I’ve done a post like this before, but I decided to be way more detailed with it. Also, it was a request. =)

A lot of people file their nails according to how long their free edge is (the part of the nail that hangs freely). I used to be annoyed with some past walk-in clients that would argue with me that one nail on the right hand was longer than the same nail on the left hand. Errr…such a pet peeve of mine. So, I would kindly fix the lengths and then when it came to polishing, they blame me for their nails being uneven, polished. At this point, I want to say to them, “Look lady, I knew what I was doing before you told me to fix your damn length.” I know…it’s horrible customer service. I just hate when people tell me what to do/that I’m wrong when I know I’m right about something. If you’re not picky about the shape of your nails, then read on to the next set of pictures. If you are picky about your shape, like me, listen up. You don’t file your nails according to how much free edge you have. You measure by lining up (or eyeballing) the entire nail from cuticle to free edge.

Here is a picture of my ring fingers. As you can see, my right hand nail is a bit wider than my left, but the lengths are about the same…from cuticle to the edge of my nails. Though, notice the free edge of my right hand is longer than the one on the left. Not every nail is the same. My right hand has shorter nail beds/nail plates than my left hand. If you were to look at the back of my nails, my right would look longer. With polish on & viewed from the front, both are even. Oh yeah, you shouldn’t measure/file from behind your nails either. How do I file? I file little by little, always checking between the two nails. It’s easy to measure by putting one hand on top of the other so the fingers you’re comparing are lined up next to each other. Yes, I am very picky with my nails.
For the shape of my free edge, I wear them round, square, or a soft square (square with rounded corners). It depends on my mood and how long my nails are. When I want to wear them short, I shape them a really soft square…almost round. Medium…soft square. Long…round or square.

These are the tools I use for a polish change.

100% acetone (not shown) a file, a buffer, base & top coat (Seche Vite), color polish, alcohol pad, and a french brush for clean up. If you don’t have a french brush, you can use a flat eye shadow brush that you aren’t using anymore.
I like 100% acetone because it takes off polish quickly. Your nails and cuticles will dry out, but you can always moisturize afterwards. Never moisturize before your polish. Anything that has an oil in it will keep your polish from lasting. Even your natural oils that your nails produce. That’s where the alcohol pad/cotton ball w/ alcohol comes in.

TO PREP FOR POLISHING:
File nails to desired shape.
Buff your nails smooth. (Keep in mind that whenever you buff your nails, you’re thinning them down too. Be careful with the buffing! One of my past regular clients buffed her nails smooth from a few days in a row. She came in to get a manicure and she asked me why her nails were peeling. Yep…too much buffing. I told her to stop buffing completely. I have naturally rough nails, so I buff to smooth them, but I don’t buff them or like another few months until the roughness grew back out again. The only other time I buff my nails if after filing. I just buff the ends of my nails to smooth out rough edges.
No oils needed after you have shaped. Yeah, I know it’s done at nail salons, but we really only do it because it’s a rule in the cosmo book. Stupid rule. You have to wash it off anyways.
So after shaping, wash your nails very well with soap and water.
Wipe your nails with an alcohol pad or cotton with alcohol. This removes all oils. If you don’t have any…pure acetone will work fine too.
Make sure there aren’t any frizzies from the pad or cotton left on your nails.
Apply a base coat. This step isn’t really that necessary. At the last nail salon I worked at, we didn’t apply one. No one’s nails were ruined. Me…I always wear one because I’m picky and that’s how I was taught. It became a habit. Really though, I think base coats should be necessary for colored and dark colors. Neutrals and light colors…not so much. Make sure you apply it thinly.

How I grab polish from a bottle:

Back and forth motion: I wipe halfway of the front of the brush. Then I wipe the entire back of the brush…leaving a small pool of polish at the tip of my front side-end (the side that would be touching your nail). That’s how a lot of manicurist/nail techs grab polish. It’s just for you to practice polish control.
You don’t want to take too much or too little. If you can’t get it just right, I find it always better to take too much. Taking too little can cause dryness of the brush, creating streaks. If you applied too much polish on your nail: …after the first swipe of polish, wipe off your brush on the side of the bottle to clean off polish. Then polish with the pool you have on your nail. Still too much? Pick up more polish by brushing your nail and wipe off in the bottle.
If you have big nails, wiping just the entire back of the brush should be good.

