it around can actually cause bubbles in your polish. Apply 1-2 coats of nail polish. Try to use 2-3 brush strokes for each nail. If the color needs another coat, paint all your nails first before applying the second coat. Repeat as necessary. (I try to limit to 3 coats or less.)
5. Keep a Q-Tip (or kebab skewer wrapped in cotton for better precision) dipped in non-acetone polish remover handy to wipe off any polish that smears.
6. Give the color a few minutes to dry, then apply a layer of clear top coat (again, I prefer OPI).
7. Voila! Sit tight for 15 minutes while your polish dries and hardens.
8. Optional: you can apply another layer of top coat every day afterwards to make your manicure last.
When I follow these steps, people ask me where I had my nails done. It looks professional and I do think that better brands really do make a huge difference in how long the manicure lasts (I’ll get a week or more mileage using professional brands over store brands, which tend to chip after a few days).
Another trick I’ve learned, is that if you do happen to smudge your polish before it has fully dried, applying just enough nail polish remover to the smudge on your nail to thin the polish works wonders. You can just reapply the color and top coat without starting over completely.
Learning to paint with your non-dominant hand can be frustrating, but if you sit at a table and stabilize your arm/hand, go SLOW, and keep a Q-Tip with polish remover handy, you’ll make fewer mistakes and still fix the few that happen.
I know that matte polish colors are all the rage right now, but the metallic/sparkly colors are more forgiving with regards to mistakes. If you’re still practicing, I’d recommend starting with those before taking on the matte polishes at home. They are unforgiving!
Okay, I hope this helps. I rarely have my nails done at the salon anymore because I’ve found its just as easy and I can get the same quality at home on my own (with the right tools and supplies).
From Stephanie, via email:
When applying polish, i brush off the excess in the neck of the bottle and put the brush to the base of my nail, but not touching the cuticle. just start in the middle of the nail then work your way out doing complete strokes from base to tip. now painting the sides of my nails are sometimes tricky because the skin on the side of the nails sometimes get in the way. if this happens, i quickly wipe it off with the edge of the polish bottle topper. if you dont want to do this, you can get a q-tip, dip it in remover then take it off.
Nail polishing is one of the few makeup things that I can do properly, but most of the things I know have been commented about already so I’ll just add what I think I haven’t seen yet.
Laying the hand that you’re painting flat on a table helps to keep it still. Resting your other hand on the table as your painting also helps.
Q-tip dipped in polish remover works well, but I quite like the “manicure clean up pen” from Sally Hansen. It’s easier to use than a Q-tip because the tip is like a highlighter tip, so it’s stiffer and more precise so you’re less likely to mess up with the polish already on your nail.
Buffing is a must for a nice finish, and good quality polish goes a long way. I like to use Sally Hansen “hard-as-nails as my base coat. It stops my nails from cracking and chipping (which my brittle nails tend to do when I don’t have them painted) and keeps the polish on. OPI is the polish I like to use – it doesn’t boast fast drying, but the colour is solid and it goes on smooth and stays. I also use the OPI topcoat, which is very important in keeping the polish from chipping.
I find it generally lasts me at least a week or 2, probably could go longer except my nails grow fairly fast so after a week there’s already a noticeable gap in the colour at the bottom of my nail.
At the end of the day though – nothing makes your nails look nicer than lots and lots of practice!
And if anyone is interested in painting their own French tips – do not use the sticker guides. They rarely fit the exact curve of your nails, especially if your nails grow out differently (my nail on my index finger grows out round, my ring finger grows out square, and my middle finger falls somewhere between round and square). It is easiest to just paint the tip on sideways, carefully following the curve of your nail.
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