Home manicure

Have made a vow to myself to try keep my nails in better condition and went for a manicure in my beauticians not that long ago. To be honest, I wasn't that impressed! The nail polish was applied too thickly and as a result smudged over 2 hours later when it should have been well dry in my opinion. During my decluttering I had organised all of my nail varnishes and emery boards, orange sticks and so on into easily accessible containers so one of the days last week I decided to give my nails a tidy up myself! We're in a recession y'know!

All I needed was:
Nail varnish removal wipes
UltraBland cleanser (Lush)
Ocean Salt Scrub (Lush)
Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter (Lush)
An orange stick
An emery board
and a neutral shade of nail varnish (Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Nail polish in Brilliant Blush)

• First step was to make sure my nails and hands were clean so I just gave my nails a wipe down with a nail varnish remover wipe before giving my hands a thorough washing.
• I then covered my hands in UltraBland cleanser and scrubbed them well with Ocean Salt Scrub before giving them another good washing.
• Following this I put a good amount of Lemony Flutter on each finger nail making sure to cover the cuticles well and left it on them while I went about the house doing some bits and pieces - probably for about 30-40 minutes in total - before massaging it in.
• At this stage I set to work with the orange stick and pushed back each of my cuticles well, tidying them as I went. I added a small bit more Lemony Flutter to each nail and then started on the boring job of filing.
• Once each nail was done I massaged in the remaining Lemony Flutter and again washed my hands giving a quick tidy again with the orange stick where needed.
• At this stage I have to admit my nails were looking pretty well so all that was left was to add a few coats of the nail varnish. I prefer to add 3-4 coats of varnish thinly over time than do two thick layers as they did in the beauticians. I find it dries faster, leaving it less likely to smudge and you get a more even colour overall.

I did this last Wednesday and it is now Monday and none of the nails have chipped so I'm pretty impressed with myself! Perhaps with a little practice in time I will even be able to perfect the painting of white tips and be able to give myself a french manicure!!