The first coat should be the coat you take your time at. Make sure you get as close to your cuticles as possible without making a mess. Some polishes don’t have a smooth finish until the second coat, so don’t panic. Really chalky/opaque colors (pure whites, pure pastels, metallic, Essie Fiji, OPI Mod About You, etc) are streaky. They can be hard to polish. First coats of those kind of colors are usually streaky, but will smooth out with the second coat. Polishing works bests when your brush is angled like 45° or slightly higher. When you angle it too low, you could cause your polish to dip/leave an indentation. You ever polish your nails, finish, and when you look at it some more, you realize there’s a spot you kinda missed near your cuticles? You might have pressed to hard on your nail with the brush or angled the brush end too low.
When you polish, make sure you’re doing even strokes with the right amount of polish. After the first coat, I usually polish the tips of my nails. Just slide the shaft of the brush against the tips of your nails are long. If they’re short, don’t worry too much about it.

One coat of China Glaze in Bermuda Breakaway.

Two coats with a top coat over it. Don’t be cheap with the top coat. I see even nail techs take the topcoat lightly. Make sure you polish the entire nail and tips with topcoat.
Cleaned up any polish on my skin with my french brush dipped in acetone.

How much time to should you let your polish dry in between coats? Whenever you finish with the other hand/with the fifth finger. I usually polish my right hand first instead of polishing both hands at the same time. I’m right handed so I like getting my right hand polished first because I want to get the hard part over with. It’s a little weird, but that’s how I do it. So I polish my right hand, beginning with my thumb. When I finish with the pinky, I go right on to polishing the thumb for the second time. I take my time when I polish my own nails, so the nails has had time dry. On clients, I would polish both hands…left hand, right, left again, right again. My toes, I polish both at the same time because I can polish my toes faster than my nails.

My nails after 7 days. They were a litttle dull, but still in great shape. No chips & no peeling. Only the tips were bare. I haven’t touched them up or put any more topcoat on them. My nails went through from doing shampoos, haircuts, & styling on my mannequin heads, doing dishes, typing on my Mac, playing the dogs, cleaning, and cooking. I could have went longer with the color. But I was getting sick of the color and bought some new ones today! ^^

Went to Target and had to get these colors that were speaking to me. I know I have said I hated the brushes from the new Sally Hansen polishes, but I really liked the colors. I learned to use the brushes. Not so bad now.

Target Polish Haul: left to right:
Rimmel London Lycra Wear 10 in Celebrity Bash.
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Mudslide, Plum Look, and Pedal to the Medal.
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Jumpin’ Jade.

Silver and purple three coats.

I decided to test out the Complete Salon Manicure collection. The company says it’s a polish that already has the base coat and top coat in it. So I’m wearing Pedal to the Medal alone. I cleaned my nails with alcohol and applied three coats (it was on the thin side). I will post later on how long this product alone lasts.

More tips & randomness about nails:
Besides the color, I believe cleaning the nails with alcohol and applying topcoat is the most important steps.

You don’t need a base coat if you have acrylic or gel overlays on.

When polish is too thin, it can chip. If you like just one coat of color, add another layer of topcoat.

When polish is too thick, it can peel off.

If it’s a bad paint job, it will chip and/or peel.

Applying another layer of topcoat after a few days of your polish change from an at-home-job or salon-job will help make the color last longer too.

Blowing on your nails doesn’t really help dry your nails because you’re blowing hot air on it. Hotness melts polish. Just wave your hands in the air instead. You want cool air.

Invest in a quick drying topcoat. They really do work. My favorite brands: Seche Vite, OPI, Essie, Out the Door.

Best colors for your skin tone: Really, you can where whatever color you want to!

Nail polish is nail polish. Doesn’t matter if it’s cheap or expensive. It matters how you apply it. Most of the time!

Nails Alive is my favorite nail strengthener.

I always have something on my nails. Whether it’s nail polish or just a nail strengthener. Having something on your nails helps protect & strengthen them.

It’s okay to file your nails back and forth (moving your file side to side). Just don’t do it too rough.

Store polish at room temperature.

Do not store polish in the refrigerator. Cool/cold air hardens polish, so you can’t polish with it when it’s all thick.

Polish thinners don’t warm your polishes. Just use a few drops at a time & shake. If its still too thick, more drops.

If you can’t open a polish, try running the handle under hot water to loose dried up polish on the handle. Or use pliers carefully. Don’t use your teeth.

Biotin vitamins help strength hair, skin, and nails.

Dark colors look better on shorter nails.

I’m tired.

I started out by typing up a whole introduction for this post about people not having time for manicures and how easy it is to do it yourself. But I got distracted by my collection of Sex and the City dvds, therefore, I got lazy to finish. So, I’m gonna try to keep it simple.
Whenever I have given myself manicures [even when I worked at a nail salon], I would do a quick job of it. I do this at home too. :]

Mini manicure»

I love this product. I got it at the pro shop. If you can’t find it at a beauty supply store, you can get it at Amazon.com or just search the web for it. It’s called be natural cuticle eliminator. It’s a little pricey for a 1 oz., but I love it. A little goes a long way. This is the same company a lot of nail salons use for callus remover. Great brand.

I applied enough to cover my cuticles. You can use another cuticle remover.

I waited for a minute for the product to soak in. Then I gently pushed my cuticles back.

I cleaned all the residue off with an alcohol pad. You can just use paper towel.

I nip only hang nails and/or dead skin. If you have a pair of these, be very careful with it. I cannot tell you how many times my past clients have went overboard with them, ending in painful bleeds. My favorite cuticle nippers are from a Vietnamese brand. These ones in the picture are from CVS, Tweezerman. They’re the best ones I found at a non-beauty supply store.

After all the pushing and nipping, I file and wipe clean with alcohol again. I buff my nails very rarely. Another mistake my past clients have done was buffing too much. Buffing thins your nails, making them prone to cracking and breaking.

If you’ve ever wondered, these are tools I use for creating nail designs. You can find them at beauty stores and online. If you can’t, you can use things found in every home usually.

Left picture: these are double ended dotters. They make creating designs like simple flowers, hearts, and polk-a-dots easier. You can use a pointy toothpick for small dots and the bare end of a cotton swab sticks for bigger dots. Take a cotton swab, remove the cotton on the ends as best as you can. Run the ends with water for a bit. Then rub/scrap of the rest of the cotton. You don’t want fizzes ruining your dots.
Right picture: these are french brushes. A trick with nail technicians and manicurists…paint on a white polish [whichever you chose] on the tips. Doesn’t have to be neat. Create a nice curve and clean up the mistakes with a brush dipped in polish remover. If you can’t find a french brush, you can use an old eye shadow brush.

These are striping paints/nail art polish. Basically, it’s just slim nail polish bottles with a thin brush. If you can find skinny brushes like this, you can use acrylic craft paint instead. Craft paint is great because if you mess up, you can just wash it off with water. I’ve seen striping paints be sold at major stores like Walmart and Meijer.

Hope you found some things from this post useful.
Candy-cane nails later. :]

Four days ago I went to Cozmo, The School to sign up for beauty school. I plan on getting my cosmetology license. Yeah, I already know how to do nails (7 years of work), but I want to learn more. A cosmetology license is like having three beauty license in one: hair, nails, and skin. That’s my goal! =) I got approved for financial aid, so I’ll be starting school in December.
While I was signing papers that day, I was rocking these nails…

I love this look…and it’s very, very easy to do! I got so many compliments on these ones.
^_^

How to do:

01. File nails to desired shape. I prefer square for this look. Buff nails smooth.

02. Clean nails off with alcohol soaked cotton ball/pad. Make sure there aren’t any fuzzies from the cotton on your nails.

03. Polish on a layer of base coat. From my experience, a base coat helps protect nails from nail color stains and helps your nail color last longer. Also, if you forgot any fuzzies…you’ll catch ‘em here.

04. Polish a matte color on your nails. Two coats. For the second coat, I always paint the tips of my nails.

05. Polish a slighty wide stripe down the side of your nails, but leave a little of your bottom color showing on the side. Since I used a dark color for my base, I chose a lighter, shimmery color of the same family color (blue) for this step.

06. Within the wide stripe you just made, draw a line a shimmery gold or silver line with a nail striper down the side (nail art striping paints…you can find them at beauty supply stores, drugstores, I think Walmarts, and Meijers). Make it how ever long you want.

07. Next to the line you just made, make a longer line with a black nail striper.

08. Apply a top coat. Don’t forget to get the tips. A few days later, you can apply another layer of topcoat to boast the dullness/make your polish last longer.

Tip: The key for having your nail color last longer is to have your nails really clean before polishing. No lotions. No oils. The dryer your nails, the better. To be absolutely sure, you can apply OPI Bond-Aid or a brush of pure acetone to your nails before you apply your base coat. Make sure it’s a pure acetone. You don’t want anything that will moisturize your cuticles/nails in any way. You can moisturize after your nails & hands after your nails are dry.
Another tip for lasting nails is the application of your topcoat. I’ve seen so many people breeze through this step…even nail techs/manicurists. Make sure you paint your entire nails and nail tips.

Products I used:

Base coat: Seche Vite Crystal Clear Base Coat. (I love this brand.)
Base color: China Glaze in Bermuda Breakaway
Wide stripe color: China Glaze in Beauty and the Beach
Striping paints: In Black and Shimmery Gold
Top coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (the best!)

Note: This looks better when your nails are on the longer side.
And whenever I do nail art, I mirror the design on my other hand. So if my design is on the left side of my right hand, I’ll apply the design on the right side of my left hand.

^_^